How can we ensure future builds enrich their communities?
We know a sustainably built environment actively contributes to local economic security, environmental sustainability and holistic well-being in the community. What’s less clear is how we can balance decarbonization, community resilience goals and financial considerations in many, many more future builds. Generating support for sustainability with all stakeholders, and getting those stakeholders to the table early on, will be central in accelerating this transition in commercial building decarbonization.
As 2024 AIA President Dowdell noted, “Holistic and integrated design processes are essential to support social and human health. The AIA Architecture and Design Materials Pledge is designed to inspire a positive shift in the healing work that architects can do. The goal is to transform architects’ day-to-day practice and to work towards an equitable, resilient, healthy and zero-carbon future.”
Forging connections among stakeholders is equally important. BOMA 360, the ASHRAE Learning Institute and Bell & Gossett’s LRSH are facilitating relationships through holistic learning programs that offer training, job resources, opportunities for networking and professional certifications. These industry connectors are vital, especially considering the important role younger generations will play as the drivers of sustainability and decarbonization.
“Old guys like me are going to be gone in a few years, but it’s the younger generation that’s really taking this and moving it forward. You’re seeing the next generation of homeowners, or even rental properties, much more attuned to how that space is conditioned and the water’s heated,” observed FIA Inc. President Pratt.
Connecting the industry
COMMUNITIES
PILLAR 5
Blueprint for Net Zero
Fostering ownership, responsibility and accountability: Involving and educating communities on the value of sustainability initiatives
Building sustainability into communities of the future
At the core of sustainable buildings of the future are the communities and residents that occupy them. Communities make up the fabric of the built environment, and a community’s overall quality of life, social interactions, economic vitality and well-being hinge on the choices that we make today.
"According to the United States Surgeon General, approximately 50% of adults in America report facing loneliness," noted Sara Karerat, managing director of the Center for Active Design. "Our built environment has a profound power to reverse this trend. We know that designing walkable, transit-oriented neighborhoods with mixed-use spaces that meet the needs of a diverse population creates more connected communities with more frequent social interaction, ultimately supporting human health and economic vitality."
One example of this is recognized green build Levi’s Stadium (pictured right), a 1.85 million-square-foot stadium in Santa Clara, California. In addition to being a model of sustainability, Levi’s Stadium measurably contributes to community well-being. An economic analysis of the sports and entertainment venue released in its 10th year revealed that since it opened, the venue generated $546 million in personal earnings for local employees, and $470 million in revenues for local municipalities.
Levi’s Stadium also contributes to the city of Santa Clara’s community-wide water conservation approach, which directly offsets potable water demand and meets 72% of municipal water use. The stadium’s recycled-water pressure booster system, which uses Bell & Gossett pumps, makes recycled wastewater available to flush toilets and to irrigate the natural grass field, green roof and other areas around the stadium.
“We’ve learned that high-performance buildings have the potential to transform communities,” said 2024 American Institute of Architects President Kimberly Dowdell, NOMAC. “They’re proven to reduce energy consumption, improve air quality, and they offer benefits to human health and well-being.”
Helping communities with high water vulnerability
One cannot discuss the potential of high-performance buildings without considering the importance of water at the intersection of sustainability and efficiency. Water contributes to the livelihood of our ecosystem, economic stability, human survival and is vital for almost every industry – from agriculture to industrial to the energy sector. However, according to UNICEF, more than 1.4 billion people live in areas of high-water vulnerability, while approximately 25% of all water entering residential and commercial buildings, construction sites and industrial facilities is ultimately wasted. Water supply and the built environment are closely intertwined and as such, will need to be addressed when mapping out the communities of the future.
At the forefront of the fight to solve water insecurity is Xylem. Through its corporate sustainability Watermark program, Xylem is setting the bar for more sustainable, water-secure communities in under-resourced areas worldwide by piloting innovative solutions that improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene, known as WASH. Last year alone, Xylem’s WASH solutions reached 3.8 million people, and through partnerships, technology and innovation, we’re scaling up for the future.
“We’ve added a new, more ambitious target for 2030 to reach an additional 80 million people with climate resilient WASH access in water-insecure communities, adding to our existing 20 million goal by 2025,” said Alexander, Xylem vice president, sustainability and social impact.
Maintaining community when natural disasters occur
As we learned in the 2024 hurricane season, when the built environment takes a beating, the negative emotional, mental and physical effects are felt deeply across the community. However, Hunters Point in Cortez, Florida, has avoided weather-related damage and disruption through its commitment to decarbonization and use of renewable energy. Hunters Point is the first LEED Zero-certified, sustainable residential community in the U.S. Another sustainably developed, solar-powered Florida community, Babcock Ranch, not only came through Hurricane Milton with little damage but was able to provide shelter to an additional 2,000 people during the storm – proving that the benefits of sustainable-forward community planning and thinking are far-reaching.
Balancing history, community and decarbonization
By keeping the history of a place alive, Historic buildings help communities, and their members, connect to the past and to each other. Unfortunately, by nature, bringing these buildings into the 21st century for resource efficiency and support of decarbonization is often problematic.
“Historical districts don't want to have the outside envelope of the buildings affected, and cities have noise ordinances and restrictions on what can be done,” said FIA Inc.'s Pratt. “There's plenty of work to be done to make these buildings more efficient.”
Pratt’s observation only reiterates the importance of building reuse, particularly in a region like New England, which FIA Inc. serves. According to research from the National Trust’s Preservation Green Lab, it can take anywhere between 10 and 80 years to overcome the carbon debt that is incurred when an existing structure is replaced, even if the new building is highly energy efficient. Knowing how vital historic structures are to the identity and fabric of a community – and considering decarbonization strategies – will be an ongoing conversation within the built environment.
Third-party building certification is bringing community to the table
Green Building Initiative (GBI) is a nonprofit organization running Green Globes, a green building certification system that evaluates the environmental sustainability, health and wellness and resilience of commercial buildings. The certification is a roadmap for developer teams to ensure they’re considering multiple view impacts with every decision – from energy to efficiency to internal and external environment. The Green Globes certification process starts in the planning phases in a process GBI calls integrated design.
“Integrated design makes sure everybody’s at the table, and it allows the community to be involved at the very beginning,” said GBI President Worden. “There's an entire section in our standard that rewards teams that do conceptual planning early on and involve a broad cross-section of stakeholders. There's a lot of thinking about what we're trying to achieve around sustainability, health and resilience in terms of benefits for communities.”
“By providing third-party review of projects in a community, that can translate into higher levels of satisfaction for the local government and community members. Third-party certification provides accountability and reinforces confidence in the objectives of each project.”
Vicki Worden, GBI president
Partnerships of the present paving the way to a better tomorrow
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