BioRegional has set up an energy services company which bulk purchases electricity from a wind energy generator.

These measures form part of a wider philosophy, known as One Planet Principles, which the company uses to help its residents reduce their environmental footprint. For example, reduced transport emissions are encouraged with the use of a car club and limited parking spaces, and residents are helped to recycle as much of their waste as possible.

In a new BioRegional development in the south-coast city of Brighton, a “green caretaker” has been employed to take deliveries of locally produced food from nearby farmers, and distribute it to the residents.

Desai says the type of mixed-use developments BioRegional is working on—and new projects are under way as far afield as California and the South African city of Durban—help to move away from the old urban model of sprawling suburbs producing car-dependent residents commuting to a central business district.

Photo courtesy URBN hotels

“The sorts of communities we are creating will be places where people are healthier and happier, and that is the great selling point we have got. Fortunately, many of the ways we can make ourselves happier and healthier also reduce our carbon footprint and ecological footprint.”

UNEP SBCI’s Niclas Svenningsen agrees: “We see a clear trend that climate-lean design of buildings is moving from high-profile projects to mainstream projects. Low-cost social housing projects in São Paolo or Bangkok are maybe not as attractive as corporate headquarters in New York or Paris, but in terms of the accumulated impact from small improvements from thousands upon thousands of buildings, these are much more important.”

“It is there—in the mundane day-to-day buildings—that we are looking for a change in the tide of building practices. The reason that this is happening, we believe, is that climate- smart buildings translate to energy-smart—and cheaper— buildings, which in the long run is a win-win situation both for the property developers and the tenants.”

37