London: Building for Nature and Inclusion
Last week we were in the UK for the London Build Expo. Living Future Europe President, Carlo Battisti, and Vice President, Martin Brown, were present on two enthusiastically received panels.
In the first session, Carlo spoke on a panel entitled “Inclusion in Action: How Inclusive Construction is Shaping Sustainability.” During the session he formally announced that LFE is officially a Just Certified organization. The Just voluntary disclosure tool and label, issued by the International Living Future Institute, is a great starting place for organizations to assess their inclusivity and commitments to social equity.
The Just program is organized around twenty-two specific social and equity indicators that are housed within the six general categories: Diversity + Inclusion, Equity, Employee Health, Employee Benefits, Stewardship, and Purchasing + Supply Chain. With this approach, organizations can assess how they are doing in reference to these social justice metrics and, as a result, choose to work towards developing more progressive policies and practices.
In construction specifically, many of the panelists pointed to the disadvantages of a non-inclusive work space, including high rates of suicide and very little accommodation for neural divergence as two poignant examples. On the contrary, fostering inclusion and providing training for managers can have an immensely positive effect on psychological safety.
Carlo spoke about the Living Building Challenge and the way in which specific petals cover social aspects of importance. Health and happiness are not after thoughts in the LBC framework and similarly central is the importance placed on Equity, such as Inclusion and Universal Access. He emphasized how through the LBC we aim to create communities that are socially just, ecologically sound and culturally rich.
At the second session, Martin spoke on a panel entitled “Building for Nature: Exploring the Benefits of Biophilic Design & Build.” In the session, Martin brought attention to some startling facts about biodiversity in the UK:
“We are in a biodiversity loss scenario where the UK ranks amongst the worst 10% in the world. Reflect on that for a moment. If we were to list the 200 world countries, the UK would be in the bottom 10.”
Martin explained that we desperately need to be addressing the root cause. And that is our separation and disconnection with nature. Martin continued, “It is our buildings that foster that disconnection – it is where we spend 90% of our time.”
Looking to the future, we need buildings that enable better connections that foster better relationships and better kinship of occupants with nature. Not more buildings that continue the separation. The Living Building Challenge, conceived as a nature-positive standard, requires buildings to be devised, designed, constructed and operated as being positively connected and in harmony with nature. In doing so, it enables better access and connectivity for building inhabitants.
Martin went on to introduce the Biophilic Society, and it’s core belief that “nature will save our society.” Exploration of what Biophilia and biophilic design really means to us as individuals, and to what we do, is key. It’s an individual thing – the biophilic self, who we are and what we do as individuals, not just what framework or standard we follow. There is an urgent need for us to celebrate and advocate for the beauty of the natural environment of which we are part and to cherish it as individuals as organisations as projects to bend the curve on further loss.
Banner photo by Claudio Testa on Unsplash
