LOVE+REGENERATION • Spring 2025 • VOLUME 7, ISSUE TWO
REMEMBERING CAROL SANFORD
Regeneration Pioneer
SUSTAINABLE COPPER MINE THE REGENERATIVE MALL
RETHINKING AIRPORTS
THE SWITCH LIST
FAVORITE HIKES
As the days lengthen, I look back at the green building movement and wonder how we could have done more. In some ways we accomplished a great deal over the last thirty years, but in the ways it counts most (the health of the planet) we have fallen well short of our goals.
This issue centers on both hope and loss. We honor the legacy of another pioneer, Carol Sanford, who passed away at the end of last year and was an inspiration to many of us who focus on regeneration – a writer, thinker and business consultant who adopted several of us in the green building movement to bestow her energy and ideas.
The School of Regenerative Design (SORD) is finally up and running in early form thanks to a generous donor – and in September we will host an important retreat I’m calling “The Death and Life of the Green Building Movement” to look at how we as a movement can pivot and change our strategies to have bigger impact, especially with the new political headwinds. Only a few tickets remain, so please consider joining us in September on Bainbridge Island.
On the hope front, we have included an interview with CEO Rob McEwen (McEwen Mining) on working with us on the design of the first regenerative copper mine in Argentina. The world needs copper as it transitions to a decarbonized world, and together we’ve been planning some cool ideas. We also share progress on PW’s materials leadership, with our new “switch list’ program, as well as other interesting articles and ideas contained within these pages.
Enjoy the issue, and share comments please – we enjoy hearing from those that read our magazine!
Best,
- Jason
Jason F. McLennan Founder, Living Building Challenge Principal, McLennan Design Chief Sustainability Officer, Perkins&Will
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
MARKETING MANAGER
GRAPHIC DESIGN
CONTRIBUTORS
SOCIAL MEDIA
Jason F. McLennan
Jay Torrell
Susan Roth
Scott Gorenc, Josh Fisher, Juan Rovalo, Trevor Butler, Susan Puri/Trim Tab, Galen Carlson
Spring 2025, Volume 7, Issue 2
LOVE + REGENERATION is a quarterly publication of McLennan Design, LLC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Content may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission and is intended for informational purposes only.
Cover: Courtesy Carol Sanford Family, Rendering McLennan Design
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McLennan Design respectfully acknowledges the Suquamish and Duwamish peoples, who, throughout the generations have stewarded and thrived on the land where we live and work.
APPLYING 'DEEP GREEN' PRINCIPLES TO SUSTAINABLE AIRPORT DESIGN
by Scott Gorenc and Jason F. McLennan
The aviation industry is deeply aware of its impact on the environment, passenger experience, and broader society. This awareness reflects a readiness to tackle sustainability issues head on, and airports and airlines are increasingly focused on discovering and implementing meaningful solutions.
To gain new insights into sustainable airport design, aviation principal Scott Gorenc sat down with Jason F. McLennan, our Chief Sustainability Officer and in-house expert on “deep green” architecture. Jason founded our studio on Bainbridge Island, Washington, and he created the Living Building Challenge, which is a philosophy, advocacy tool, and certification program defining today’s most advanced measure of sustainability in the built environment.
SCOTT GORENC: Jason, given your extensive expertise in sustainable design, I’m hoping you can share fresh ideas as we navigate the aviation industry’s complex challenges. How do you see the industry stepping up to better serve humanity and the ecosystems in which airports operate?
JASON MCLENNAN: I approach this from the outside in, from an airport property’s furthest extent to the interiors of the terminal and other structures. At the landscape scale, it’s clear that airports’ significant environmental challenges arise in part because they occupy such large parcels and have so many regulatory constraints. They encompass vast expanses of impervious surfaces, leading to complex stormwater management issues and broader site impacts from chemicals used on planes and runways. Habitat disruption and wildlife interactions—particularly with birds—present unique ecological concerns.
The challenge lies in creating sustainable masterplans and landscapes that mitigate these risks rather than exacerbating them. From the outset, a holistic site response is crucial, and the Living Building Challenge offers a fundamentally different lens through which to address these issues. How can an airport create habitat and clean water?
Once we move inside airport terminals and support facilities, a host of other issues arise. Airports house energy-intensive operations, from restaurants and retail spaces to people and baggage handling systems and other essential infrastructure that is continuously operating. We’ve learned how to achieve radical reductions in energy use from many building types over the last few decades and it’s exciting to bring those best practices to airports now as well. It’s more than just efficient lighting! I’m talking about better solar control, all-electric
facilities using geo-exchange and heat pumps, and a variety of innovative technologies designed to lower plug loads.
The scale of these facilities also presents opportunities. Expansive rooftops provide an ideal platform for renewable energy generation, and with thoughtful design, energy use can be significantly reduced and then matched with solar. It’s time to see net zero airports around the world.
Water usage is another substantial challenge due to the high volumes of traffic (we all know how much airport bathrooms get used) as well as food service and cleaning, but even this can be managed differently. Many airports already adopt water-saving features, but it’s possible to go above and beyond by capturing rainwater for all non-potable uses and treating water onsite. In fact, some airports already operate their own water and waste treatment facilities, demonstrating that these solutions are both feasible and scalable.
Making a commitment like this means rethinking common practices and doing things in fundamentally different ways. The goal is ambitious, but it’s entirely achievable. Given an airport’s scale and operational needs, it can be exemplary not only as an individual facility, but also as a civic structure that actively supports local and regional aspirations and benchmarks for performance and green design.
SG: The sheer scale of an airport campus, along with the regulatory environment that governs the dimensions of runways, gate areas, and so many other aspects of airport design, is part of what makes it difficult for clients and designers to get their arms around sustainability. When you approach a project the size of an airport campus, how do you
avoid getting overwhelmed? What would you say to airport stakeholders who are ready to take on the challenge but don’t know where to start?
JM: Having done this for many years, we are not easily overwhelmed by a good challenge!
There’s no inherent reason why an airport couldn’t meet the criteria of a fully certified Living Building if people are willing to think outside the box. Generating 100% of an airport’s energy from renewable sources, capturing and treating water onsite, managing waste responsibly, and ensuring materials are Red List-free and locally sourced are not impossible goals. We’ve already done them in several other building types, like the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. There is nothing intrinsic to airports that precludes them from doing the same.
What it requires is a shift in perspective.
The Living Building Challenge offers a performance-based framework that focuses on defining what “good” looks like rather than simply striving for “less bad.” It sets a high bar for performance and challenges design teams to tailor solutions to the specific building type and its climate. This flexibility empowers teams to innovate and push boundaries, which is particularly valuable for a complex typology like an airport.
In my view—and admittedly, with some bias—the Living Building Challenge is ideal for airports. Its customizable, nonprescriptive approach leverages the creativity and expertise of the design team, offering greater freedom to achieve meaningful, high-impact sustainability outcomes. This makes it a more effective framework for advancing environmental performance in aviation infrastructure.
SG: How do you see our role, as architects and designers, in guiding airports through the certification process and helping them navigate complex municipal requirements? How do you approach balancing ambitious targets with practical feasibility?
JM: Our role is to serve as a trusted advisor, guiding clients through the complexities of achieving a truly functional, beautiful, and green building and determining the most effective certification strategy. This involves helping them navigate key decisions—understanding what it takes to meet ambitious sustainability goals, identifying potential obstacles, and assessing whether certain challenges are insurmountable or simply require a phased or alternative approach.
Every project is unique, and our job is to tailor the process to fit our clients’ needs, supporting them through certification requirements and municipal regulations. Ultimately, we aim to simplify the journey, ensuring they have the clarity and confidence to achieve their sustainability objectives.
SG: Airports face a unique set of sustainability challenges that go beyond just reducing environmental impact. They also involve resilience, health, education, and social equity. How do you see frameworks like the Living Building Challenge addressing these broader dimensions? In what ways can a more holistic approach improve the passenger experience and the well-being of employees while also benefiting the environment?
JM: There are numerous dimensions we can explore when considering sustainability in airports that go beyond the typical focus on energy and water. You’ve already touched on several key categories—operational costs, resiliency, health, and education—that play a critical role in shaping a more sustainable and human-centered aviation experience.
Resiliency is particularly important. When inclement weather or societal disruptions occur and large numbers of passengers are stranded at an airport, ensuring their safety and well-being is paramount. A resilient airport is better equipped to handle these scenarios, which is what the Living Building Challenge achieves. If you’re going to get stuck somewhere, getting stuck in a place with its own energy and water supply is a good option.
