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All of the timber for the roof of Portland International Airport’s expansion — more than 3 million board feet — was sourced from landowners and mills that were certified for forest-friendly practices. (Ema Peters Photography)
I’ve been reading nothing but praise for the newly expanded main terminal at Portland International Airport (PDX). Meant to evoke a walk in a Pacific Northwest forest, the redesigned terminal has a spectacular nine-acre, mass-timber roof, 72 mature trees, and dozens of skylights that sift natural light through their branches.
Sherrif Karamat, CAE,
President & CEO, PCMA and CEMA
What went on behind the scenes during construction of the $2-billion expansion, designed by ZGF Architects, is just as inspiring.
Finding so much timber from sustainably managed forests took ZGF more than six years, including time spent making direct connections with forests owned and managed by families, local Indigenous tribes, and nonprofits, including the Nature Conservancy.
This year, Portland-based ZGF was named one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies” for the second year in a row. Not coincidentally, ZGF was named “2022 Firm of the Year” by the Southern California Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects, in recognition of ZGF’s longstanding, active support. What I think is so powerful about ZGF’s story is how well it illustrates the links between financial success, creativity and innovation, and demonstrable commitments to environmental sustainability and DEI.
In McKinsey & Company’s most recent report on the business case for DEI, the financial benefits of diversity are clear: Organizations in the top quartile for both gender and ethnic diversity have a 39-percent likelihood of financially outperforming companies in the bottom quartile (see “How Is the DEI Backlash Impacting the Events Industry?”). And the consulting firm also found that diversity in boards and executive teams correlated to higher social and environmental impact scores, across all industries.
How did that organizational diversity ripple out into the community? According to McKinsey’s research, the more diverse the leadership team, the more likely it is to have made public commitments to DEI in their decision-making strategies.
When organizations see inclusion as core to their purpose, they are more likely to stay the course when things become difficult — which can lead to breakthroughs. When ZGF assembled a team to source sustainably managed timber for PDX’s terminal expansion, a lot of people said that it couldn’t be done. The architecture firm is now working with new clients to use the sourcing network developed for PDX for multiple other projects.
There is a lesson here for the business events industry. One of the most important links between DEI and sustainability is a shared commitment to acting to change the status quo. Technology will help us to solve some of our most urgent problems, including reducing carbon emissions, but it will only take us part of the distance. To make the kinds of bold changes that are needed, it’s essential that we learn how to think and act in new ways. Stories like the one behind the construction of the PDX terminal expansion show how groundbreaking — and beautiful — that can be.
AI’s Next Phase
In the last year, the conversation about generative AI has shifted away from whether it is a valuable tool for meeting professionals to how to determine the best AI tools to use for specific tasks and how to use them for the greatest impact. Last June, two teams faced off, one team using Spark, and the other using other large language model assistants, to see which delivered the best results when given the same challenges. You can read the results of the competition in the Convene story “AI vs. AI.”
On the Web
Learn more about PCMA’s Ascent initiative, which includes resources — in addition to Convene content — on topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, at pcma.org/ascent.