On October 12th, 2023, the Bay Area SCL group held its first-ever crossover event with the Bay Area Leaders of Sustainable Architecture (BALSA) and the local AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) chapters. The event, which was hosted in BCCI's WELL-certified office in the historic Levi's Plaza, was initiated after a member of BALSA reached out to BASCL's email address with interest in collaborating across disciplines.
"It's really important that [contractors and architects] don't work in silos," explained Emi LaFountain, Sustainability Integration Manager at Turner Construction. "There tends to be a lot of confusion surrounding who owns what part of the sustainability implementation process, particularly when it comes to challenging concepts like circularity and embodied carbon. The reality is that no single party owns it -- we all do -- so breaking down professional barriers and having these cross-disciplinary conversations is really important."
The four-hour event started off with an introduction into each of the groups' mission statements, activities to date, and hopes on where they would like to go. Attendees then broke out into one of four topics, focused on circularity, embodied carbon, legislative changes, or carbon reporting. Group members, which were prompted to focus on finding potential solutions rather than problems, then shared their ideas with the larger group before finishing up with happy hour.
In all, 18 professionals from 14 different firms (6 design, 8 construction) attended the discussion.
For more inquiries regarding BASCL activities, please reach out to sustainableconstructionleaders@gmail.com.