There’s also the educational and inspirational aspect. Airports are high-visibility spaces—often the first touch point for a
WHAT IT REQUIRES
IS A SHIFT IN PERSPECTIVE
visitor to a city or region—where leadership in performance and sustainability can inspire and inform millions of travelers to hopefully make them better stewards of the planet, wherever they travel to.
Health is important, too: Improving air quality, reducing exposure to toxic materials, and creating a healthier work environment for airport employees is fundamental to our approach. During the pandemic we realized the importance of ventilation and cleaning standards, for instance. Designing healthier buildings is good for business.
What sets the Living Building Challenge apart is its holistic approach. It doesn’t just address easily quantifiable issues like energy and water efficiency; it extends to more values-based topics such as beauty, thoughtful design, biophilia, equity, and social justice. In this sense, it offers a broader, more integrated framework that airports should aspire to.
We could walk through each category in the framework to examine why it aligns so well with airports. The value isn’t just in reducing environmental impact, although that remains essential, particularly given the aviation industry’s significant ecological footprint. It’s also about improving the human experience. By fostering healthier, more equitable, and more inspiring spaces, airports can serve people and the planet more effectively.
This is about doing the right thing, but it’s also about achieving
better outcomes for everyone involved, from passengers and employees to the broader community.
SG: When approaching sustainability for airports, how do you typically help clients rethink conventional practices? Could you share an example of how you’ve uncovered opportunities to rethink the norm?
JM: Our approach is grounded in philosophy, process, and inquiry—helping uncover opportunities that may go unnoticed, especially in industries where conventional thinking is deeply ingrained. By asking simple yet probing questions, we encourage a fresh perspective.
For example, in a data center project, we closely examined energy usage patterns over a year and within 24-hour cycles, identifying key leverage points for transformative change and different ways to provide lower-energy cooling. Applying a similar approach to airports, where energy demand is high due to lighting, screens, and constant movement, presents a chance to rethink these systems.
The goal isn’t just to reduce energy consumption radically but to enhance the overall experience for passengers and airlines. By leveraging expertise and innovative thinking, we aim to achieve both operational efficiency and improved user experience—a win-win for sustainability and stakeholder satisfaction.
SG: I really appreciate the idea that a fundamental mindset shift is needed. This is particularly relevant for airports, where industry standards are often compared and used to measure success. This framework presents an opportunity to completely reevaluate what constitutes appropriate expectations, and it could lead to more innovative, tailored solutions.
Gaining community acceptance is crucial, especially for an airport that will bring noise and various other challenges. Committing to a resilient building—one that contributes to the life of the surrounding region—is a powerful and meaningful stance. ■
Two
MCEWEN MINING Part
This is an extended interview with Rob McEwen that was featured in Perkins&Will CURRENT Magazine
Rob McEwen McEwen Mining
There's gonna be an increasingly intense competition for talent, and if we can create a comfortable, safe environment for our workforce where they say it's better than being at home - I've showed the video of our concept a number of times to mining employees and they say “boy, that's a lot better than my home, maybe I'll stay there all the time!”
McLennan Design | Perkins&Will Bainbridge Island Renderings
Regenerative design is a holistic approach to designing buildings, landscapes, cities, and places. It goes beyond the idea of doing less harm to instead make positive environmental impacts. Regenerative design also makes good business sense. To find out how, Jason F. McLennan, chief sustainability officer at Perkins&Will, talked to Rob McEwen, founder and CEO of McEwen Mining, who is developing a copper mine and environmentally friendly mining camp in Argentina. McEwen Copper is pursuing Living Building Challenge certification for their projects and pushing their industry, which have been in the spotlight for the negative impacts they have on people and the planet, toward greater social and environmental responsibility.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Jason McLennan (JM):
We'll start with the easy, high-level stuff. Tell us a little bit about your company—what you do, what you make, and any history that would be interesting to share with our readers.
Rob McEwen (RM):
McEwen Mining was formed in January 2012. It was a combination of an exploration and a development company, where I had majority ownership. I merged them because they had complementary focuses—one was doing exploration in the U.S. and Mexico, and the other had cash flow from a producing gold and silver mine and it had a large copper project, Los Azules, in Argentina.
Before that, I built a company called Goldcorp, which grew from a $50 million to an $8 billion market cap and became a large, profitable mining company. Today, we produce gold and silver and are developing a large copper project that we hope will help change public opinion about mining.
JM:
But your background is quite different. Can you explain how you got into mining?
RM:
My father was in the investment industry and had me charting stocks when I was 10 and 11. I started investing in public companies at 12. I completed an undergraduate degree in Economics and an MBA. Between college years, I worked in the investment industry. After graduation, I joined Merrill Lynch in Toronto.
Two years later I joined my father's brokerage firm where we specialized in investments in natural resources, gold bullion and gold exploration and mining companies. Three years later I bought control of the firm. During my time there I met several mining industry promoters who made major discoveries. That inspired me to jump in. I bought and merged five companies to create Goldcorp Inc.
At one point, I used the internet to help find gold. In 1999, after attending a course at MIT and learning about Linux and
open-source code, I thought: “Why not put all our geological data online and ask the world where to find the next 6 million ounces of gold in one of Goldcorp’s mines?” We offered $500,000 in prize money.
Sure enough, we found $3 billion worth of gold, when gold was only $500 an ounce. That discovery would be worth a whole lot more today. About 1,500 people from 50 countries downloaded a 400MB database and submitted ideas. They shared all sorts of ideas about where we might find gold –and that experience taught me the power of asking the right questions and tapping into collective intelligence. This was one of the early examples of incentivized crowdsourcing.
The other realization was that the biggest gold mine in the world exists between everybody’s ears.
JM:
Our minds.
RM:
Exactly.
JM:
I love that story—it shows how you think differently than most in the industry.
RM:
To me, when someone says, “This is how we’ve always done it that’s a red flag that I will charge at”
JM:
That mindset really speaks to why we’re working together. So let’s pivot to Los Azules and the work we're doing to create what we hope will be the greenest copper supply in the world.
RM:
Yes, it’s a very exciting project. The origins of our collaboration started when we both served on the advisory board of the McEwen School of Architecture. There was talk of demolishing a 1,250-foot smokestack that we both felt was an iconic structure worth preserving.
The company that owned it wanted to tear it down.
We thought it could instead become a symbol of transformation—a “Beacon of Hope,” as you dubbed it—showing how mining can repurpose industrial sites for sustainable futures.
That got me thinking about our copper project and how poorly mining is perceived. Yet, much of our modern world depends on materials from the ground. Eliminating mining would cause a collapse of modern society. I just gave a speech in New York titled, “Become a Nudist, Stop Mining.” It was about transparency—people don’t realize how many of their comforts come from mining.
You’ve dedicated your career to making the world more sustainable, so I thought—who better to help change perceptions? You were my first and only choice.
JM:
I’m honored. And for the record, Rob is the patron of the McEwen School of Architecture in Sudbury, Ontario—my hometown. That’s where we first met. I’m delighted to share that I was just awarded an honorary doctorate there.
RM:
Wow! I’ll call you Doctor from now on.
JM:
Some of my environmental colleagues ask, “Why are you working with a mining company?” And I say, “Why aren’t you?” If we want solar panels and batteries, we need copper and rare earth metals. The key is changing how we extract and process them.
RM:
Exactly. That’s what we’re doing at Los Azules. We’re creating a new model that shows mining can be beautiful, sustainable, and a source of pride—for companies, countries, and communities.
We’re designing something transparent and environmentally responsible. There’ll be a hotel on site. The industry is facing a labor shortage—15–20% of the workforce is retiring, and few young people are entering the field.
We want to build a place where people actually want to work and live. When I show our concept to miners, they say, “Boy, that’s a lot better than my home. I’d stay there full-time!”
JM:
We’ll just charge them rent like a hotel.
RM:
Exactly. The plan includes 100% renewable electricity, reduced water use, and carbon neutrality by 2038. We won’t produce tailings that could threaten water supplies downstream.
JM:
Talk a bit more about the social dimension—the human side of this. As you mentioned, there is an increasing competition for future labor. Mining traditionally has been a tough job, and miners are often presented with conditions that can be damaging to their health and potentially dangerous. We’re trying to address some of these issues with design concepts that prioritize human health and well-being.
RM:
Most mines are remote, with basic accommodations. Workers live in unappealing, functional boxes. Your design incorporates stepped structures like Incan terraces, translucent enclosures, hanging gardens, and water recycling.
We are creating a new model for the mining industry, one that will change the perception of mining for many people of what's possible.
We’re working at 10,000 feet above sea level. At that altitude, cognitive function and sleep quality decline. Machines don’t work as efficiently either. So we’re building a regenerative model for miners—a restorative, beautiful place that enhances productivity.
