The Regenerative Twin process
Every project starts with a need, which leads to an idea of where the built environment can be created or adapted to meet that need.
The selection of individuals to work on a regenerative project is key to its success. Important characteristics include collaboration, willingness to be curious, and the ability to self-organise with others. Clearly professional appointments must also meet the skills and competency requirements of the project.
Once the right people are appointed to the project, collective behaviours are agreed which guide the way individuals work with each other, based on mutual respect and common purpose.
The behaviours of the Circular Twin projects included, for example:
The team acts with integrity
Trust, acknowledge and respect others’ abilities, expertise and commitment
Each member should feel that this is the best team and project initiative that they have been involved in
Each member should think that no stone cannot be unturned
The project transition plan is a document which evolves throughout the life of the project when new designs are considered and decisions made. It has three core sections: the enquiry, the risk profile and the ambitions and metrics which are all outlined below. Appendices are added to the plan to reflect operational requirements of the project or other plans which support the project’s outcomes. This document could also be called the Project Just Transition Plan, particularly where it responds to local government just transition priorities for the community.
On the Regenerative Twin project, the Plan was mapped against the Wellbeing for Future Generations Act and the Welsh Government Sustainable Development Principles to ground it in local policy and regulatory context. For example, we identified that the principle of ‘involvement’ means extending stakeholder engagement beyond the immediate project team to the entire value chain and communities that are impacted by the project.
3.1 - Apply a regenerative lens
Applying a regenerative lens – which is the project’s enquiry – simply means asking the right questions which are most relevant to the project. The questions relate to the past, the present and the future. The questions are thought up and agreed upon by the project team, and include the consideration of:
Past
What is the natural and social history of this place and its stakeholders?
What was the built environment constructed of in the past, and why?
Present
What is the current natural and social state, and what are the needs?
What materials are available in end-of-life buildings or in local resources?
Future
What does the community want this place to look like in 50 years?
How will nature thrive in this place in 50 years?
The project initially may only focus on the area in and around the project, but as materials are selected, particularly those with a significant embodied impact, the areas that are impacted by those material supply chains are also subject to the project’s enquiry and the regenerative lens. These additional places – or relevant areas – can be far down the supply chain, in a mine or a forest floor for example.
As we explored the material options for the Regenerative Twin, we started with a handful of ‘relevant areas’ which included the site itself, the woodland which provided the structural timber, and the existing buildings which provided materials to the new building. Some of the questions from the Regenerative Twin project included:
What have we learnt from past projects?
Is there a joint strategic needs analysis for this local area?
How could a joined up structural timber supply chain exist in this place in the future?
What are the future climate risks associated with this place?
3.2 Review risk and opportunities
The risk profile of the project changes as decisions are made and different options are explored. The risks considered by the Regenerative Twin approach include: commercial, insurance, future climate, nature and people and communities. This requires consultation with wider project stakeholders such as insurers, but does not always require expert consultancy input, such as future climate risk modelling, due to the tacit knowledge that is already within the project team.
3.3 Agree ambitions and metrics
The ambitions and metrics in the Regenerative Twin approach are emergent and co-created by the project team, rather than pre-determined. The metrics can be broadly categorised as: climate change mitigation, local economy, natural resources, ecology, and community wellbeing.
Example metrics from each category in the Regenerative Twin project include:
whole life carbon, including module D (kgCO2e/m2)
potential economic value to Wales of mainstreaming novel nature-based or regenerative products and solutions (£ over 5 years)
total land use for renewable materials (m2/m2 GIFA)
nature improvement (% in each Nature Tool category)
increased exposure to nature (# people in community)
Key to achieving the agreed ambitions and metrics is reaching a collective understanding of exactly what they all mean and how they will be measured.
All of the Circular and Regenerative Twin projects included this important step, but it was only through reflection on the regenerative approach that we identified this as a core part of the process.
This means deciding on the structural form before settling on a final concept design.
As with the original Circular Twin concept, we recognised that the decision on the structural form is the first major design milestone on the project, before the general materiality or architectural concept is finalised. This step requires input from the entire project team, in particular the architect and building services engineer.
Supply chain participation means inviting both manufacturers and specialist subcontractors to contribute their ideas, knowledge and know-how to the design of the project, in line with the agreed ambitions and metrics.
During this four year programme of research we have found that there is a clear and direct correlation between the early contribution of supply chain knowledge and expertise, and the ability of the project team to achieve multiple goals and ambitions, such as regenerative outcomes within a given budgetary parameter.
The design professions at this stage apply their skills and expertise to developing the design in line with the project transition plan, to a point where the agreed ambitions and metrics can be evaluated.
This includes quantifying the agreed metrics and as a minimum producing a whole life cost model to inform the schemes affordability.
On the Regenerative Twin project, a few metrics were added after the first design development stage was completed, to recognise the contribution that our insurance market engagement had had on the project, and to drive greater space utilisation following design discussions around the benefits of meanwhile use of space for the community.
The project at this point iterates back to point (3) where the regenerative lens is once more applied, the risk profile is updated, and the ambitions and metrics are revised accordingly. This process requires the team to apply a regenerative lens to the supply chains required to deliver the design options as they currently stand, which may not have been previously considered. Only once consensus is reached does the project reach an optimal solution.
The optimal solution in a regenerative project can only be reached by consensus of stakeholders, including community stakeholders.
