Transitioning from green to regenerative design

Green building strategies, performance goals, and associated assessment methods currently emphasize the ways and extent that buildings should mitigate global and local resource depletion and environmental degradation. By contrast, the emerging notion of 'regenerative' design and development emphasizes a co-evolutionary, partnered relationship between humans and the natural environment, rather than a managerial one that builds, rather than diminishes, social and natural capitals. Three ideas are addressed. First, understanding the relationship between 'green', 'sustainable', and 'regenerative' design and associated assessment frameworks, giving emphasis to how they represent and engage natural systems and processes. Second, characterizing the type of discussions that these three approaches generate amongst the design team and between the design team and its clients in terms of strengthening an understanding of natural systems. Finally, the inherent potential of green, sustainability and regenerative design approaches to create the necessary and timely changes in performance improvements. One of the most significant differences - and central to this discussion - lies in the ways that uncertainty of the long-term outcomes associated with different design decisions are acknowledged and accommodated in design.