JM:
You’re not the average mining CEO. You could just take the standpoint of, “Let’s get everything out as cheaply as we can to maximize our profit”. Why do you care so much?
RM:
Because the old way doesn’t work anymore. When I visit the site, it’s quite stark. It’s in a rain shadow. And it’s just beautiful. I could spend days up there, taking photographs of the landscape and different times of the day and at night when the sky is totally clear. I want to leave something beautiful behind, not a scar. We’ll build a lake that supports downstream agriculture. Water is precious there, and we want to conserve it—and preserve the local wildlife.
JM:
Do you think this project will inspire others and help transform the mining industry?
RM:
Yes. At a recent mining conference, people were stunned by our presentation. My title was “Prosperity or Extinction Relating to the Mining Industry”. Step one is simple – attract people to mining. If you look at the economic multiplier – which is a metric for if a dollar goes into something, how much does it multiply or add to the existing economy? – and mining, for every $1 in, will generate $2 to $3 of economic benefit for the economy. Compare that to the service industry – a restaurant or a retailer – where $1 going in only generates about $0.60 of value. So lots of secondary and tertiary industries are created as a result of mining.
One person working with a northern Canadian tribe asked for our video to show them what a mine could look like. Overall, the industry’s reaction has been: “Wow. What will it cost?” And I say, “That’s the cost of your social license.” Without it, you won’t get communities to say, “Alright, we’ll allow you to do this in our backyard”.
JM:
Exactly.
RM:
Just this past week, I visited Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar, and everyone said, “You’re doing that with mining? Incredible.”
McLennan Design | Perkins&Will Bainbridge Island Renderings
JM:
Hopefully my phone rings soon!
RM:
We’re promoting you!
JM:
Much appreciated. And since this will be in our magazine— why are we working together, if you don’t mind giving us a little plug?
RM:
You understand sustainability deeply. You and your team are creative and committed. That’s what this industry needs. I’m a big fan.
JM:
Well it’s a mutual fan club. On that note, I also want to mention that not only are you the CEO of an incredible mining enterprise, you’re also a philanthropist. Can you share a bit about your work in that area?
RM:
Sure. My wife and I funded a regenerative medicine and stem cell research center at Toronto General Hospital, now part of the University Health Network—one of the top five hospitals in the world, according to Newsweek.
We began in 2003 and are currently supporting studies on type 1 diabetes and heart attack recovery. One study involves injecting stem cells into damaged heart tissue. Trials have shown promise in animals, and human trials are expected
soon. The pharmaceutical companies of Germany came in and support the work that we're doing. It looks like – if this is as successful in humans as it is successful in animals – it would do away with a lot of the need for heart surgery to put in artificial hearts or transplants.
We don't currently, but we used to give out a prize of $100,000 a year for innovation and stem cell research. And the first recipient of it was a Japanese researcher called Shinya Yamanaka. He was able to take a skin cell and reverse engineer it into a stem cell –and thereby jump over the ethical issues of where you source stem cells from. Two years later he won the Nobel Prize for that work.
JM:
Wow, so a good investment there!
RM:
It’s been a fascinating journey. We’ve also funded leadership programs at my former school, including new initiatives for girls. We support the Ontario Art Gallery and the architecture school in Sudbury, which teaches in English, French, and includes Indigenous elders.
JM:
We even have a McEwen School student interning with us this summer—Simon Tremblay.
RM:
That’s great.
JM:
Your philanthropy and business efforts show you’re working to create a better world. So—are you an optimist or a realist?
RM:
Definitely, an optimist.
JM:
How do you feel about humanity’s future relationship with nature?
RM:
I hope our work becomes a model for mines of the future. Nature has a calming effect. In Abu Dhabi, they planted enough trees to lower the ambient temperature.
It's in the Andes. It's located between 3100 and 3600 meters, so it's above 10,000 feet in the air. These are broad valleys, and the mountains go upto 14,000 feet in places, so it's very arid. At the bottom of a number of the valleys, there are wetlands called “vegas”. And we're trying to protect those.
If we focus on preserving nature and making positive changes in our own spheres of influence, we can help. If more people do the same, it spreads. We can’t just accept decline.
JM:
Agreed. To wrap up—what are the key issues we’re trying to solve in mining?
RM:
Los Azules is in the Andes, about 10,000 feet up. The region is arid, with fragile wetlands called vegas. We’re protecting and, where necessary, relocating them.
We’ve partnered with YPF – one of the largest power companies in Argentina – to provide us with 100% renewable electricity. There’s no tailings dam—too risky in a seismically
active area. We’ll use a process that uses a quarter of the water and emits one tenth the carbon of conventional copper mines.
Stellantis, the sixth-largest automaker, has invested— they want a carbon-neutral supply chain by 2038, and are the first automobile company to invest directly in a copper project.
We’re creating transparent, modular, sustainable accommodations. We want this mine to be a tourist destination—surrounded by beauty, showcasing how mining can change for the better.
JM:
And it all comes down to shifting public perception—by directly addressing the industry's criticisms and setting a new standard.
RM:
Exactly. Let’s fix the complaints instead of dismissing them— and change the industry. ■
McLennan Design | Perkins&Will Bainbridge Island Renderings
by Josh Fisher, Associate, Director of Visualization
The Regenerative Mall
A Prescription for Suburban Health
Redevelopment through a regenerative lens that integrates preventative care— alleviating hospital burdens while enhancing daily living and community wellness.
Josh Fisher + Juan Rovalo + Trevor Butler A Perkins&Will Phil Freelon 2025
What if, instead of representing decay and disconnection, malls became regenerative, vibrant centers of health, activity, and connection— designed not just to sell, but to restore, regenerate, and rejuvinate?
Once central to suburban life, malls across the U.S.A. now sit as monuments to a carcentric past—isolated, inaccessible, and devoid of ecological or civic value. Yet, these very traits make them ripe for reinvention. By reimagining malls as mixed-use, healthcentered community hubs, we can address some of the nation’s most pressing health crises—not just through healthcare delivery, but by pragmatically redesigning the daily environments that shape how we live.
The 2025 Phil Freelon Design Competition challenged participants to select a familiar urban typology—such as parks, schools, transit stations, apartments, big box stores, or malls—and “hack” it in a way that alleviates the burden on hospitals. In response, our team proposed that the antidote to hospital overcrowding and chronic disease lies hidden in the terrain of suburban sprawl: the underutilized American mall.
Our vision centers on turning malls into anchors of preventative health and daily wellbeing—places that are ecologically intelligent, socially vibrant, and economically inclusive. These redeveloped mallscapes would feature:
• Preventative care centers in highly visible, accessible locations
• Recreational landscapes and walkable environments that support daily physical activity
• Public gathering spaces that foster mental health, social connection, and multi-generational interaction 365 days a year, 24-7
• Mixed-use programs including sustainable housing, local food vendors, small business center, maker spaces, educational and civic amenities, and wellness education hubs
Hacking malls offers one of the most immediate, pragmatic ways to reduce hospital visits by addressing their root causes—lifestyledriven conditions like heart disease, stress, and chronic illness. By embedding preventative care, movement, and community into daily life, we shift from reactive treatment to proactive public health— right where people already are.
We also recognized a broader condition—what we call a “disease of disconnection”—rooted in how American suburbs isolate people from nature, movement, and one another. Regenerating malls as active, walkable, ecological, health-first spaces provides not only a physical intervention but a cultural, ecological, economic, and emotional one, rebuilding the social fabric of our cities.
Our team—Josh Fisher, Juan Rovalo, and Trevor Butler—developed this vision over the course of an intensive three-day charrette, transforming a typical mall site into a living model of health-focused urbanism. The result: a proposal that earned an Honorary Award and Top 5 Finalist recognition in the global Phil Freelon Design Competition, hosted across Perkins&Will and the Sidara Network.
At its heart, this work asks: What if healing our healthcare system started by healing our cities? And what if the first step was found not in a clinic—but in a mall?
RENDERINGS CREATED BY JOSH FISHER IN A THREE DAY SPRINT AND ARE NOT FINISHED PROJECTS
BELOW:
Typical Malls are dominated by impervious parking, little if any ecological space, and poor urban spaces.
70%+ of site is wasted space!
CONCEPTUAL RENDER BELOW:
Malls could be redeveloped with accessible, visible, and localized preventative care and recreation hubs.
