The document discusses sustainability and profiles three people working in sustainability across different disciplines. It discusses Hernando de Soto, an economist working to provide legal identity and property rights to the world's poorest populations to allow them access to the global economy. De Soto estimates that $9.3 trillion in real estate is held informally by the poor internationally, constituting "dead capital" that could be leveraged to stimulate economic growth if formalized. The document also briefly profiles two academics working in sustainability from Parsons School of Design.

1. Published in FLAUNT Magazine November 2009
THE
HUMAN
SUSTAIN
written
by
Kathryn
Simon
photographed
by
Joel
Greenberg
sus·∙tain
(
P
)
Pronunciation
Key
(s-­‐stn)
tr.v.
sus·∙tained,
sus·∙tain·∙ing,
sus·∙tains
To
supply
with
necessities
or
nourishment;
To
support
from
below;
keep
from
falling
or
sinking;
To
support
the
spirits,
vitality,
or
resolution
of;
To
prove
or
corroborate.
To
keep
in
existence;
maintain.
The
American
Heritage®
Dictionary
of
the
English
Language,
Fourth
Edition
The
word
is
sustainability.
The
concept
is
huge
and
incorporates
everything
from
design
to
ethics
to
environmental
issues
that
look
at
the
half-­‐life
of
an
idea
even
before
it
has
arrived
in
form.
Consider
the
impact
of
a
thought
now
and
in
its
wake.
Some
of
the
issues
that
sustainable
concepts
raise
may
be
more
commonly
heard
in
discussions
about
Buddhism
than
the
world
of
business
or
design.
There
is
an
ever-­‐
present
sense
of
collaboration
and
interdependence
at
the
very
heart
of
sustainable
ideas.
That
is
where
the
beauty
lies.
It’s
an
invitation
to
a
multi-­‐vocal
and
multi-­‐
perspective
conversation.
While
you
may
think
there’s
nothing
new
about
sustainability,
know
this:
it
shifts
everything
into
a
dynamic
relationship,
a
deep
coalescence.
The
people
involved
with
sustainability
investigate
textures,
patterns,
and
layers
in
an
open,
unbiased
way
to
access
information
used
to
create
prototypes
and
solutions.
They
are
the
real
agents
of
change.
These
activists
work
as
designers,
teachers,
architects,
futurists,
and
economists.
They
live
wholly
in
the
present
now
and,
from
here,
they
create
rigorous,
effective
solutions.
Their
approaches
allow
for
dynamic
responses
that
effectively
shift
the
entire
structure
into
immediately
effective
solutions.
This
kind
of
approach
simultaneously
nurtures
the
future.
It
is
telling
that
the
word
is
turning
up
all
over
the
place
in
connection
with
how
we
do
business
and
live
in
a
market-­‐based
system
of
exchange.
And
so
it
seems
that
we’ve
already
entered
into
new
territory.
Here
are
excerpts
from
conversations
with
three
people
who
are
deeply
engaged
with
the
idea
of
sustainability
in
a
diversity
of
disciplines:
Hernando
de
Soto,
economist
and
founder
of
the
Institute
for
Liberty
and
Democracy,
based
in
Lima,
Peru;
Jean
Gardner,
senior
faculty
in
the
Architecture,
Interior
Design
and
Lighting
Department
at
Parsons

2. School
of
Design
in
Manhattan;
and
Sven
Travis,
faculty
member
in
the
graduate
and
undergraduate
program
of
Design
and
Technology
also
at
Parsons
School
of
Design.
Sustainable
Economics
Developing
nations
entering
the
global
market
are
refusing
to
accept
easy
solutions
as
a
modus
operandi
when,
for
years,
they’ve
seen
their
resources
stolen
and
squandered
by
larger
nations
and
their
own
leaders,
leading
to
poverty
and
profound
pollution.
Bad
business
practices
often
motivated
by
greed
have
only
exacerbated
problems
that
are
often
tied
to
increased
profit
lines
without
consideration
for
the
consequences.
Architects
for
a
new
kind
of
solution,
however,
are
thinking
out
and
implementing
some
truly
revolutionary
ideas.
At
the
forefront
is
Peruvian
economist
Hernando
de
Soto.
