Going with the flow: An economic case for letting nature do the planning
Originally published in the Daily Journal of Commerce
We know that our climate is changing—and to remain relevant and financially competitive, the commercial real estate industry must change along with it. Heatwaves, violent storms, food and resource shortages, floods, wildfires, and droughts are all increasing in frequency and severity. And our our urban environments, with its their gray infrastructure and static engineering, is are particularly vulnerable to unexpected changes.
Attempting to increase resilience by applying traditional site assessment and development methodologies in light of this new climate paradigm is costlier both in upfront costs and ongoing maintenance. To truly achieve maximum optimization, what we need to do is learn to listen to the land and harness the hidden assets that already exist.
Nature has been perfecting solutions for 3.8 billion years. We do not need to look very far to find tried and tested solutions such as biomimicry technology or restorative ecosystem enhancement.
This is where nature-based solutions, such as biomimicry technology or ecosystem enhancement through restoration, comes in.
The Economic Cost of Fighting Nature
The cost of major weather events around the world has surged since 2000. From 2000-2009, global economic losses from hurricanes, typhoons, and other storms averaged $142 billion USD per year. From 2010-2018, that average shot up to $229 billion USD per year. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Climate Change Resilience Index report projects that damages resulting from climate change could directly cost the world economy $7.9 trillion USD by 2050 (CTV).
The underlying issue with our urban environments is that they have historically been designed to resist, reengineer, control and separate ourselves from nature. However, we are learning more starkly that it takes considerable energy and investment to not only resist a dynamic climate but also attempt to control it.
The traditional approach to site development entails evaluating all the obstacles a site might pose to development and engineering interventions to overcome them. Calculations are invariably evaluated based on what it will cost to mitigate the negative impacts of all these things. But what if we’re looking at it the wrong way around?
The Land Has a Story to Tell
For 3.8 billion years,Over the life of our planet nature has been refining the most efficient and sustainable ways to thrive on this planet. Biomimicry is offers a design lens that invites us to uncover and adapt these design solutions to improve our owns.
Fundamentally, nature-based solutions are about drawing from the genius of nature in situ. to become more of a contribution to our place.
For a residential design in India we looked to elephant skin, barrel cactus, and termite mounds – the geniuses of the site – to inspire passive cooling structures that cost less and saved more than traditional engineering solutions.
For a development in Canada, we measured the existing ecological performance of the site prior to construction and mapped out the “change features” of the site that would potentially disrupt proposed development. We wanted to determine what was already there, what nature would permit us to do, and what nature would support us in doing. We wanted to ensure that our strategies worked with the natural trajectory of the place instead of against it.
For nature-based solutions to work, whether it is a biomimicry technology or ecosystem enhancement through restoration, it must fit into place. We must understand the land at multiple spatial and temporal scales and all its flows and functions before we make any design decisions.
We call this understanding the “Living Story” of the place.
To create a truly resilient design, we must understand where the land "naturally" wants to go and determine if our proposed design is in line with that natural trajectory or not. It’s about dancing with nature, but letting nature lead. And our systematic approach should integrates both Western and Indigenous strategies and looks at historic, current, and future environmental pressures across multiple scales (macro, meso, micro). The Living Story methodology allows us to shift our perception of a development from its potential impacts to its potential contributions – to ask, “What if this could make the site better?”
The climate is changing, thus so too must our methods. If we continue to rely on old patterns and ways of thinking – trying to achieve permanence – we will ultimately fail.
Replicating Nature is More Cost-Effective
With the rising cost of materials, increased environmental perturbations, and a general desire to provide inexpensive offers to clients, it makes sense to leverage what is already there. Many people believe that biomimicry or ecological solutions might be more expensive. But tThey’re not.
According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, nature-based solutions deliver similar or better outcomes with cheaper maintenance costs. They typically cost 50% less than engineered solutions because they don’t require imported materials, heavy infrastructure, or the same kind of maintenance that traditional infrastructure requires. That’s because they are living, and they can naturally adapt and grow with their environment – instead of using robust materials to try to resist environments (think designing for 100-year storm events).
Though we often don’t acknowledge it, we already depend on nature to keep the world working as we know it. Coastal protection, carbon sequestration, pollination, and drinking water are just some examples of ecosystem services that nature provides.