1. Preventative Health Center
2. Recreation Hub
3. Ecological & Recreational Park
4. Covered Activity Park
5. Library
6. Satelite Educational Campus
7. Redeveloped Mall
8. New Mixed-Use Development
9. Civic Center
10. Parking and Transit Station
11. Missing Middle Housing
12. Maker Spaces / Light Industry
13. Woonerf Streets
ABOVE:
Hacking malls into vibrant, mixed-use community hubs— transforming obsolete retail into catalysts for wellness, creativity, and local resilience. Through the integration of preventative care, recreation, small business incubation, and light industry, these spaces become places of belonging, healing, and opportunity.
HACKING A MALL: Planning & Programming
What if the mall—once a monument to consumption and isolation—could be reimagined as a layered, living system for community life?
Through phased, adaptive reuse and the integration of intelligent ecological infrastructure—green corridors, clean water systems, shaded microclimates, and porous public realms—these sterile, car-dominated spaces can be transformed into dynamic, humanscaled environments.
No longer just sites of retail, the new mall becomes a responsive framework—attuned to its local geography, health needs, and cultural rhythms. It supports daily life through flexible programming, access to nature, and inclusive design that welcomes movement, gathering, and care.
By weaving in timeless principles of placemaking— walkability, complexity, openness, and delight—what was once generic and disconnected becomes rooted, regenerative, and vital.
The result isn’t just architectural—it’s social infrastructure for healthier, more resilient communities.
Transform mall properties into vibrant community destinations by introducing mixed-use development—filling gaps in housing, preventative care, recreation, and civic life, while also integrating maker spaces, small business incubators, and light industrial zones to support local economies and regional resilience.
Car Dominated & Single Building Type and Use
Establish Green Corridors & Recreational Zones
How the Built Environment Shapes Health: Linking Lifestyle,
Hospitalization, and Preventable Crises
Top Common Causes of Hospitalization & Death
Heart Disease
Cancer
Stroke / Cardiovascular Disease
Chronic Respiratory Diseases
Diabetes (Type 2)
Mental Health Crises / Suicide
Accidents (Falls, etc.)
Hospital Malpractice / Medical Errors
Stress-Related Illnesses
Obesity-Related Conditions
(Contributing) Underlying Causes
Poor diet, stress, lack of physical activity
Environmental factors, poor diet, lack of screenings
High blood pressure, inactivity, poor nutrition
Pollution exposure, smoking, stress
Poor diet, obesity, inactivity
Isolation, stress, lack of social support
Unsafe environments, poor mobility
Systemic hospital issues, overburdened care systems
Green spaces, air-purifying design, stress-reducing environments
Healthy lifestyle programming, cooking classes, active design layouts
Multi-generational gathering spaces, community events, peer wellness programs
Safe, walkable infrastructure, mobility aids, recreational design for seniors
Decentralized, community-based preventative care reducing reliance on hospitals
Mindfulness zones, green space, community cohesion activities
Active design, recreation centers, access to healthy food and education
This use to be an exposed, overbuilt, empty parking lot; now a wetland treatment and park!
“Without a connection to nature, we risk psychological deprivation and cognitive degradation.”
— Juan Rovalo, “How We Heal: The Power of Nature”
This use to be a driveway; now a vibrant woonerf! Adaptive Reuse of Big Box Stores!
The Switch List Time for A New Approach
Nearly two decades ago, two lists intended to shed light on potential toxicants in common building materials entered the market – first, the Living Future’s Red List in 2006 and then in 2008, Perkins&Will’s Precautionary List. In the absence of legislation to regulate chemicals, these lists were a call to action for designers to seek alternative materials. The Perkins&Will Transparency website had begun the work of providing clarity around material health, and thanks to the Declare label and Health Product Declaration, designers were beginning to be equipped with a means to verify if these toxicants were present. Yet, nearly two decades later, and after many manufacturers have diligently worked to answer the industry’s request for products without toxicants and for transparency, the industry still has work to do. The World Health Organization has stated that there are more than 160 million known chemicals, with the vast majority being synthetic and untested. It is clear that a crucial tool had still been missing - a means of easily identifying substances within products and product categories and "connecting the dots" with their relationship to human and environmental health.
It was this realization that led our team at Perkins&Will to work on a new, scalable approach - The Switch List. The list calls attention to substances and materials to avoid, and highlights product categories where viable alternatives are known to exist and can easily be switched out. Our teams are working to apply The Switch List on each project, and we invite the industry to join us!
– Mary Dickinson, Perkins&Will Regional Director of Regenerative Design - Principal
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“Many people believe that problem solving is the source of innovation. However, problem solving is by definition focused on addressing what exists and attempting to make it better. True innovation comes from reaching for the potential in something: its possible manifestations that don’t yet exist. Bringing entirely new things into existence is what makes innovation so disruptive, and this is precisely what gets shut down when thinking is defined or circumscribed by problems.”
― Carol Sanford, The Regenerative Business: Redesign Work, Cultivate Human Potential, Achieve Extraordinary Outcomes
REGENERATION PIONEER
The end of 2024 saw the world lose the wonderful Carol Sanford – a pioneering voice in regenerative thinking who championed a completely different approach to how businesses of all types should approach the work they do. Vibrant, clear spoken and not afraid to communicate frankly with anyone, what she thought and felt – Carol had an undercurrent of kindness, but no need to sugarcoat truths that needed to be told.
I had heard about Carol and her work as far back as the early 2000’s but finally had an opportunity to get to know her and befriend her later in that decade. She and I met for lunch at one of my favorite restaurants in Seattle and we had a long talk about life, business and making change in the world. I found her take on things to be refreshing and inciteful. I soon dove into her world further – eventually asking her to be a keynote speaker at Living Future where she came and gave an incredible speech to the 1200 people in attendance. Over the years we kept in touch and shared ideas. I truly valued her way of approaching things and her commitment to living a life of purpose.
Carol spent a great deal of her time as a transformative business consultant with a long and impressive history of working with corporate America to make it better. She authored numerous books urging people to rethink the status quo and to recommit to deep transformative change- and as she described it “solving for essence”. I recommend them highly.
Carol was a force of nature.
She passed away the morning of November 27th, 2024 and will be truly missed.
– Jason F. McLennan
1942 2024
“Regeneration is a process by which people, institutions, and materials evolve the capacity to fulfill their inherent potential in a world that is constantly changing around them. This can only be accomplished by going back to their roots, their origins, or their foundings to discover what is truly singular or essential about them.
Bringing this essential core forward in order to express it as new capacity and relevance is another way to describe the activity of regeneration.
In other words, regeneration is the means by which enlightened, disruptive innovation happens.”
― Carol Sanford, The Regenerative Business: Redesign Work, Cultivate Human Potential, Achieve Extraordinary Outcomes
HER BOOKS
“Carol Sanford’s book No More Feedback is clearly on my Top 5 management books of the century to date. It is brilliant, readable, incredibly well researched, contrarian, and ridiculously important. I would travel many a mile to hear her speak and pray that her audience would listen intently—and act decisively. The world would be the better for it.”
– Tom Peters, Author of “In Search of Excellence”, Best-selling Book of 25 Years.
THE REGENERATIVE LIFE: Transform Any Organization, Our Society, and Your Destiny
NO MORE FEEDBACK:
Cultivate Consciousness at Work
THE REGENERATIVE BUSINESS: Redesign Work, Cultivate Human Potential, Achieve Extraordinary Outcomes
THE RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS: Reimagining Sustainability and Success
THE RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEUR: Four Game-Changing Archetypes for Founders, Leaders, and Impact Investors
NO MORE GOLD STARS: Regenerating Capacity to Think for Ourselves
INDIRECT WORK: A Regenerative Change Theory for Businesses, Communities, Institutions and Humans
I BELIEVE THAT
Introduction
WE NEED A BETTER THEORY
By Carol Sanford
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Copyrighted material and may not be duplicated.
Published March 2020 by Nicholas Brealey, a Hachette Company.
most of us grow up with a pretty limited understanding of what it takes for an individual to create real change in the world. I base my belief on three basic narratives that I see repeated over and over. The first is the hero hypothesis— to save the day, a person needs to be superior, endowed with extraordinary skill and resources, staunchly committed to carrying the banner, fighting the good fight, and rousing the world out of its torpor, so that it lives up to the ideals they hold for it. The second is that, if we can’t be a hero, then we need to find and follow a heroic leader, a charismatic someone who inspires us to pursue an ideal. The third is that if we are as good as we can be, if we work long hours, recycle and compost, vote and donate, and especially if we are kind to dogs and children, then everything will be fine in the end.
Personally, I don’t think we need more heroes or authorities. Those are storylines that reinforce the egoistic delusion that people are isolated actors who through sheer force of will can bend the world to their visions. By definition, only a few of us can be heroes, geniuses, or saints, which means that the rest of us are just clay waiting to be molded. What a terrible waste of human potential, spirit, intelligence, and creativity! It’s interesting to note how easily we devalue ourselves and other people when we adopt a heroic mode.