As
president
of
the
Institute
for
Liberty
and
Democracy
(ILD)
based
in
Lima,
Peru,
De
Soto
and
his
colleagues
have
made
it
their
mission
to
offer
the
world’s
poorest
populations
entry
into
the
market
economy
through
legal
reform,
namely
property
law
and
land
rights.
According
to
the
ILD,
4
billion
people
in
developing
and
post-­‐Soviet
nations—two
thirds
of
the
world’s
population—have
been
locked
out
of
the
global
economy
and
are
forced
to
operate
outside
the
rule
of
law
because
they
have
no
legal
identity,
no
access
to
credit
or
capital,
no
legal
paper
trail.
Unable
to
leverage
their
assets
by,
say,
mortgaging
homes
or
applying
for
loans,
they
will
never
be
able
to
grow
economically.
To
give
an
idea
of
the
implications
and
numbers
involved,
90
percent
of
the
population
in
such
nations
operates
extra-­‐legally,
or
outside
the
formal
economy.
In
Haiti,
the
number
is
82
percent,
in
Mexico,
80
percent,
and
90
percent
in
Egypt.
Remarkable.
It
is
estimated
that
the
value
of
real
estate
held
by
the
poor
in
such
nations
is
at
least
$9.3
trillion.
De
Soto
says
that
the
worth
of
this
“dead
capital”
is
93
times
as
much
as
all
development
assistance
from
all
advanced
countries
to
the
Third
World
in
the
past
three
decades.
If
the
ILD
has
its
way,
the
legal
system
in
these
nations
must
first
be
restructured
to
enable
proper,
streamlined
titling
of
properties
and
businesses.
From
here,
they
can
be
leveraged
and
traded,
thereby
unlocking
the
value
of
the
working
poor’s
assets.
The
Economist
listed
the
ILD
as
one
of
the
two
most
important
think
tanks
in
the
world.
Time
Magazine
named
De
Soto
as
one
of
the
five
leading
Latin
American
innovators
of
the
20th
century,
and
included
him
on
its
top
100
list
of
the
most
powerful
and
influential
people
in
the
world
for
2004.
His
latest
book,
The
Mystery
of
Capital:
Why
Capitalism
Triumphs
in
the
West
and
Fails
Everywhere
Else,
explores
the
opportunities
and
possibilities
of
creating
self-­‐sustainability
in
developing
and
post-­‐Soviet
nations.

3. Racking
up
enough
frequent-­‐flier
miles
every
year
for
a
trip
to
the
moon,
De
Soto
consults
on
problems
of
economic
development
with
heads
of
state
in
well
over
20
developing
nations,
from
Latin
America
to
Egypt.
Kathryn
Simon:
It
sounds
like
a
deep
part
of
this
is
a
social
enterprise,
not
just
a
political
or
economic
enterprise.
There
has
to
be
some
relationship
between
others
and
myself
that
is
different
from
the
one
that
seems
to
be
going
on
in
the
later
days
of
capitalism
in
the
United
States
anyway.
Hernando
de
Soto:
That’s
right.
Everything
in
the
history
of
the
world
has
essentially
been
about—as
we
started
meandering
out
of
Africa
some
70,000
years
ago—how
we
cooperate.
So
we’ve
tried
everything.
We’ve
tried
tribes,
we’ve
tried
kingdoms,
and
so
far,
what
we’ve
found
out
is
that
the
market-­‐economy
system
combined
with
democracy
are
the
best
systems
for
us
to
cooperate
and
for
things
not
to
be
centrally
controlled.
In
managerial
terms,
that
is
to
say,
to
have
rules
of
the
game
that
are
equitable,
and
it
seems
to
be
what’s
working
best
so
far.
Maybe
it
will
change
in
the
future,
but
that’s
what
works
for
the
moment.
Property
rights
is
a
very
important
part
within
the
whole
thing.
The
market
becomes
a
place
where
I
am
no
longer
personally
singular,
but
I
am
now
an
individual
in
relationship
with
you.
Once
I
enter
the
market,
it
brings
me
into
a
community.
That’s
right.
You
have
to
cooperate,
among
other
things,
because
if
you
look
around
the
room
which
you
are
in
now,
it
would
be
very
hard
to
place
your
eye
on
something
that
was
only
made
by
one
person.
