33 episodes

Brought to you by Metropolis, Deep Green is a podcast about how the built environment impacts climate change and equity. Buildings are some of the biggest things we make as human beings. In these bi-weekly episodes, we explore how through understanding buildings, cities, and all the things that go into them, we can do better for the environment and all life on this planet.

Deep Green Metropolis and SURROUND

    • Arts
    • 4.9 • 29 Ratings

Brought to you by Metropolis, Deep Green is a podcast about how the built environment impacts climate change and equity. Buildings are some of the biggest things we make as human beings. In these bi-weekly episodes, we explore how through understanding buildings, cities, and all the things that go into them, we can do better for the environment and all life on this planet.

    Becoming a B Corp in a Fast Furniture World

    Becoming a B Corp in a Fast Furniture World

    This episode is brought to you in partnership with furniture retailer Room & Board.
    The furniture industry has seen something of a transformation over the last decade with the rise of fast furniture: cheap, disposable pieces, often produced overseas with little to no oversight. Every year in the United States, about 12 million tons of furniture goes to waste, and 80 percent of that ends up in our landfills. In addition to contributing, through that enormous amount of waste, to our environmental problems, furniture is also often cited as one of the industries most at risk for exploitative labor practices.
    But furniture retailer Room & Board was founded in 1980 as a business that’s different: putting sustainability at the heart of its operations since day one and producing 90 percent of its products in the United States. Most recently, the Minneapolis-based retailer achieved B Corp certification, an independent verification of its practices to show that it meets the highest standards of performance, accountability, and transparency on a range of factors from employee benefits to charitable giving, supply chain practices, and materials.
    In this episode, Room & Board director of sustainability Emily McGarvey joins METROPOLIS editor in chief Avinash Rajagopal to discuss why the retailer decided to aim for B Corp certification, how they went about it, and the challenges they faced—but also what it means at a very fundamental level for the furniture industry.
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    • 21 min
    Is circularity worth pursuing?

    Is circularity worth pursuing?

    Discover industry tools and resources for circular design, as Avi Rajagopal and Samantha Sager discuss actionable steps we can take toward tackling the challenges discussed throughout this season of Deep Green. How can we make an impact on an individual level? How can we educate ourselves and those around us? What organizations can we turn to for guidance? Incredible tools, research, and innovations are helping the industry move in the right direction but to meet the moment we will have to shift away from our culture of consumption and redefine the roles of architects and designers in shaping a sustainable future. Hear from Rajagopal on his hopes for the journey forward.  
     
    Chapters 
    Review of the principles of circularity 
    How can we pursue circularity as individuals? 
    How can we pursue circularity as a community? 
    Industry resources and tools 
    Rethinking the designer’s role 
     
    Resources 
    Salvage Superstar: Renovation Angel 
    Rheaply Brings Ingenuity to Recycling Building Materials 
    Arup’s Circular Buildings Toolkit 
    Two Platforms Help Designers Specify Low-Carbon Interiors 
    Build Reuse  

    Deep Green is produced by Samantha Sager, Wize Grazette, Lauren Volker, Rachel Senatore, and Hannah Viti, and is part of the SURROUND podcast network. Special thanks to Avi Rajagopal, Editor in Chief of METROPOLIS, for his insights. Recorded at the podcast studio by Vornado in the Penn 1 building in Manhattan. 
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    • 18 min
    How can we move materials toward circularity? | A bonus conversation with Andrew Dent

    How can we move materials toward circularity? | A bonus conversation with Andrew Dent

    In this special bonus episode, Avi Rajagopal sits down with materials expert Dr. Andrew Dent. As executive vice president of research at Material ConneXion, which for 25 years has been empowering designers with access to innovative materials, Dent says he has seen increasing excitement from his clients around sustainability over the past decade. But making the most responsible choices in the world of materials can be very complex. Listen as he shares how he navigates these tricky waters, the challenges with recycling, his optimism around chemical recycling, why he’s more excited about new processes than the materials themselves, and more.

    Chapters
    A little bit about Material ConneXion
    The responsible materials landscape
    Recycled and renewable materials
    What is chemical recycling?
    Biobased and biodegradable materials
    The promise of processes

    Resources
    Material ConneXion

    Deep Green is produced by Rachel Senatore, Lauren Volker, and Hannah Viti, and is part of the SURROUND podcast network. Special thanks to Avi Rajagopal, Editor in Chief of METROPOLIS, for his insights. Recorded at the podcast studio by Vornado in the Penn 1 building in Manhattan.
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    • 27 min
    Can biobased materials save us?

