Ecological Performance at the Border: Green Infrastructure in Arid Climates

Registration Information:

To register for this course - please reserve your seat for the "Regenerative Ecosystems Summit" located in the Greenbuild agenda.

Registering for the session holds your seat in the class until 5 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. At that time your seat in the session can no longer be guaranteed.

If a workshop or session is full, you will not be able to add it to your agenda; however, if you have the appropriate pass you will be able to enter the session on a first-come first-served basis 5 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the event so long as capacity has not been reached

Greenbuild staff at the entrance of the session have the ability to stop permitting entrance to the session when the room hits the set capacity.

Description:

We are facing a biodiversity crisis. One million plant and animal species are now threatened with extinction due to habitat loss, human exploitation, invasive species, and climate change. Biodiversity is also one of our best defenses against climate change; land and water systems are natural carbon sinks, absorbing about half of the emissions in the air. A changing climate is also an adaptation and risk management issue, especially in how increased fires, floods, droughts, and extreme temperatures are impacting human health and our built environment. As an agency of the U.S. government, the General Services Administration (GSA) was founded to help manage and support federal property and provide contracting options. Its mission is to deliver effective and efficient government services for the American people. GSA oversees 8,500 owned and leased spaces covering 150,000 acres nationwide, including office space for 1.1 million government employees. With a built-to-own model, in which GSA plans to operate and maintain facilities for their entire life cycle, prioritizing long-term efficiency led to the early adoption of sustainability strategies. One of these core strategies was the use of third-party certifications, such as LEED and SITES which helps to ensure project accountability and raise the bar on the quality of the work. Join this session to learn more about GSA’s long history of implementing sustainability strategies at scale, including one case study in the Desert Southwest that leveraged SITES as a tool to implement regenerative design and nature-based solutions like green stormwater infrastructure to protect and restore ecosystem health, conserve critical resources, enhance habitat, and foster resilience.