I
don’t
know
if
you
know
the
old
story
of
a
man
called
“I,
Pencil.”
No.
Well,
it’s
the
story
of
a
pencil
that
describes
how
it’s
put
together.
It
shows
how
the
wood
comes
from
Oregon,
but
very
few
people
like
pencils
with
white
wood,
and
that’s
why
they’re
all
painted.
And
the
paint
comes
from
Nigeria.
And
then
when
you
start
seeing
where
it
was
cut,
it’s
cut
where
you
have
sawmills.
And
then
you
have
the
lead.
The
lead
comes
from
graphite,
but
the
combination
of
number
2
graphite
is
from
Thailand
and
China,
mainly,
and
it
can
only
be
pressed
together
with
a
special
oil
that
comes
from
Mexico,
and
then
the
pencil’s
got
to
be
lacquered
because
some
people
like
the
feel
of
wood,
but
most
people
don’t.
And
the
lacquer
comes
from
these
other
parts
of
Europe.
And
the
rubber
comes
from
the
oil
industry,
which
comes
from
Saudi
Arabia.
But
what
holds
it
to
the
pencil
is
the
zinc
from
Peru
and
the
copper
from
Chile.
And
the
black
part
that
brings
together
the
eraser
and
the
pencil
is
a
special
nickel
that
also
comes
from
Nigeria.

4.
So
at
the
end,
when
you
look
at
a
pencil,
you’ve
got
something
like
1,600
industries
behind
that,
and
at
least
17
countries
putting
it
together.
So
the
question
is
this:
All
the
things
we
have
around
us
are
the
result
of
cooperation,
so
they
bring
us
all
together.
And
once
countries
split
up
and
get
into
wars,
the
system
ceases
to
work.
Visit
www.flaunt.com
to
read
the
complete
interview.
On
Mediated
Experience
EcoMorph/CyberMorph
is
one
of
the
courses
that
Jean
Gardner
teaches
at
Parsons
The
New
School
for
Design.
It
explores
how
globalization
affects
our
personal
and
professional
lives
on
a
day-­‐to-­‐day
basis.
Gardner
promotes
sustainability
through
her
workshops,
and
co-­‐authored
Urban
Wilderness,
a
book
of
nature
photographs
shot
in
New
York
City’s
five
boroughs.
Jean
Gardner:
The
reason
there
is
an
inability
to
experience
authentically
is
because
we
think
of
our
experience
as
being
framed
like
a
camera,
or
seen
in
perspective,
whereas
with
our
parents
and
grandparents,
there
was
still
a
great
deal
of
their
experience
that
wasn’t
mediated.
Kathryn
Simon:
You
said
you
have
students
who
don’t
believe
it’s
possible
to
have
an
unmediated
experience.
This
fall,
my
graduate
students,
discussing
[Marshall]
McLuhan
and
the
“authenticity”
of
their
experiences
in
general,
agreed
that
everything
is
manipulated,
that
it’s
all
been
mediated,
and
that
they
are
mediated
people.
They
experience
life
in
terms
of
frames,
or
films,
or
TV
programs.
Everything
is
a
reference
to
something
else...
…that
if
I
think
of
you,
I’ll
be
thinking
of
you
in
perspective.
So
even
though
theory’s
dead,
we
are
living
completely
in
code.
No
sense
of
authenticity
of
spirit,
or
anything?
…as
far
as
they
are
concerned,
no.
I
used
to
begin
with
the
premise
that
everyone
I
came
in
contact
with
had
what
they
recognized
as
authentic
experiences,
ones
that
are
unpredictable,
un-­‐manipulated…
…able
to
experience
clear
interventions
of
some
kind,
and
the
difference
between
the
code
and
the
experience.

5.
And
now
I
realize
that
to
teach
a
sustainable
education,
I
have
to
wake
the
students
up
and
make
them
aware.
Break
them
out
of
that
mediation.
Do
you
create
experiences
for
them?
Yes.
You
could
say
that’s
manipulated,
but
I
give
them
an
assignment
like
the
one
with
their
hands
because
most
students
only
think
in
terms
of
the
media,
not
the
messages.
