July 29, 2009

Joan Iverson Nassauer, a professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment, has been elected the first secretary of a new national organization of designers. The group, the National Academy of Environmental Design (NAED), is focused on reshaping national research priorities to more fully incorporate sustainable design as a means of responding to pressing global challenges including climate change, species extinction and a wide range of epidemics and toxins affecting human health.

NAED formed in 2007 to coordinate research, generate knowledge, distribute information and make recommendations to policy makers on design and stewardship of human and natural environments.í‚  It represents more than 500,000 members of 23 environmental design organizations, including the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Planning Association, the American Society of Interior Designers, the Congress for New Urbanism, the Urban Land Institute and the US Green Building Council. Recently, the organization's founding council voted to elect its inaugural officers, and Professor Nassauer was elected secretary of the new academy. Her one-year term began July 1.

According to NAED, the "built environment"—the communities and buildings where people work and live—produces nearly half of all greenhouse gases and consumes almost 40 percent of the energy that humans use. Architects, engineers, landscape architects, interior designers, public health physicians, building contractors, researchers, scientists and many others play vital roles in designing and constructing the "built environment."

Despite their interconnected roles and collective impact, no national-level public or private body was charged with coordinating their professional activities or defining the needed research to improve the energy performance and environmental impact of the designed world. NAED, based in Washington, D.C., now will take up that charge.

"This organization will further innovation as a dimension of science while at the same time advancing the quality of research in design. Both advances are necessary to develop sustainable means for humans to thrive in a world that is ultimately defined by natural processes," said Professor Nassauer, who joined SNRE in 1997. "I am honored to be part of the inaugural team of executive officers."

The NAED has outlined four main duties for itself:

• Facilitate research in cooperation with government agencies, foundations and other institutions and organizations.
• Communicate the results of ongoing research to the public.
• Develop and maintain a multidisciplinary knowledge base on complex interrelationship of individuals, communities and the planet.
• Foster scholarly cooperation and exchange between various elements of the environmental design discipline.

Professor Nassauer and the executive officers also will help NAED accomplish its next objective: becoming a fifth member of The National Academies, the national entity that brings together committees of experts in areas of scientific, engineering and technological endeavor. Today, four organizations comprise the Academies: the National Academy of Sciences (created in 1863), the National Academy of Engineering (created in 1964), the Institute of Medicine (created in 1970) and the National Research Council (created in 1916).

Other NAED officers are: president, Kim Tanzer, an architect and, dean of the University of Virginia's School of Architecture; vice president/president-elect, Frederick Steiner,í‚  a landscape architect and planner and dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin; and treasurer, Carlie Bullock-Jones,í‚  an interior designer and green building expert, executive director, Ecoworks Studio, based in Atlanta, Ga.í‚  Professor Douglas Kelbaugh, FAIA, past dean of the University of Michigan's Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning, was a member of the founding supporters of the NAED.

About Professor Nassauer
Professor is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architect; a Fellow of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture; Distinguished Practitioner of Landscape Ecology in the US; and Distinguished Scholarí‚  by the International Association of Landscape Ecology. She focuses on the cultural sustainability of ecological design in human-dominated landscapes. Her research offers knowledge and strategies for basing ecological design on cultural insight, strong science and creative engagement with policy. Her teaching and recent projects apply this approach to brownfields, vacant property, exurban sprawl and agricultural landscapes.
http://www.snre.umich.edu/profile/nassauer

About the National Academy of Environmental Design
The National Academy of Environmental Design serves the public by promoting the flourishing of individuals, communities, and the natural world through the sustainable design and stewardship of human and natural environments.
http://www.naedonline.org/

About the School of Natural Resources and Environment
The School of Natural Resources and Environment's overarching objective is to contribute to the protection of the Earth's resources and the achievement of a sustainable society. Through research, teaching and outreach, faculty, staff and students are devoted to generating knowledge and developing policies, techniques and skills to help practitioners manage and conserve natural and environmental resources to meet the full range of human needs on a sustainable basis.
http://www.snre.umich.edu/