I also see a built-in problem with the idea of doing good. There’s a reason why people don’t like do-gooders: they operate from the assumption that some people or some actions are by definition more virtuous than others. That is, goodness is a general standard or ideal, rather than something that arises from specific people within a specific set of circumstances. So it is good to reduce your consumption of resources, or go to church, or decry racism, because, “Well, it’s self-evident isn’t it?”
Usually these definitions of virtue are based on cultural or subcultural agreements (for example, political correctness or Christian piety) that are passed down generation to generation and therefore remain relatively unexamined. But these ideas of goodness are generic and rob us of our responsibility to discover and choose ways of thinking and acting that might truly transform the specific situations we encounter in life.
For these reasons, I believe we need a better theory of change, one that goes beyond the heroic and do-good models, and taps into, develops, and releases the inherent potential of every human being to live in ways that make meaningful contributions to the world. Everything that follows in this book comes out of a theory of change that is:
• Developmental—building systems thinking skills and personal mastery
• Essence sourced—based on that which makes every person or living thing specific and singular
• Regenerative—committed to realizing the evolutionary potential of life
• Grounded—because it’s based on the idea that we can transform our world by transforming the roles we play in our lives
It is, in other words, rooted in the evolutionary potential of human lives.
DOG LAWYER
Like most small children, I had a lot of will when I was very young. But unlike many, the difficulties of my circumstances only served to strengthen this will. I grew up in a broken and abusive family, in a broken place (the Texas panhandle), the granddaughter on my mother’s side of a Native American man
who had escaped the brokenness of early twentieth century reservation life. My father was the Grand Dragon of the Texas KKK. When I was small, he locked me in a closet as a way to break my will. It didn’t work. Instead it reinforced my desire to stand up to him, to be a hero, and to break the corrosive influence of racism in my world.
There were many reasons for despair in my young life, but I was able again and again to allay my fears about the injustices of my world with fantasies of taking heroic actions to address them. One of my earliest ambitions was to be a dog lawyer! I thought it was outrageous that dogs were rounded up and put to sleep, through no fault of their own and with no one to defend them. I was determined to become a heroic little-girl advocate for animal innocence.
By the time I was at university in the mid-60s, I was putting my body on the line, marching in Berkeley to end racism and the Vietnam War. This earned me my first and only visit to jail and made me wonder where I would wind up in the long term. Was taking to the streets really making any kind of meaningful difference? I was beginning to have my doubts.
Not sure that I could be the hero I had imagined myself to be, I looked for heroes to support—political candidates who advocated radical change to the system and intellectual leaders who were pointing to different ways to live in society. For a short while, Joseph Campbell reignited my excitement about the hero’s journey, and I vowed once again to dedicate myself to changing the world. I was probably still too immature to fully grasp two things Campbell was teaching us. First, the mythic hero’s journey is always in service to and supported by a community. Second, it is intended to achieve some larger beneficial effect; the hero returns with a treasure that will alter the community’s role within its world. Ultimately there is no independent heroic ego, only the collective work of sustaining and evolving life by reshaping the relationships between the community and its larger context.
At some point, I began to study with inventor and philosopher Arthur Young, founder of the Institute for the Study of Consciousness in Berkeley. Young had, among other things, invented the first long distance helicopter. But his real interest as the thinking process that allowed people to accomplish these kinds of breakthroughs. He advocated for a process philosophy, one that directed its attention to inner development rather than outward advocacy and action.
These themes continued to work on me. Where was that heroic vision of my childhood? Could I ever become a hero? If not, then who was I? Was life really worth living? Pressed to make meaning of my life, yet seemingly denied outlets for these energies, I threw myself into a kind of compromise—be a good citizen. I volunteered with the League of Women Voters, struggled to be a good mother, separated my recyclable garbage. This way of life came nowhere close to satisfying my powerful inner promptings, and I began to slip into despair. What I failed to realize was that I didn’t have an adequate theory of change. I believed that change came only from heroes and saints acting on behalf of all the small people around them.
DEVELOPING PEOPLE
Happily, it was at this moment that I met a network of change designers based in Carmel, California. This group had discovered that profound change could happen through the almost invisible work of developing the capacity of ordinary people to see things differently. My advocacy work had been based on the assumption that I needed to force others to see things the way I saw them. This work, by contrast, acknowledged that every person had the inherent possibility
to see beyond the immediate pressures, constraints, and opportunities of daily existence to the patterns that lay behind them. In other words, people can learn to see essence and potential and work together creatively to manifest them.
What a liberating thought! Transformation of the world lies hidden within the undeveloped capacity of every person. All that’s needed are opportunities for us to develop ourselves, for us to learn to see things as they actually work so that change can flow from how we carry out our lives. This was my first intuition of the nonheroic journey. I didn’t need to become something I wasn’t in order to cause other people to change. I needed to join with them, to care about the things they cared about, in order to help them create the change they were already seeking.
I understood this idea almost the minute I joined the Carmel group, and soon after I had my first opportunity to witness its real power in action. I joined a business team that was working with engineers at DuPont who were trying to figure out better ways to work with titanium dioxide. This was an expensive material to produce, in both ecological and economic terms. With the gentlest of means—dialogue, probing questions, and systemic frameworks that encouraged them to learn how to manage their own thinking processes—we were able to help this group of engineers gain profound insight into the properties of the material, insights that changed forever the way it was produced. Within a few months, we were able to end years of mountain and stream destruction in Australia, where titanium was mined.
The changes we helped create at DuPont were profound, even revolutionary. They led to a completely new and proprietary process that allowed the company to extract high grade titanium from small quantities of low grade ore. But the methods we used to achieve this breakthrough were nonheroic. We were simply helping people do their jobs better by educating their thinking. These were ordinary, wellmeaning individuals, attempting to do their best with the tasks in front of them. By focusing on the ways they thought about how to carry out these tasks, we were able to help them transform an entire industry. They became change agents from within the roles they had chosen to play in their companies and communities.
This point may seem so obvious that one can easily miss its significance. For me, the evolution of society is a collective activity. It doesn’t come from the heroic actions of one political or military genius or the entrepreneurial insights of a great business leader, although these make great subjects for the stories we tell. Rather, it comes from waking up and developing millions of people to the systemic benefits that can flow from thinking better about how they play their chosen daily roles in society. We make a better world by teaching ordinary people practices for shifting their thinking processes and enabling themselves to show up as parents, employees, citizens, and neighbors in completely new ways.
Of course, this shift in mind is exactly what’s needed to create successful families, businesses, civic organizations, and even governments. It’s no accident that I spent many years working in business systems. I recognized early on that they offered excellent platforms for doing this transformational work. But really, my purpose all along was to help individuals develop greater consciousness and agency with regard to their own thinking, in order to allow far more beneficial actions to flow from it. For this reason, my earlier books focused almost entirely on businesses. This book looks at the other side of the same coin: what each of us can do in our own lives, through the many roles that we play at home, at work, and in the world. It’s a personal book, and many of its stories are personal. But it’s also a book about the fundamentals that are needed to create healthy economies and societies.
PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION AT DUPONT
One of the people who worked on DuPont’s titanium project was a young engineer named Jimmy Stockbridge. His team was responsible for transforming titanium ore into titanium dioxide at the company’s plant in DeLisle, Mississippi. Jimmy had come to DuPont straight out of graduate school and had a gift for motivating people. He was enthusiastic and energetic, and like a good general, he could transmit this enthusiasm to others.
But when I met him, Stockbridge was fiercely divided within himself. As a conscientious person, he wanted to do good in the world. He dedicated himself to environmental causes in his private life and to excellence at work, but he experienced these two sides of his life as conflicting with one another. So when we began to discover ways to use his work life to transform the environmental impacts of his industry, he was on fire and ready to rouse the troops and lead the charge.
Of course, this was a manifestation of his old heroic mode. It didn’t take us long to help him realize that becoming an ecological advocate inside the company wasn’t the point either, because this still meant promoting his own point of view rather than tapping into what was meaningful for his colleagues. He could see that the power of what we were doing lay in helping everyone use their own intelligence and conscientiousness to contribute to a better world. This insight completely transformed the way he worked as a manager, from motivational hero to resource.
The proprietary changes underway in DuPont’s titanium refinement process required the radical redesign of the DeLisle plant in a very short time. Stockbridge discovered that it wasn’t necessary or appropriate to be the hero supplying the enthusiasm that would motivate his team. Instead, we needed to help them develop new thinking capabilities that would enable them to recognize the significance of what they were doing—and therefore how to work differently. When they could see for themselves the importance of these changes for their industry, they were able to supply their own will and enthusiasm. Stockbridge had learned the difference between exhorting people and developing them—between being a white knight riding to the rescue and a co-learner holding the container within which everyone could grow.
