We may be preaching to the green building choir with science-based facts re-stated for the umpteenth time, but I once heard from a well-respected marketing strategist that it takes hearing things 7 times, in a multitude of different ways before it truly hits home. Shall we start with building a solid foundation (industry-pun intended)?  

The IPCC Special Report – The Global Warming of 1.5 ºC reminds us of the impacts of global warming and climate change, or as we prefer, the Climate Crisis as adopted by The Guardian.  This report clearly outlines that the time is now—or yesterday—that action needs to occur in order to strengthen “the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty. … Ethical considerations, and the principle of equity in particular, are central to this report, recognizing that many of the impacts of warming up to and beyond 1.5°C … fall disproportionately on the poor and vulnerable.”

This perspective shines light directly on the effects of the climate crisis as an issue of environmental and social justice.  “When it comes to air pollution and climate change, low-income communities, communities of color and other marginalized groups bear a disproportionate burden,” as Rev. Ambrose Carroll Senior so clearly emphasized in his interview with Democracy Now during the 2018 Climate March in San Francisco.  The Climate March ran concurrently with the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) bringing together leaders from elected officials at state and local levels with corporations and NGOs.

“The Paris Agreement is potentially the strongest health agreement of this century,” as stated by Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).  It is a painful reminder of the void felt around the world upon the announcement of the US pulling out the Accord. California’s Governor Jerry Brown not only jumped on the opportunity by announcing the GCAS event, but rallied leadership from around the world to step up, take a stand, and make strong public commitments. 

Photo courtesy of NRDC

The commitments made during this week of September 2018 from cities, states, countries, port authorities, corporations and organizations rolled out many hard-hitting and meaningful actions. It was nearly impossible to fathom some the bold statements, from California’s 100% zero-carbon electrical grid by 2045, to the Netherlands goal of becoming a full circular economy by 2050, to coalitions between airports and port authorities meeting climate neutrality goals, and many examples of corporate leadership by real estate leaders such as Kilroy Realty’s commitment to carbon neutrality by 2020.  

Our building industry was strongly represented through the World Green Building Council’s (WorldGBC) Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, with 23 business & organizations, 23 cities, and 6 states & regions signing the commitment to date. Integral Group is honored to be one of three founding signatories to sign this momentous initiative to reduce global emissions. As one of several technical advisors—including International Living Future Institute – we shared a collective goal of creating momentum pushing the industry towards measurable impact and results, immediate carbon emission reductions, all while keeping the commitment approachable and achievable. 

As a global firm founded with the mission of making the greatest positive impact on the built environment in response to climate change, Integral uses firm commitments to hold our own “feet to the fire”—to continually make sure that we are accelerating and scaling our response and publishing it in order to pull industry.  

Integral Group CEO Kevin Hydes signs the WorldGBC’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment.

From Kevin Hydes, CEO and Founder, “Integral is much more than a few individuals.  It’s a firm born from the idea that together we can change the world through our collaborative efforts.”

Built on this foundation, we encourage and reward all of our global team of engineers, consultants, and thought leaders, as well as our clients, to initiate meaningful advocacy and implementation actions for positive impact wherever we may be working around the planet.  Some of our firm’s key actions include:

  • Copies of the LETI report
  • Integral Group’s LETI workshop
  • Offering ILFI’s Zero Carbon Certification to our clients as a pathway to verification of zero energy and carbon projects with 100+ ZNE+C projects.
  • Using ILFI’s JUST label to launch Integral’s Inclusion Initiative globally.  JUST requires data analysis, target setting and measurement of diversity, gender, pay, health, and social justice metrics.
Integral Group’s current JUST Labels

As a mission-driven firm, Integral is very engaged with partners, organizations, communities, the design and construction industry, and the development community globally to accelerate our collective response to the massive challenges of our times.  We firmly believe in sharing our knowledge, passion, and commitment with all stakeholders, and to actively reach out within our sphere of influence to aim for an equitable and sustainable future for the planet.

Stay tuned for what lies ahead, including Integral’s endorsement to WGBC’s “Bringing Embodied Carbon Upfront” Report , and soon to be released new research on the carbon impact of refrigerants.

Written By

Andrea Traber and Megan White

Andrea Traber is Managing Principal of Integral’s Oakland office & brings many years of experience as architect, Principal and consultant to numerous deep green projects, master plans, climate action plans and sustainability programs. Throughout her career, Andrea has dedicated herself as an industry leader in sustainability and resilience having served on numerous committees and Boards of ILFI, USGBC, and ULI. Andrea focuses on accelerating innovation and our collective response to climate change through sustainable master planning, resilient community design strategy, high-value and performance-driven building design, and low-carbon, net zero development. As Chief Sustainability Officer of Integral Group, Megan is responsible for applying the same levels of ambition and performance from Integral’s project work to local and global initiatives such as the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment announced at the Global Climate Action Summit. Under Megan’s direction every Integral office will achieve zero operational carbon emissions by 2020.