Replicating these services – if we continue to degrade nature to the point where we must artificially recreate each of them – could cost the world over $479 billion USD every year, according to Fast Company. .
The other consequence of leveraging nature’s genius is that it inspires a powerful narrative for your brand and development. It showcases clever co-engineering, a sustainable focus, and a strong position for future generations to be inspired by.
Nature’s Value-add to Urban Development
What the traditional model fails to capture is the immense value that natural ecosystem services can contribute to a development. The perfect carbon sequestration technologies, storm dissipators, air filters, temperature regulation systems already exist. Nature has refined the most advanced strategies for maintaining stability on this planet. And the more we ignore and disrupt these services, the most we inadvertently add to our costs.
The World Bank estimates that protecting and enhancing ecosystem services could prevent global economic losses of US$2.7 trillion every year. Another study found that natural solutions can provide over one-third of mitigation to climate change needed to stabilize warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. These examples emphasize how nature underpins all economies with “free” services it provides in the form of clean water, air, and the pollination of all human food crops – the latter of which in the Americas alone, is said to total more than $24 Trillion a year.
Beyond this, we know that bringing nature into our developments adds measurable benefits to our mental health, productivity, and well-being. Studies show that nature helps reduce heart rates, increase concentration, and improve cognitive skills. We forget to acknowledge that humans are an intrinsic part of the natural world and that our dependency on these systems is worth a lot more than our traditional developments portray.
A Compelling Brand Narrative
Not only is nature a genius engineer, she is a compelling storyteller. Think of the places that capture our imagination. From the Roman Colosseum to the Grand Canyon, the places that are special to us are steeped in their own particular history, geology, ecology, and culture. Each site has a unique story to tell. When a development embraces that legacy, a powerful narrative emerges that cannot help but attract attention. People want to be in places that offer a unique experience, whether it be an ecotourism resort sensitively nestled in the Masai Mara or a bustling innovation district on the site of a pioneer camp, the places we choose to inhabit inspire us.
Living Stories inspire a powerful narrative for your brand offering and development. They showcase clever co-engineering, a sustainable focus, and a strong, storied history position to inspire future generations.
Are you ready to let Nature Lead?
What the traditional model of development fails to capture is the immense value that natural ecosystem services can contribute to a development. The perfect carbon sequestration technologies, storm dissipators, air filters, temperature regulation systems already exist. Nature has refined the most advanced strategies for maintaining stability on this planet. What we need to do is to reframe our relationship of nature from something to take from towards something that can teach us.
Through biomimicry and the Living Story, we have an opportunity to highlight the genius of the natural world – to find out ways that nature can be integrated into our designs to save costs and generate revenue. In this way, nature is no longer something to control, separate, engineer, and resist. She is a co-creator in finding bold solutions to today’s most challenging, and wicked problems.
Today, more than ever, we are being challenged by unprecedented problems that are confronting an infrastructure built on outdated thinking. We need a new framework for moving forward. And the only comprehensive model that we truly have is the one that has been refining her solutions for nearly four billion years on this planet.
There is no greater model of sustainability than that of nature. Those developers who acknowledge and adopt this type of thinking are already proving to be the leaders in the next evolution of design thinking.
After hundreds of years of building outside to withstand nature, attempting to dominate it, we are faced with a stark reality – our traditional methodologies are putting us at risk. Although requiring a bit of a shift in thinking, this nature-based approach is a proven alternative. this nature-based approach is a bit of a shift in thinking. An examination of the site through a biomimetic land quickly yields sound design advice – providing guidance on how to create better materials, improve resiliency, build structures, and foster community.
It starts first with reconnecting with what the land has to offer in terms of ecological performance, hidden ecological assets, and its local genius. Through a biomimetic lens we start every process by asking the land for design advice – seeking metaphors to better understand how to create materials, improve resiliency, building structures, and foster community. Often, a forest is your best model.
From there, it’s about creativity – linking with unlikely collaborators to courageously disrupt status quo thinking to find practical ways that your development could be improved through nature- based solutions. The rewards have always been greatest for those who dare to think differently. It is rare to be able to take such a leap with 3.8 billion years of solid evidence backing you up. Are you ready to take nature’s advice on your next development adventure?