BEING NON-HEROIC
I introduce the idea of the non-heroic journey as an antidote to heroic psychology. Heroism is sometimes necessary in emergencies, but it is always counterproductive to making enduring change. The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote, “Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. . . . This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.”1
The non-heroic path is a journey. It comes from learning how to live one’s life and play one’s roles in ways that are designed to create change. It doesn’t get turned on with a surge of adrenaline and turned off again with a burst of overthe-top action. It is slow, steady, cumulative, and powerful, like water shaping rock. It depends on coming to know ourselves, understanding how our minds work, and learning to shape and direct creative energies.
Non-heroism happens in everyday life, with all of the imperfections and incompleteness that are simply part of being human. You don’t need to sacrifice the things you love or give up the ordinary joys of having a job, family, and neighbors. Non-heroic undertakings need not be grandiose to make a profound difference. What they require is an ability to see how
the work we are doing—any work we are doing—can play a critical role within society. Our effects can be direct, through the influence we have on social institutions, or indirect, by preparing others (for example, our children) to play their roles. When we understand our role, it becomes possible to work at the level of home, classroom, entrepreneurial business, or neighborhood to create the better society for which we all long.
IS THE REGENERATIVE LIFE FOR YOU?
When we ask children what they want to be when they grow up, none of them choose something small. They all want something meaningful or that serves a deep purpose. When we’re young we have aspirational visions that are BIG, and we are sure that when we’re adults, we’ll finally have the wherewithal to enact them. Much of children’s play is connected to big visions.
But these visions get lost along the way as we grow up. They feel too challenging. Why? Why is it that once we’ve gotten established in the world, we let go of them? For many young professionals, the problem isn’t so much a loss of dreams and aspirations. Rather, it’s a sense of despair, a belief that the world has been running backward for so long that there’s no place for them to pursue their dreams. If you are struggling with how to make real meaning from your life and work, this book is intended to for you.
Work is where we put our life energy, and we tend to define our work in terms of career. Yet, this can be too narrow a way to frame our sense of what work is. Can we instead think of ourselves as pursuing particular roles in society, roles that at their core are meant to improve and transform the communities and industries we are part of? This transformational work is what lies behind those childhood aspirations to make meaningful contributions. Viewed from this perspective, our work isn’t something we do to earn a livelihood while we make social contributions as volunteers on the side. Our work is directly connected to the contributions we aim to make. But this requires us to think deeply about what work is, what we bring to it, and how we do it.
The current generation has grown up with a worldview that understands certain core truths: we humans have to change the way we live on the planet and become participants in living systems; relationships are at least as important to a good life as material success; and work is a place where we can contribute to a better world. For this generation, the political and economic struggles that preoccupy their elders and absorb so much media attention are a sideshow that will be swept away by their emerging demographic power. They know that they will soon be living in a very different world and culture because they are already creating it. In other words, they are forming a collective image of what society’s future purpose and form should be. This book is intended as a response to them. It lays out the key roles from which it will be possible to regenerate society.
HOW TO READ THE REGENERATIVE LIFE
Use the frameworks. Every chapter in this book is organized around a living systems framework that is derived from close observation of how life works. I strongly encourage the adoption of these frameworks because they 1) enable us to better understand and work with complex phenomena and 2) allow us to manage the complexity of our own minds. I mentioned earlier that a shift of mind is a powerful way to work on changing the world. Frameworks are the key to this shift.
I am not referring here to mental models, which are the rigid codes that govern our behavior and problem solving.
The manners we learn from our parents, for example, represent an accepted code or pattern of conduct within particular contexts, such as how to behave at the dinner table. The power of mental models is that they readily become automatic and unconscious—they program us. But this is also their downside. A mental model inserts itself into our mental processes, presenting itself as our only natural or available option for dealing with a given situation. For this reason, we carry out automatic patterns of behavior—even when they are inappropriate or in violation of our values—without noticing that we’re doing so. (Think of the last time you told a lie to protect someone’s feelings, when you could just as well have gently asked a question, instead.)
Frameworks have precisely the opposite purpose. Instead of programming us, they break our programming. They encourage consciousness, systemic thought, and careful consideration of what is appropriate in a specific situation. Of course, they can only serve this purpose if we engage them in a conscious way. It can be all too easy to convert a living framework into a machine-like mental model.
I remember the moment when I finally realized how powerful a framework could be in my life. As a young woman, I never really thought of myself as a writer. I could generate a profusion of good ideas, but the discipline of organizing them so that other people could follow them was not, to put it mildly, my strong suit. In my early 40s, I had submitted a chapter for the book, Learning Organizations, in which I presented a characteristically contrarian point of view.2 The editor came back to me, enthusiastic about the ideas in the article but at the same time deeply dismayed that she could not understand how they hung together. I went back to look at what I’d written, and I could see the underlying structure or framework it contained. Once I made this explicit, the article suddenly made sense. I vowed to never write anything in the future without first articulating, at least to myself, the framework that supplied its coherence.
For me, frameworks provide a structure that can help me manage all of the different dimensions and complexities of whatever I’m working on. Instead of losing myself in the details, I’m able to hold a dynamic image in my mind of the relationships among different, sometimes competing ideas. This allows me to work with the details without ever losing my place in the big picture. It is to share these benefits that I offer the frameworks in this book. There are lots of interesting ideas and details to get lost in, but there is always an organizing structure to help you place them in context.
In particular, I’ve used a familiar framework to organize the core content of this book—the enneagram. I mention this because the enneagram has very much entered popular culture and in the process been downgraded to a typology, which is a mental model. Understood as a framework, the enneagram helps reveal the patterns of relationship and energy hidden within the dynamics of transformation. In this case, I’m using it to help us see how we can work together to transform society. The final chapter of the book is dedicated to an in-depth look at how the enneagram framework applies to this important work.
Take it personally. If we are to live regenerative lives—if we are to break old, unconscious patterns of belief and come at things in new, more conscious ways— then we must allow the ideas introduced in this book to enter and change us. Put in a slightly different way, we need to avoid approaching the material presented here as knowledge—as an improved mental model. Instead, we need to approach it as a question, a provocation, a challenge. The Regenerative Life won’t be helpful if it’s received as my ideas. It will only become helpful when it has been tested by your own lived experience.
TAKE IT PERSONALLY. IF WE ARE TO LIVE REGENERATIVE LIVES—IF WE ARE TO BREAK OLD, UNCONSCIOUS PATTERNS OF BELIEF AND COME AT THINGS IN NEW, MORE CONSCIOUS WAYS— THEN WE MUST ALLOW THE IDEAS INTRODUCED IN THIS BOOK TO ENTER AND CHANGE US.
For this reason, I suggest that you start a journal to record your impressions and experiences in parallel to your reading. Don’t make notes about what I’ve written or your thoughts about it. Instead, make notes about what happened when you applied what you read to something meaningful in your life. What changed? What are you seeing differently? What could happen next to extend this learning?
You will notice that in many places I’ve illustrated my points with personal examples from my own life. I’ve also included stories from people who applied these concepts in their lives and what happened to them as a result. I’m hoping that by the time you come to the end, you’ll be able to supply examples from your life as well!
Take it to work. Once we’ve begun to take these ideas personally, once we’ve committed in an ongoing way to disrupting our unconscious patterns, we’re ready to apply what we’ve learned in all of our endeavors. Most of us begin by developing our roles within family and community, but it is important to bring our inner changes into the workplace, as well. Work is where we invest a large part of our time, energy, and creativity. Questions to ask yourself in this context are, “How do I shake loose of my job description, this mental model, imposed and maintained by others with my assent? Instead, how do I learn to see myself playing a living, evolving role that will make my company or organization more successful at fulfilling its purpose?”
Reflecting on these questions can help us unleash our creative energies and put them to use toward a meaningful purpose. But they become even more relevant for those of us who are in the role of managers or leaders. From the perspective of a regenerative life, the work of a manager is not to tell other people what to do, but to help them develop and utilize their own intelligence and energy in service to the larger goals and missions of the organization. ■
1 John Heider, The Tao of Leadership: Lao-Tzu’s Tao Te Ching Adapted for a New Age (Atlanta, Georgia: Humanics Publishing Group, 1997).
2 Sarita Chawla and John Renesch, editors, Learning Organizations: Developing Cultures for Tomorrow’s Workplace (New York: Productivity Press, 1995).
