(I04) Regenerative Design: Project Positive

We have always looked to nature for design inspiration. Now we’re also designing with and for nature. Leveraging design and technology in the service of nature, we are working to not only reduce our footprint but also use design as a positive force for change.

Building on decades of expertise in sustainable and biosystems design, Biomimicry 3.8, HOK, Jacobs, and Ecometrix Solutions Group have joined efforts and expanded our design focus to encompass regenerative design. Project Positive has arisen as a group of change agents dedicated to raising the bar on what acting sustainably means—driven by a sense of urgency to move beyond reduction goals, to science-based targets and actions that are actually generous to the ecosystems, employees, and communities in which we operate.

In this moderated discussion, leaders from HOK, Biomimicry 3.8, Jacobs, and Ecometrix Solution Group will share the results of this multi-year campaign. They will outline the shifts in their own organizational approaches to integrate nature’s wisdom. They will demonstrate how new methodologies of client engagement, change management, analysis and modelling of ecosystem services can lead to the creation of positive design strategies and enhanced implementation of projects. The results transform the way development of the built environment addresses its relationship with the natural world resulting in a roadmap to nature positive.

Nature-Based Performance Modeling
Project Positive’s design approach is inspired by nature’s wisdom but driven by data. We begin by benchmarking the ecosystem services that a site provides related to water, air, carbon, soil, biodiversity, and health and well-being. The team quantifies the performance of a thriving nearby ecosystem and compares the differences between the two. Our goal then is to design a regenerative project that emulates and even surpasses those ecosystem performance metrics.

Bioinspired Innovation
Using a lens of biomimicry, we study the species that are thriving in a project’s local environment and consider how natural systems can guide our design solutions. Natural systems unlock solutions for design technologies, systematic approaches, or even community engagement Methodologies. Inherent to the biomimetic process are biophilic design solutions that support people’s innate desire to be connected to nature.

Whole Systems Thinking
Regenerative design requires whole systems thinking that brings together the needs of people and nature. To push beyond sustainability, we build on our integrated design approaches to net zero energy, water and waste; biomimicry and biophilia; health and wellness; social equity; elimination of embodied carbon in structural systems; and healthy materials and products. Our multidisciplinary teams of architects, engineers, designers, planners, biologists and sustainability experts bring specialized knowledge about the nature of a place and its biological systems as design drivers. These partnerships enable us to tackle complex problems that none of us could solve on our own.

Our collaborative design process invites all a project’s stakeholders—including employees, clients, partners and community members—to provide input that enables us to respond to their needs. This leads to projects that enable both people and nature to thrive.