Regenerative infrastructure is where possibility meets practicality

In August's report from the IPCC, we have now come face to face with the fact that catastrophes we were expecting to see around 2100 are more likely to commence in the next two to three decades.

C40 is projecting that over 570 low-lying coastal cities will face sea level rise by at least half a meter. That's 800 million people at risk of being underwater. In fact, my hometown, Chennai, will be up to three feet underwater by the end of the century.

And what's worse? None of the scenarios in the IPCC report are consistent with limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius as initially called for in the Paris Agreement. In fact, there is one scenario where we briefly hit the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold less than four years from now.?

That's 2025.

That is not the next generation — that is this generation.

This is why in 2019, we proposed that LEED must evolve to be carbon positive and truly regenerative for new construction in 2025 and existing buildings in 2050.

This is why we continue to invest in LEED v4.1 to accelerate the implementation and adoption of LEED for both new and existing buildings.

It's why we support scoring, benchmarking and category level performance certificates through the Arc platform to provide existing buildings with a pathway to LEED certification.

And it's why we've embraced the intersectionality of sustainability, health and wellness, resilience, and equity in all of our work.

But the reality is that when it comes to the world's major infrastructure components — transportation, telecom, energy, water, and especially buildings — we're not adapting fast enough to universal techniques to solve the climate crisis.

Like I've said before: We have fragmented approaches — and that leads to ineffective outcomes.

Because of that, we simply can't ignore the fact that despite the tremendous contributions this community has made, we still haven't reversed buildings' overall contribution to our global CO2 emissions.

The first IPCC report was published in 1990. We've known for years the reality we were going to be faced with. We've talked ad nauseam about how we needed to come up with solutions; but for all this talk, there wasn't enough collective action. Until, after 30 years —? in 2020 and 2021 — people, companies, and governments rushed to make thousands of commitments to net zero. But now more than ever, we have to be brutally honest. Most of these entities don't even know how to get there.?

And it became clear last year that in addition to shortcomings on that singular front, the world was ill prepared to handle the compounding crises of climate change and public health. Our buildings, communities, and cities proved to be the least able to adapt and emerge from the crisis.?

This is because we have not focused enough on environmental performance and transformed existing buildings at the same pace as new construction.

We have not effectively educated the general public on the environmental, health and economic benefits that building green offers occupants, and we have not effectively engaged occupants to demand green building as much as building developers and practitioners.

There is a lack of publicly available research and data to educate the general public on the business case for green buildings and how green initiatives can drive economic prosperity and improve social equity, and there is a lack of implementation expertise to know how to get to net zero, and beyond.

These growing challenges in infrastructure highlight why the work we do at USGBC and in the green building community is more important than ever. We have the ability to ensure that buildings — one of the world's largest emitters — are tangibly making a difference in reversing "the code red for humanity."

And regenerative infrastructure is going to be the whole ball game.

Regenerative infrastructure is where possibility meets practicality.

It's where we finally account for an evolving world rooted in both accountability and action.?

It's where we get to plan for a future with lasting bridges and highways, resilience in power grids, and buildings that don't make us sick.

When I look at everything we've done over the last nearly 30 years of this organization — I'm relieved to think that we are acting — and that we've been ahead of the curve when understanding that infrastructure is ultimately about individuals.

I'm proud that we've always worked with the best interests of the most vulnerable — including children — in mind. The last 30 years have gotten us to priority positioning for net zero.

But I'm also looking forward to seeing what this community does with LEED to enable regenerative buildings and infrastructure in the years to come — because the only thing wrong with net zero is that it's not enough.

Which is why that focus on regenerative building is where my next chapter is taking me, and I hope is taking all of you.

The equitable world we long for requires operating at greater scale, scope, and speed than ever before. Net zero is rapidly becoming the minimum standard, and so a more rigorous and regenerative approach is needed to truly meet the moment.

We need to move toward a positive vision that will create an equally positive impact on the environment, people, and the economy. My next chapter will be focused on developing the roadmap for what that future will look like, and helping our community understand what they need to do to move from an awareness to an adoption of this approach.

It will be focused on addressing questions like: What are the practical strategies the market can implement to get to a net zero and carbon positive future? How can we implement these at speed? What barriers need to be eliminated to do this? How do we ensure we get the right ROI for that? And how do we help build capacity for the technical knowledge and skills that will be required?

I'll be focused on doing everything in my capacity to help the market rise to meet the moment.

My hope for this community — and certainly for the work I'll be doing in my new endeavor — is that we set out on these next 30 years with a different mindset.?

But my hope is also this: Instead of our discussion being focused on the possibility of an uninhabitable future, I want us to instead focus on what's next. And the reason it matters now more than ever for us to fully understand that clock is so that we can undo the dangers of that binary thinking, so that we can really get to the nuts and bolts not of whether we'll survive to 2100, but of how we'll be better able to live and thrive on the only planet we've ever known in 2025, 2030, 2040, and beyond.

I'm tired — but the good kind of tired. The kind of emotional exhaustion you feel surging in your body right before big, broad, sweeping change. The kind of change that can only accompany an existential crisis and the people willing to take it on — day in and day out until we can breathe a little easier in every sense of the phrase.

The truth is, I'm only interested in a future that prioritizes regenerative infrastructure as a primary solution for approaching the climate crisis.

I'm only interested in a future that accounts for the vulnerable.

For generations, we have said that the basic job not just of parents — but of human beings — is to leave the world better than we found it. Better than when you found it means giving back more than you have taken. It means precision in the name of preservation — not just of life itself, but of quality of life.?

It means regeneration.?