Ecosystems and biodiversity at Greenbuild 2024

Explore sessions at Greenbuild that will focus on meeting ecosystem and biodiversity goals.

Enhancing biodiversity and supporting flourishing ecoystems is an important focus for green building professionals. Regenerative design practices and attention to sustainable sites allow the built environment to work in harmony with ecological systems to promote life for all beings.

As the global green building community's top space for learning, networking and sharing insights, Greenbuild 2024, "Built to Scale," will offer more than 100 sessions on the most critical topics in the industry. The conference will take place Nov. 12-15 this year in Philadelphia.

Take a look at a small sample below of opportunities to engage in learning about ecosystems and biodiversity strategies, and explore the full Greenbuild education program when you register to attend. You can sort by track, topic, learning level and more.

Regenerative Ecosystems Summit

Tuesday, Nov. 12

Greenbuild is launching five all-new, in-person summits in 2024. Each summit includes a keynote, a full day of sessions specifically designed for each topic and opportunities to network. Summits are available only to attendees with a Conference or Student pass.

At this critical global juncture of rapid biodiversity loss and climate change, the buildings industry must be open to integrated approaches to ecological conservation and restoration with decarbonization. Nature and communities should coexist harmoniously and regeneratively in the spaces where we live, work and play. This summit will explore the emerging trends and best practices that leverage buildings and sites as catalysts for supporting biodiversity and energy efficiency and reducing overall environmental impact. Attendees will have the opportunity to connect with like-minded professionals passionate about integrating nature-based solutions.

Lessons from Landscape Architecture: Biodiversity Metrics

Tuesday, Nov. 12, 9:45-10:45 a.m.

The concept of landscape performance has grown exponentially within the landscape architecture discipline in recent years. Landscape architects and other designers of outdoor environments at all scales are more frequently evaluating and communicating the ESG impacts of their work, for many reasons. This presentation delves into the ways in which designers are measuring the impacts of their projects, starting with basic methods like iNaturalist and citizen science that measure pollinator and bird biodiversity, and going all the way up to more robust, science-driven methodologies. Presenters will also explore the new UK Biodiversity Metric 4.0, and how it would affect our ability to measure and design for biodiversity if something similar came into effect outside of the UK. This session is intended to serve as an overview for those interested in how a non-expert (designer, client or citizen) can consider and implement biodiversity metrics-including when and how to call in an expert.

From China to Texas: Advancing Regenerative Design with High-Performance Landscapes

Tuesday, Nov. 12, 1:30-2:30 a.m.

More than half of the global GDP is generated from industries that depend on our natural world. Nature is also one of our best defenses against climate change. Built landscapes and green infrastructure have the unique capacity to protect and even regenerate natural systems, thereby increasing the ecosystem services they provide, such as sequestering carbon, filtering air and water, and regulating climate. This session provides diverse yet aligned perspectives on design strategies and performance-based metrics that address the biodiversity crisis, promote regenerative design, and increase our collective knowledge of nature-based solutions. Specifically learn about SITES projects located in different climates, biomes, contexts and cultures that achieved multiple project goals by prioritizing the site and landscapes (and the surrounding community) from the outset and throughout the development process.

Regenerative Ecosystems, Resiliency and Human Well-being; It's Not Just Decarbonization!

Thursday, Nov. 14, 3-4 p.m.

The integration of nature into our built environment enhances the health of our ecosystem, increases safety in natural disasters and improves occupant health. Creating buildings with net zero or net positive energy is not enough to nurture a planet we can continue to inhabit. We must also design to be nature-positive-to halt and reverse nature loss. This session will explore how we can best learn from and integrate nature into the buildings we occupy. Facilitators will look to predevelopment ecosystems to inform regenerative design; highlight the benefits on habitat, resilience, and human health and equity; illustrate real applications of regenerative design, biomimicry and biophilic design via projects in Seattle, Portland, Boston, Oakland and Chicago; and review current policies and frameworks that are beginning to mandate inclusion of nature-positive design. The workshopping portion of the session will engage attendees in identifying strategies for incorporating regenerative design into our projects.

View the full education lineup.

Register for Greenbuild.

View the full education lineup

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