First appeared on March 10, 2025 at trimtab.living-future.org CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Launched in 2006, the Living Building Challenge Red List is an index of chemicals representing the “worst in class” substances prevalent in the building industry that pose serious risks to human health and the environment.
Checking product ingredients against the list enables firms to work towards specs without any Red List chemicals. And it has encouraged manufacturers to excise these ingredients from many products.
What makes a home truly safe? Is it a sturdy lock, a strong foundation, or a trip-free layout? While these are essential, many unseen health hazards lurk within building materials themselves—from toxic chemicals in flooring and insulation to harmful additives in paints and adhesives.
For years, harmful Red List chemicals have been used in everyday building products, negatively impacting indoor air quality and long-term human health. But, the affordable housing sector is stepping up to lead the shift to safer materials—proving that healthier, cost-effective alternatives are available and scalable.
In 2017, there was one singular car seat on the US market that was available without flame retardants. Many parents were excited for this development, but cautious. CBS News, with the help of Berkeley Lawrence National Laboratory, aired a demonstration where they set it on fire to prove that it was safe. As of 2022, around half of car seats no longer had flame retardants (at least 40 models available from 8 different brands), according to a study by the Ecology Center and many have eliminated the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as well. Similarly, when the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) began working with affordable housing developers in 2013 to eliminate Red List chemicals, there were only 100 Declare labels available. Fast forward to February 2025, and that number has soared to 1,543 active Declare labels, representing over 18,000 individual products. In just the last two years, the number of Declare labels has grown by 60%, reflecting the rapid expansion of healthier, non-toxic building materials in the market.
For over a decade, participants in Living Future’s Affordable Housing Program have been using the Red List and Declare to reduce toxic chemicals in their buildings, creating healthier living environments. Red List Free products disclose 100% of product ingredients plus residuals present at or above 100 ppm (0.01%) in the final product, and do not contain any Red List chemicals. Red List Approved products are considered compliant with the Living Building Challenge and have at least 99% disclosure, but rely on one or more published Exceptions and may contain Red List chemicals. Exceptions
“IT’S BEEN GREAT TO LEARN SO MUCH FROM LIVING FUTURE AND THE SAFER MATERIALS SHIFT COHORT AND KNOW THAT THE WORK IS BENEFITTING OUR MEMBERS AND ULTIMATELY BENEFITTING THE COMMUNITIES THEY SERVE.”
— Keren Alfred, Associate, Green and Healthy Communities at Housing Partnership Network
have been published for situations where chemicals of concern cannot be avoided at present. For example, Chromium VI is allowed in the plating on flush levers and commercial flush valves due to the lack of alternative plating materials currently available in the market.
As developers and architects continue to advocate for healthier materials, the market of Red List Free and Approved products continues to expand, with every year opening up more products that are feasible to include in the budget. Due to the exponential increase in healthier products, it is now very possible to build affordable housing and avoid Red List chemicals in many areas of the building without additional cost or time output. But, the knowledge of how to do this and which products to focus on is not yet nearly widespread enough. This is why Living Future launched our Safer Materials Shift last year with ten of our affordable housing partners.
Through our collaboration with affordable housing partners, Living Future has identified a priority list of Red List Free and Approved product types that can be seamlessly integrated into most affordable housing projects. Thanks to the growing availability of healthier materials from multiple manufacturers, these products can be specified with minimal effort and without added costs.
Our goal? To make healthier, non-toxic building materials the standard, not the exception. We’re excited to share this valuable resource with the industry to help drive safer, more sustainable affordable housing for all!
WHAT IS THE SAFER MATERIALS SHIFT?
The Safer Materials Shift is an 18-month project (from the middle of 2024 until the end of 2025) to help accelerate the use of Red List Free and Approved products in the affordable housing sector. We teamed up with our partners at Housing Partnership Network and Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future to work with several of their affordable housing developer members—including Preservation of Affordable Housing, Mercy Housing, and Foundation Communities—on integrating Red List Free and Approved products more regularly in their buildings, new and existing. Other participants include previous contributors to Living Future’s Affordable Housing Program, including Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, Magnusson Architecture and Planning, Pyatok Architecture + Urban Design, Architects Fora, and David Baker Architects. All participants are either affordable housing developers or architecture firms that are well-versed in designing affordable housing.
Rendering courtesy of Pyatok Architecture and Urban Design
In preparation for launching the Safer Materials Shift, the Living Future team analyzed materials data from previous project teams (both affordable housing and not) to determine which building materials have most often been found Red List Free or Approved at a cost that is feasible for affordable housing teams. From this research, we came up with a list of target Masterformat CSI (Construction Specification Institute) divisions for project teams.
We divided our list of products typically used in affordable housing into three categories: Type 1, Type 2, and those
excluded from the scope of the Safer Materials Shift. Type 1 products represent product types that can be found Red List Free or Approved without any additional cost and with minimal research effort. Typically, this means that there are an abundance of products in this category with Declare labels and/or these product types are close to a natural form and likely, therefore, to not include Red List ingredients. Type 2 products represent product types where a number of products can and have been specified as Red List Free or Approved by affordable housing projects that we have worked with in the past. However, these product types may contain a minimal or moderate cost increase and/or may not be available in all cases. For example, many of our affordable housing project teams have been able to install Red List Free or Approved resilient flooring (most often linoleum), but we also know that this product type represents an added cost over PVC-based resilient flooring products, which contain Red List ingredients. The product types listed under Type 1 and Type 2 (as seen in the graphic below) include only the base product; if additional sealers, adhesives, paints, or coatings are added to the material, then Red List chemicals may be introduced and would need to be vetted separately.
Products that do not fall into Type 1 or Type 2 categories were excluded from the research for this particular undertaking. It does not mean that it is not important to find healthier options for these types of products or that there are no options available in these categories (see our Declare marketplace for the full list of products across CSI sections) . However, these products, in most cases, represent a more difficult challenge either in terms of cost or availability and are not the best starting points for most affordable housing project teams that have limited resources.
These two categories are a simplified version of what was presented previously in the Best Practices Guide for Red List Free Affordable Housing, which was in turn, largely drawn from our Materials List for Affordable Housing. You may download both resources for free for more detailed information on CSI Masterformat Divisions, for additional step-by-step guidance on selecting healthier materials, and for our current list of Red List Free and approved materials for affordable housing.
SAFER MATERIALS SHIFT PARTICIPANTS:
PRESERVATION OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING MERCY HOUSING FOUNDATION COMMUNITIES
• TENDERLOIN NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
• FOUNDATION FOR HOMELESS AND POVERTY MANAGEMENT
MAGNUSSON ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING
PYATOK ARCHITECTURE + URBAN DESIGN ARCHITECTS FORA
• DAVID BAKER ARCHITECTS
• FORGE CRAFT ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN
STEPS TO RED LIST FREE
After determining the list of Type 1 and Type 2 products, Living Future created seven pathways (called ‘steps’) for our affordable housing project teams to choose from. These do not represent a separate certification but are goals to inform the work of each organization. The steps can be seen in the chart below. They start by focusing only on Type 1 products and increasingly integrate more Type 2 products, with full (90%) Red List compliance as the final goal.
PROCESS AND TIMELINE
We asked that each participant commit to attending three training sessions with members of the Living Future Team that provided detailed information on the Red List and how to vet products to determine if they are Red List Free or Approved. We also required that each organization choose the Step to Red List Free (1-7) that is most appropriately ambitious for them, based on their baseline design standards. The participants also provided background information to Living Future, including the projects in scope for this analysis, team member roles, the internal process for selecting materials, and their baseline materials list. Having concluded the training sessions last year, we are now checking in with each organization quarterly. Throughout 2025, the organizations will record all of the materials they vet in a shared tracking spreadsheet that lists critical information about each product and whether they were able to use it on their project or not (and why). Each organization is committed to integrating the Shift to Safer Materials into at least one building that is currently in design; however, many are using it on multiple projects or as the framework for updating their Basis of Design with healthier products. Each organization
is receiving a small stipend as a token of appreciation for sharing this information with Living Future.
WHAT WE HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH
As we conclude the year and move into the next, the Living Future team will meet with each participating organization to assess their progress in adopting healthier materials. Through interviews and data analysis, we will evaluate the impact of these efforts and identify key successes and challenges.
Using insights from tracking spreadsheets and real-world implementation, we will publish a comprehensive report outlining the best first steps for integrating Red List-Free materials into affordable housing. This resource will be publicly available, ensuring that developers, architects, and industry leaders can access practical strategies to create healthier, more sustainable living environments.