    Can biobased materials save us?

    Learn how we can deepen the connection between the built environment and the natural world, as Avi Rajagopal and Samantha Sager discuss the third principle of circular design: regenerating nature. Navigating the complexities of where materials are derived from, how they are made, and what happens to them at the end of their useful life is crucial as architects and interior designers work to support a more circular economy. What defines a biobased product? How do we responsibly source these materials? Is a biobased plastic always biodegradable? Hear from Rajagopal on the ideas and experiments coming out of the industry designed to return more materials go back into their natural cycles and loops on this planet. 
     
    Chapters 
    The third principle of circularity: regenerating nature 
    What does biobased actually mean? 
    Biobased vs. Biodegradable 
    Success story: a completely biodegradable chair 
    Responsibly sourcing biobased materials 
    Infrastructure and composting 
     
    Resources 
    PROWL Urges Designers to Consider the Afterlife of Products 
    Model No. Furniture 
    Natural Habitat: A Tranquil Retreat in Cold Spring 
     
    Deep Green is produced by Samantha Sager, Wize Grazette, Lauren Volker, Rachel Senatore, and Hannah Viti, and is part of the SURROUND podcast network. Special thanks to Avi Rajagopal, Editor in Chief of METROPOLIS, for his insights. Recorded at the podcast studio by Vornado in the Penn 1 building in Manhattan. 
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    • 31 min
    Can we recycle and reuse our way out of our materials problem?

    Can we recycle and reuse our way out of our materials problem?

    Explore the intricacies of material recycling, as Avi Rajagopal and Samantha Sager pick up where they left off last week, focusing on the second principle of a circular economy: circulating products and materials at their highest value. Are all materials suitable for recycling? How can we make sure that recycled or reused materials perform to the standards of commercial settings? How can we better design products and buildings for their end of life? Hear from Rajagopal on some innovative ways our industry is circulating products and materials, recycling more responsibly — and giving nature a much-needed break. 
     
    Chapters 

    Circulating products and materials at their highest value 

    Recycling obstacles (incentive, policy, and more) 

    Success story: Nylon 

    The hierarchy of recycling strategies 

    Designing for disassembly  

     
    Resources 
    METROPOLIS Climate Toolkit  
    The Ellen MacArthur Foundation 
    METROPOLIS July/August 2023: This New Upholstery Line Features Yarn Made From Marine Plastic 
     
    Deep Green is produced by Samantha Sager, Wize Grazette, Lauren Volker, Rachel Senatore, and Hannah Viti, and is part of the SURROUND podcast network. Special thanks to Avi Rajagopal, Editor in Chief of METROPOLIS, for his insights. Recorded at the podcast studio by Vornado in the Penn 1 building in Manhattan.
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    • 24 min
    Can architecture be circular?

    Can architecture be circular?

    What obstacles does our industry present to the dream of a circular economy? Join METROPOLIS’s Editor in Chief, Avi Rajagopal, and producer Samantha Sager as they begin to explore these challenges, beginning with how we can eliminate more waste and pollution from our processes. A&D culture is shifting away from building new (for the first time in 2022, retrofits and renovations accounted for more money in architectural buildings than new construction!) but are we adapting buildings as sustainably as possible? Are we preparing them for future adaptations or just passing the buck? Are we considering the interiors? What about the communities that live around these projects? It’s easy to say, “Oh, let's reuse a building,” but in practice it tends to be a pretty tough and complicated process. Hear from Rajagopal on the steps our industry is taking to reuse more responsibly—and live a little bit closer to harmony with nature.

    Chapters
    What are the principles of circularity?
    Principle 1: eliminating waste and pollution
    Unpacking adaptive reuse
    Future-proofing our buildings

    Resources
    METROPOLIS Climate Toolkit
    The Ellen MacArthur Foundation
    METROPOLIS July/August: “3 Adaptive Reuse Projects Prioritize Flexibility for the Future”
    LMN’s Tenant Improvements Embodied Carbon Study

    Deep Green is produced by Samantha Sager, Wize Grazette, Lauren Volker, and Rachel Senatore, and is part of the SURROUND Podcast Network. Special thanks to Avi Rajagopal, Editor in Chief of METROPOLIS, for his insights. Recorded at the podcast studio by Vornado in the Penn 1 building in Manhattan.
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    • 20 min

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
29 Ratings

29 Ratings

joseph1736473 ,

AMAZING

AGI is such an amazing host! Best sustainability and A&M’s podcast out there.

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