During the course of the class I brought my understanding of buildings and my pragmatic ideas to the many discussions. This allowed me to bring up the point that often times what is currently being tried is not working, and that we, the future of our country, hold the most influence over where we go in the next few years, if we only use said influence.

My major takeaways from this course are that sustainable practices are much more nuanced than I previously knew. Additionally, I learned that there are many factors into sustainable plans, but with many factors comes many opinions, and with many opinions comes many disagreements. Furthermore, I gained knowledge as to just how interconnected our respective industries are with each other and the environment. Moreover, I took away from the course that many sustainable ideas would be made more practical with government involvement.

One problem I would like to learn more about, as it pertains especially well to my major, is the issue of energy consumption by buildings, and more specifically, how buildings waste energy and how they can be made more sustainable, efficient, and self-reliant. I find these issues fascinating as they are issues I can actively work to change and improve.

I think I would be able to bring a positive change to the field of architecture by designing sustainable structures. This is something that is happening more and more in the world as we learn more about climate change and global warming and the influence that buildings have on it, but by strictly designing sustainable structures I would be making some difference, even if it was only a small part of a much larger movement. Additionally, I think that a national standard for all buildings of all types should be set so that every architect has to hold themselves to the highest environmental standards, which is something I can affect by getting more involved in my industry and explaining the importance of such standards.