Beyond sustainability: The contractor's role in regenerative system design

Current business models employ the concept of the triple bottom line to integrate three aspects of sustainability into the organizational process: economic growth, environmental protection and social equity. This concept is evolving toward a regenerative design approach that promotes a triple "top" line, moving accountability to the beginning of the design process by assigning value to a variety of economic, environmental and social factors. There is an increasingly important need for proactive participation from the construction community in this new generation of sustainability efforts. Otherwise, there will be a widening gap between design and construction, in which the contractor role in sustainability is marginalized, relegated to merely minimizing end-of-project impacts rather than adding value and innovation throughout the project. This paper examines the triple top line in the context of construction projects and identifies opportunities for construction professionals toplay a collaborative role in developing the next generation of regenerative facilities. Copyright ASCE 2009.