They
also
don’t
understand
themselves
as
being
other
than
this
disembodied
mind,
as
a
result,
again,
of
modern
separation
between
mind
and
body.
So
the
idea
that
they
are
a
living
part
of
nature
never
crosses
their
minds.
Most
of
the
time,
it’s
the
beach
out
there.
There’s
no
inner
connection.
Most
of
them
have
no
idea
of
what
their
hands
know,
as
opposed
to
their
minds.
The
first
question
is
where
does
your
hand
start
and
where
does
it
end?
This
guy
(points
to
an
architecture
student’s
illustration)
is
seeing
his
hand
embedded
in
all
of
the
information
and
he’s
actually
talking
about
his
[deaf]
older
sister,
to
find
out
that
deaf
people
from
different
cultures,
left
to
their
own
devices,
have
a
hand
language
that
isn’t
based
on
their
language,
or
their
culture.
They
have
their
own
language
and
it
bypasses
sound.
And
he
was
just
flipped
out
because
he
signs
with
his
sister
and
he
had
never
thought
about
the
fact
that
he
can
sign...
…with
anybody,
anywhere
in
the
world.
Then
we
viewed
Andy
Goldsworthy’s
work—he
creates
ephemeral
handmade
sculptures
from
elements
in
nature—in
Rivers
and
Tides,
that
incredible
film.
He’s
really
reconnecting
with
the
most
fundamental
aspect
of
what
can
help
us
deal
with
this
extraordinary
environmental
mess
that
we’ve
created,
and
it’s
through
our
hands
that
we
are
involved,
engaged
in
the
world.
We
are
getting
in
touch
with
the
energy
that
flows
through
life,
and
he
says
that
over
and
over
again.
He
holds
up
this
stem
from
a
fern
or
a
lichen,
and
he
says,
“Look,
it’s
black
because
that’s
a
color
that
came
from
the
inner
action
from
the
earth.”
And
then
you
look
at
his
hands
and
his
hands
are
that.
They
are
just
a
permeation
into
this
flow
of
life.
It’s
a
cold
morning
in
Nova
Scotia,
the
sun
hasn’t
come
up,
and
he’s
building
an
ice
sculpture
and
his
gloves
don’t
have
fingers.
So
you
see
these
hands
and
you
see
this
ice,
and
then
he
talks
about
what
he
learns
piling
up
the
rock,
touching
what
I
would
call
“the
mind,”
and
realizing
that
the
hand
doesn’t
stop
here.
The
reason
I
can
touch
you—actually,
one
student
said
it
when
I
asked
where
does
the
hand
begin
and
end.
He
said
it
starts
here
(points
to
her
heart).
The
hand
starts
in
my
heart
and
it
ends
in
yours.
I
worked
with
a
great
man,
David
Dillman.
He
was
my
pattern
maker.
When
he
was
dying
of
AIDS,
he
lost
his
vision
and
he
began
to
sculpt.
And
he
was
modeling,
and
his

6. models
were
so
powerful.
I
thought,
“Wow,
he
really
lives
in
his
hands!”
which
always
fascinated
me
about
his
work
in
fashion.
His
hands
were
where
he
knew.
That’s
like
Georgia
O’Keefe.
Remember
she
went
to
pottery
after
painting
because
when
she
was
older,
she
couldn’t
see.
It’s
a
tactile
thing.
The
student
in
our
design-­‐build
studio
insisted
on
building
without
gloves,
then
paying
attention
to
his
hands—listening
to
them—until
he
could
picture
in
his
mind
what
his
hands
knew.
And
then
he
could
draw
it.
Well,
that’s
totally
bypassing
language.
Because
if
your
hands
know
something,
you
cannot
find
a
linguistic
counterpart.
And
most
of
us
don’t
listen,
so
how
do
we
know?
(JEAN
SPEAKING)
Connectivity
Known
as
a
visionary
guy
with
the
ability
to
concretize
his
ideas
about
new
media,
Sven
Travis
initiated
the
Digital
Design
and
Technology
program
at
Parsons
School
of
Design
in
1997,
with
the
intention
of
exploring
digital
media.
Central
to
his
intention
was
to
keep
the
ideas
behind
emerging
concepts
and
the
nature
of
the
media
in
sight.
