As climate change nears the tipping point of irreversible consequences, even high-performance buildings exacerbate the situation with net-negative ecological, social, and health impacts. These are not enough to reverse the course of climate change. Two projects—East Vancouver Integrated Health & Social Housing and Hamilton Center—are embracing the opportunity to think about development not in the context of doing less harm, but actively doing good by using a regenerative design framework and tool.

Using these projects as examples, this panel will discuss how urban planning and building design strategies can regenerate or contribute positive impacts to local ecology and to the people who use them. Specific strategies and metrics presented will demonstrate a concrete pathway toward regeneration of the built environment. These strategies focus on carbon, air, water, nutrients, biodiversity, health, and community to identify how design can remediate the harm resulting from years of conventional development. Regenerative design is design that reconnects humans and nature through the continuous renewal of socioecological systems. This presentation is intended to illustrate how to begin the process of reconnection.