Sustainable Design Can Lead to
Business Growth? Tell Me More!
Wes McRae | Feb 10, 2023 — Atlanta, GA
Too often, addressing climate change is positioned in opposition to economic prosperity and technological innovation. What if, instead, design for sustainability can allow climate entrepreneurs to focus not only on the growth of the business, but also greener and more sustainable ecosystems?
Michael Gamble’s new book, Climate Change and the Design of the Built Environment, positions design at the heart of such entrepreneurial approaches to addressing climate change.
Through a series of interviews based in the Kendeda Building on Georgia Tech’s Atlanta campus, experts from around the world create a spirited discussion around climate change and design.
“Everyone cited in this book may be defined as a change agent who sees the creation of new business ventures as a way to address urgent climate and environmental challenges,” Gamble said.
Many sectors of the economy related to climate and health are expected to grow in coming decades, Gamble said. Design and retrofit of buildings, infrastructure, and cities will be a major part of these future efforts.
“Design problems are best solved when approached in a comprehensive and systemic way that also reflects the spirit of the age in which a thing is made and produced, the product of artistic and scientific thinking combined,” Gamble said.
This concept of design bridging the artistic and scientific requires “a deeper systemic thinking about the impact of things we create through processes of designing and building.”
As a Living Building, the Kendeda Building exemplifies this systemic thinking. Its zero-carbon construction, net positive energy generation, and net positive water processing encourages a paradigm shift from buildings that reduce their negative impact to buildings that give back more than they take.
Gamble is well-suited to lead this discussion as an active participant in the development of the Kendeda Building, from pre-planning and fund acquisition all the way through building execution, implementation, and certification as a Living Building.
The book arises in part from a graduate-level course of the same name. “The lectures and readings of the course position design as an essential component of research that explores the sociocultural and eco-political dimensions of climate change,” Gamble said.