He
is
now
a
fulltime
faculty
member
teaching
digital
theory,
and
neural
network
and
fuzzy
logic
programming
applied
to
interactive
media.
Sven
Travis:
What
was
happening
to
us
as
humans,
as
technology
became
so
important
to
our
everyday
existence,
how
it
changed
existence,
and
also
elements
that
we
liked
about
what
was
happening
and
I
didn’t
like.
If
you
think
about
it,
this
has
huge
implications
in
the
realm
of
sustainability
because
fundamentally
we
want
to
be
able
to
set
up
a
system
that
allows
us
to
move
forward
in
some
sort
of
sane
or
reasonable
way.
I’m
not
sure
we’re
doing
that.
Kathryn
Simon:
Right,
to
create
a
future.
A
desirable
future
so
you
can
look
at
all
different
theories
of
technology
and
issues
of
human
computer
interface,
or
even
theories
of
artificial
intelligence,
and
say,
“Oh
yes,
well,
there
are
these
theories.”
Sustainability
is
funny
because,
and
you
had
noted
that
you
didn’t
really
want
to
go
by
the
green
definition
of
sustainability…
…no
it’s
fine.
What’s
fascinating
to
me
is
when
you
use
the
word
“sustainability,”
that
notion
of
green
within
this
conversation
about
technology
is
[exactly]
what
comes
to
mind.
How?
Well,
let
me
give
a
good
example
of
this.
For
a
long
time
I
carried
around
a
brief
article
from
The
Economist.
There
was
a
United
Nations
group
that
was
going
to
one
of
the
developing
nations
in
Southeast
Asia.
They
asked
the
villagers,
“Of
all
the
technologies

7. in
the
world,
what
would
you
ask
us
to
bring
to
you?
What
would
you
choose
as
a
village?”
And
one
village
said,
“We
want
the
Internet.”
They
didn’t
have
anything.
No
telephone
line?
I
don’t
think
they
had
any
of
that.
They
may
have
had
running
water,
but
they
didn’t
have
electricity,
which
of
course
means,
how
are
we
going
to
use
the
Internet?
But
of
course
the
UN
people
responded
to
this
and
said,
“This
is
crazy.
Look,
there
are
all
these
basic
resources
the
people
here
need
before
the
Internet.”
So
they
went
back
and
they
said,
“This
isn’t
making
a
lot
of
sense
to
us.
Why
do
you
want
the
Internet?”
And
the
villagers
responded,
“Because
if
we
have
the
Internet,
we
can
do
all
the
rest
of
this
stuff.
It
will
give
us
all
the
information
we
need
to
do
all
this.”
Part
of
it
is
information,
but
part
of
it
is
things
like
communication,
connectivity,
and
all
this.
Accessibility.
Right.
What
they
did
was
things
like
hook
up
computers
to
car
batteries
and
satellite
connections,
so
they
got
the
Internet
in.
I
used
the
example
to
demonstrate
what
I
mean
by
this
connection
between
sustainability
and
the
implication
of
green
and
technology—the
implication
for
so
many
of
us
in
the
Western
world
with
how
our
technology
has
to
do
with
physical
manifestations
in
our
lives,
these
computers
sitting
on
this
desk
in
front
of
me.
But
I
think
the
implication,
when
you
get
away
from
the
notion
of
gadgets
and
objects,
is
something
very
different,
in
particular
when
you
look
at
it
from
the
perspective
of
people
who
have
never
had
gadgets
or
objects.
They
don’t
identify
with
the
computer
as
something
physical
in
the
same
way.
It’s
about
connectivity
and
information.
People
to
keep
your
eye
on:
Dean
Kamen,
Bruce
Mau,
Stuart
Brand,
Jeffrey
Sachs,
Brian
Eno,
Simone
Di
Bagno,
Jaime
Lerner.
Organizations
that
are
taking
sustainable
and
renewable
approaches:
The
Long
Now
Foundation,
Rosetta
Stone,
Institute
of
Liberty
and
Democracy,
Global
Network,
Bruce
Mau
Design,
Massive
Change,
The
Earth
Institute
at
Columbia
University,
Mode
Museum,
Antwerp,
and
Creative
Time,
New
York.