Regenerative Development for Breakfast

Bill Reed and Jim Newman came to speak about regenerative development - not just regenerative design, but bringing regenerative concepts into each of our own minds to change the design approach fundamentally. Over a dozen Chapter members and friends came out to hear from these two, based on the work Bill has been doing for many years at Regenesis Group.

Bill's message is fresh and important. The way our society thinks about the world has resulted in a built environment that diminishes our communities. The traditional means of arriving at so-called mutually beneficial results is often through compromise. But compromise is a continuous process of lowering one's standards and expectations. Bill advocates for reconciliation rather than compromise. Reconciliation brings two sides of a situation into harmony, benefiting both sides rather than forcing everyone to tolerate a lesser solution.

He explained how this path for project design and implementation has been used in a variety of locations - in particular a farm community proposed to become residential "ranchettes" which were diminishing three ecosystems. A reconciled design approach resulted in an epiphany moment for the owner team and a design solution that resulted in projected improvements to all parties - better ecology, better community and even better returns to the investors!

Regenesis has worked with private landowners, businesses, schools, governmental organizations and tribal governments across the United States and internationally on everything from land development, community and urban planning, eco-resort and retreat development, education and learning center design, and agricultural land use and stewardship planning. See a sampling of their project case studies here. 

Jim and Bill have agreed to convene on a monthly basis to explore further the concept of regenerative development and the mental shift to embrace ever-bigger wholes to solve problem situations. Stay tuned for an evening program in August!

Green Buildings for Peace & Prosperity

I wrote a short introductory note to our newsletter yesterday [click on "April Newsletter"] and got a lot of comments in return. My basic thing is that green buildings are examples of reduced violence and can help psychologically reduce violence in our society. Some commented that it was too soon to connect the Marathon Bombings to our industry or any industry. Many said they thought I was right on, though I missed a couple of things. One is the connection of imported energy to human rights abuses, and the other of imported energy to terrorist-sponsoring states. I think both those thoughts merit further exploration.

I hope you will stay energized and alert to improve our building stock and the ecological, health & safety, security and human rights issues relevant to our real estate and built environment. We have a lot of work to do!

[please also see the comment from Ben Myers below, just under the "tags"]

Below is the piece:

It has been an eventful Spring in Massachusetts. We've had award contests, a membership drive, conferences, and state & municipal public policy issues. And of course I can't take the soapbox here without mentioning the Marathon Bombings. We all express our heartfelt condolences to those affected. I have not heard of anyone in our community directly, significantly, affected, though many of us have friends and colleagues who were part of the situation - as victims, helpers, or otherwise.

Let me go out on a limb and point out the relevance of green buildings to reducing dramatic violence. We are part of the solution. Our work helps to ensure that our society takes responsibility for waste products resulting from buildings. Green buildings embody less violence: reduced deleterious health effects, diminished negative effects of materials procurement and manufacturing, and they reduce projected damage estimates from long-term repercussions on the environment. This includes the reduced toxicity of green buildings and their materials, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. 

Call me a peacenik or what you will, but I do believe the embodied negative effects of buildings are diminishing every time we "green" a building. This will have positive psychological implications for everyone. Certainly there wasn't much we could do about the events of 4/15, but over time, green buildings are norming a more peaceful society. Green buildings are better buildings - and we need to ensure strong codes not just for energy efficiency, but also to prevent loss of lives as seen in building failures in the Brazil club fire or more recently the Bangladesh garment factory collapse. I'm glad to be part of this community, all working for the good cause of better buildings.

  

Our community continues to grow and to make a difference in our industry. We recently achieved our goal of bringing on 100 new members before Earth Day - a quick drive at the beginning of the year which has grown our ranks significantly. Thank you to all the new Members, and thank you for participating in our efforts.

Grey Lee

Executive Director

USGBC MA Chapter