Going Green is a documentary-style continuing education podcast series hosted by architect Dimitrius Lynch Jr. that explores the intersection of design, politics, technology, and the environment. Rather than simply defining a lifestyle trend, the series serves as a historical and scientific investigation into how the modern climate crisis developed and how the built environment—and the professionals who design it—can respond.

Based on the provided sources, “Going Green” can be defined through its four primary narrative arcs:

1. Historical and Scientific Foundations

The series traces the roots of climate awareness back to the Industrial Revolution and early scientific discoveries. It highlights the 19th-century work of figures like Eunice Foote, John Tyndall, and Svante Arrhenius, who established the greenhouse effect and calculated the warming influence of carbon dioxide long before it became a political issue. It connects historical land mismanagement, such as the aggressive homesteading policies that led to the Dust Bowl, to modern climate science and resource-efficient architecture. The narrative posits that understanding these historical patterns—from the use of steam engines to the measurement of atmospheric CO2 by Charles David Keeling—is essential for making informed design decisions today.

2. The Intersection of Politics, Industry, and Economics

A central thesis of “Going Green” is that climate inaction is largely the result of manufactured confusion and political strategy rather than a lack of scientific knowledge.

• Obstruction and Misinformation: The series details how fossil fuel interests and political operatives created doubt about climate science. It covers the “greed is good” era of the 1980s, the deregulation under the Reagan administration, and the rise of conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation.
• Greenwashing and Astroturfing: The program explains how corporations used “astroturfing” (fake grassroots campaigns) and concepts like the personal “carbon footprint”, popularized by BP, to shift responsibility for pollution from systemic corporate actors to individual consumers.
• Legal and Political Battles: Recent episodes examine the influence of “dark money” networks, the overturning of the Chevron deference, and the “Project 2025” agenda, which aims to dismantle environmental regulations and erase climate language from federal agencies.

3. Evolution of Architectural Theory and Practice

“Going Green” tracks how architecture has responded, or failed to respond, to environmental realities.

• Design Movements: It explores the divergence from Modernism to Postmodernism and the early countercultural movements that embraced “living lightly on the land,” such as Paolo Soleri’s Arcosanti.
• Resource Efficiency: It highlights Buckminster Fuller’s philosophy of “doing more with less” and the Dymaxion House as precursors to modern resilient envelopes.
• Institutional Responses: The series documents the rise of sustainable design frameworks, including the formation of the AIA Committee on the Environment and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), which created the LEED rating system.
• Modern Solutions: It advocates for actionable strategies such as designing walkable, car-free communities, prioritizing building reuse, and addressing “embodied carbon” (emissions from materials and construction) rather than just operational energy use.

4. Health, Safety, and Welfare (HSW)

The series frames environmental issues as critical Health, Safety, and Welfare (HSW) concerns. It connects environmental mismanagement directly to human suffering, such as the health impacts of the Dust Bowl, the dangers of “McMansions” and sprawl, and the disproportionate exposure of minority communities to toxic waste, a central tenet of the Environmental Justice movement led by figures like Robert Bullard. It emphasizes that architects have an ethical duty to protect public health by understanding these environmental contexts.

In summary, Going Green is presented as a “communications challenge” as much as a scientific one. It challenges design professionals to move beyond surface-level sustainability talking points and engage with the deep historical, political, and economic forces that shape the built environment to ensure a resilient future.