1stew·ard
noun \ˈstü-ərd, ˈstyü-; ˈst(y)u̇rd\Definition of STEWARD
1
:
one employed in a large household or estate to manage domestic concerns
(as the supervision of servants, collection of rents, and keeping of
accounts)
2
3
: a fiscal agent
4
a : an employee on a ship, airplane, bus, or train who manages the provisioning of food and attends passengers
b : one appointed to supervise the provision and distribution of food and drink in an institution
5
: one who actively directs affairs : manager
See  |
| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Steward%27s_Lodge_N4_2011-03.jpg |
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In conservation and preservation, we talk about stewards of history, but which category of the definition does a steward of history fall under? If you search for the term "steward", you don't find much, in fact, you just get a bunch of hits for guys' named Steward. However, you find the reference if you search "stewardship," but it more-or-less aligns with environmental resource conservation rather than the practice of historic preservation.
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Stewardship
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stewardship is an ethic that embodies responsible planning and management of resources.
The concept of stewardship has been applied in diverse realms,
including with respect to environment, economics, health, property,
information, and religion, and is linked to the concept of sustainability.History of the term
Historically, stewardship referred to the occupation of a steward. Initially, stewardship was the responsibility given to household servants to bring food and drinks to a castle dining hall. The term was then expanded to indicate a household employee's responsibility for managing household or domestic affairs. Stewardship later became the responsibility for taking care of passengers' domestic needs on a ship, train and airplane, or managing the service provided to diners in a restaurant. The term continues to be used in these specific ways, but it is also used in a more general way to refer to a responsibility to take care of something belonging to someone else._________________________________________________________________________________________
Why does the concept of stewardship fail to connect with the built environment? In the very Wikipedia entry, there is a mention of the environment and economics, but, if you read further, you will realize that the type of environment is strictly detached from the man made and naturally occurring. This is a problem.
It is a problem because of the built environment is the most detrimental impact we create on this planet, more than transportation or consumption, but it is the most twisted and convoluted aspect of the sustainability movement.
Perhaps this disconnect starts from the very first construction of man made habitat. Before we bent twigs to form a canopy over our heads, we sought shelter in naturally made caves, or we slept out in the plains without shelter just as herds of antelope do today. We might take for granted the buildings we create because of the blurry line between man and nature.
We humans have spent many historical epochs contemplating how we are nature, but, in fact, we might do better if we realize that we humans are not of nature. Our actions, our habits, our sheer nature is that of industry. And now, it is of globalism and digital commerce. We humans must, in fact, deal with the discrepancies of what we think is nature and what actually is natural.
Now, the sustainability movement, as noble as it may be, has A LOT of faults. For one, the quick development of positions, the low bar of requirements to fill these positions, and the general lack of knowledge that perpetuates the cycle of mismanagement and under-qualification for these newly created positions, is the primary systematic fault behind the short statute of sustainability's success.
Sustainability, like other newly emerging professions, will take about fifty years to become truly standardized. Right now, the built environment has only a decade of standardization thanks to LEED, and now, even LEED is being challenged by yet another standard, the Living Building Challenge. Great? Not so much. This is not a product of environmentalism, it is a product of the capitalism, which will always rely on raping the earth and its people, unless we think dramatically different.
As environmentalists have argued for over fifty years, we are now at a tipping point. The catch phrase, "incrementialism" no longer works for our environmental problems rings true because of the last twenty plus years of incremental effort. The ringing concept is "multilateral" agreement. That is, globally, we must all be on the same page for standards and policy implementation, but we are FAR from on the same page.
If you just look at the concept of stewardship, you will see a giant gap between how we in the United States and other nationals conscientiously disagree about what is the answer to environmental conservation, social conservation, and economic conservation---sustainability.
Think back to the first man made habitation, the sheer process of bending branches lead to the see of concrete we now call home. Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet le Duc wrote about this action in the 19th century in The Habitations of Man.
At which point will people look back at the green building movement and pontificate, "why did they think that was of nature?"
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