Planets Earth

Planets Earth is open now at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Schenley Park, inside the Center for Sustainable Landscapes (CSL). It's a dynamic exhibit that puts resource overuse at the heart of climate change and other environmental problems, and asks you to think about a regenerative way of interacting with the world.

The display draws on the "ecological footprint" metric from the Global Footprint Network, which suggests our current way of living requires at least five Earths. It also brings in writer and educator Carol Sanford's four models for how we interact with the world: extractive, less bad, do good, and regenerative. The exhibit walks you through those different approaches, leaving you to consider where you fit in and what a regenerative way of living might actually look like.

Even the physical display is built with the same philosophy. It's made from formaldehyde-free FSC-certified hardwood and Mohawk Lichen carpet, the first floor covering to earn a Living Product Challenge Petal Certification. The CSL itself was built using regenerative design: it's powered by the sun, treats and reuses its own water, runs pollution-free, and provides habitat for native species. It's the regenerative wing of Phipps, so the building is as much a part of the story as the exhibit inside.

Phipps was gifted to the City of Pittsburgh by Henry Phipps in 1893, and the Center for Sustainable Landscapes is its newest addition. Planets Earth is currently running there in Schenley Park, so you can catch it whenever you're in the neighborhood.