The ten participants in our Safer Materials Shift cohort are demonstrating that the affordable housing sector can be a leader in healthier, more sustainable living environments. By prioritizing safer building materials, they are setting a new standard for health-conscious, high-quality housing that benefits residents and communities alike. ■
Join Living Future as a free member to receive our newsletter and stay updated on the Safer Materials Shift, innovative healthy building solutions, and other impactful Living Future initiatives.
The McLennan Design studio staff picks their favorite hikes from around the world
CLICK ON PHOTO TO LEARN MORE ABOUT EACH HIKE
Favorite Hike PHAEDRA
JOHANNA
LE TOUR DU MONT BLANC France, Italy, & Switzerland
PHILMONT SCOUT RANCH New Mexico
CASCADAS AGUA AZUL Chiapas, Mexico
DEVILS CAUSWAY Rocky Mountains, Colorado
WHITEFISH FALLS Ontario, Canada
GRAND CANYON DOWN TO HAVASU FALLS Havasu Falls, Arizaon
MAPLE LOOP PASS North Cascades, Washington
SUSAN
KISHORE
JUAN
GAZZAM LAKE PRESERVE Bainbridge Island, Washington
GRAND FOREST Bainbridge Island, Washington
FORT WARD Bainbridge Island, Washington
RATTLESNAKE LEDGE TRAIL North Bend, Washington
HOH RIVER TRAIL Olympic National Park, Washington
GLYDERAU (THE GLYDERS) Eryri National Park (Snowdonia), Wales
EBEY'S LANDING-BLUFF TRAIL Whidbey Island, Washington
AMICALOLA FALLS STATE PARK & LODGE Amicalola, Georgia
MOUNT PILCHUCK Verlot, Washington
VIA DELL'AMORE Cinque Terre, Italy
SALVAGED WOOD WINDOWS
Douglas fir windows and doors provided by Jeld-Wen are created with salvaged and reclaimed wood to ensure the lowest possible embodied carbon.
RADIANT FLOORS
A new concrete floor slab hosts hydronic tubing for ultraefficient radiant heating.
Welcome to our light-filled conference room, the command center for team collaboration and workshopping! Featuring warm wood elements throughout - including salvaged Douglas Fir windows, doors, and floating shelves - this space is a welcoming home base for our weekly team meetings and brainstorming sessions. A fully operable glazed folding door on the east
E-BIKES
Custom built PRIORITY electric bikes for employees and guests.
HISTORIC ROOF TRUSSES
All 58 of the original roof trusses were preserved, painted, and lined with LED strip lights that provide ambient overhead lighting.
BIOPHILIC LIGHT FIXTURES
Inspired by natural forms and created from sustainably harvested bamboo, this David Trubridge light fixture is designed to flat pack to reduce its transportation footprint.
SALVAGED WOOD FLOATING SHELVES
Old-growth Douglas fir salvaged from the Barracks floor joists serve as perfect shelves!
MOHAWK CARPET
Award-winning, Red-List-Free carpet lines from Mohawkdesigned in collaboration with McLennan Design - draw their inspiration from natural elements such as lichen and owl feathers.
wall allows the entire room to open up to the exterior patio and lawn space beyond, cementing the office's emphasis on indoor-outdoor connection. With in-floor radiant heating and Red-List-Free carpet tiles designed inhouse, this space is comfortable year-round and provides a great place for team building and innovation!
A) Indoor plants provide biophilic touches in every room
B) Diorama created by Susan Roth illustrates the office's deep connection to Place
C) Floating shelves made from wood reclaimed from the building next door
D) Tools of the trade - trace paper and pens for quick design ideation!
E) A portion of the office's extensive library of regenerative design handbooks and sources of inspiration
F) Office fleet of electric bicycles featuring MD branding!
G) Fully-operable glazed window walls allow maximum flexibility between spaces
ABOUT MCLENNAN DESIGN
McLennan Design is one of the world's premiere regenerative design practices, dedicated to the creation of living buildings, net-zero, and regenerative projects all over the globe. Founded in 2013 by renowned sustainability leader and green design pioneer Jason F. McLennan, the firm focuses on deep green outcomes in the fields of architecture, planning, consulting, and product design. As the founder and creator of many of the building industry’s leading programs - including the Living Building Challenge and its related programsMcLennan and his design team bring a unique ecological lens and unmatched expertise to every project.
In July 2022, McLennan Design merged with global architecture and design firm Perkins&Will to accelerate and scale up decarbonization and elevate the level of regenerative design expertise across the entire industry. Equipped with the global reach and resources of the world's second-largest architecture firm - while maintaining the flexibility and focus of a small-scale practice of carefully selected experts - the McLennan Design team is uniquely positioned to deliver world-class design solutions. Most importantly, the firm continues to serve as a global thought-leader and innovator of sustainable outcomes, striving for each new project to serve as an inspiring beacon of hope for a regenerative future.
ABOUT JASON F. MCLENNAN
Jason F. McLennan is considered one of the world’s most influential individuals in the field of architecture and green building movement today, Jason is a highly sought out designer, consultant and thought leader. The recipient of the prestigious Buckminster Fuller Prize, the planet’s top prize for socially responsible design, he has been called the Steve Jobs of the green building industry, and a World Changer by GreenBiz magazine. In 2016, Jason was selected as the National Award of Excellence winner for Engineering News Record - one of the only individuals in the architecture profession to have won the award in its 58-year history.
McLennan is the creator of the Living Building Challenge – the most stringent and progressive green building program in existence, as well as a primary author of the WELL Building Standard. He is the author of seven books on Sustainability and Design used by thousands of practitioners each year, including The Philosophy of Sustainable Design. McLennan is both an Ashoka Fellow and Senior Fellow of the Design Future’s Council. Jason serves as the Chief Sustainability Officer at Perkins&Will and is the Managing Principal at McLennan Design.
PERKINS&WILL LEADERSHIP TRAINING
Green Building Movement
A radical catalyst to re-imagine who we are and where we go next.
Where
The Summit is being held in a beautiful, abandoned building on Bainbridge Island, WA- currently in a state of repair and adaptive reuse- useful as a symbol of regeneration –a powerful metaphor for where our movement is currently. Atmospheric and unsettling yet beautiful and inspiring.
* Note - The venue is not handicap accessible and stairs required. Services are limited. Exact directions will be provided to ticket holders with additional travel suggestions and logistics.
The Summit will feature key leaders in the green building movement and an intimate crowd of knowledgeable and passionate practitioners. Led by Jason F. McLennan (founder of the Living Future Institute) the discussion will focus on the grief and loss associated with the failure of our movement to create the change we needed within the wider environmental tragedy unfolding. Balanced with grief will be reflections on hope and collective strategic planning on where we go from here. Out of the ashes new ideas need to emerge and a movement reborn.
What About
Changing Civilization through Radical Regenerative Design.
SORD is a new 501 (c3) entity with a mission To transform the practice of architecture, planning, and infrastructure design in a unique, holistic, regionally inspired, interdisciplinary approach that equips practitioners with a new way of thinking, appropriate to deal with the social and ecological challenges of the Anthropocene.
We seek to nurture and create transformative ‘green warriors’ that will help influence the world through high-leverage interventions.
When September 20th, 2025
(just before Fall Equinox) Program Runs 9am-4pm & includes a catered lunch and reading materials.
The green building movement has failed.
Despite our best efforts, global environmental health has declined and catastrophic climate change impacts are now inevitable.
Our community is weaker and less influential than we’ve been in twenty years, even while our message is needed more than ever.
Onl y 15 Spots Available!
Limited Seats and intimate conversations. Help Shape the future of our movement at a critical inflection point.
Cost – Early Bird Pricing - $275 if purchased by June 1st, 2025, $325 after. Proceeds go to the School of Regenerative Design a 501c3 entity.
This program is provided by the School of Regenerative Design in association with the Living Future Institute.
Political headwinds have drastically shifted and the old ways no longer work.
Yet with death, rebirth is possible… into something different and stronger.
But only with your help….
Join us for a seminal inflection point in the green building movement, as we gather to discuss the end of green building as we’ve known it and the rebirth of something stronger.
ABOUT THE MAGIC OF IMPERFECTION
Break free from perfectionism and finish your creative projects. This unconventional guide shows you how to overcome creative blocks and finally complete your work through strategic imperfection.
The world is full of creative people. So why do some get their ideas out in the world while others don’t? Why are some incredibly prolific while others struggle with deadlines or can’t complete projects? In this book, Jason F. McLennan—a master in “getting stuff done”—shares secrets to boosting productivity, innovation, and personal success. By adopting his “¾ baked” philosophy and the key lessons that surround it, readers will be able to dramatically increase their output while also keeping their creative juices flowing.
McLennan’s recipe for creative success includes the following ideas:
Look forward to failure
Discover the power of feedback
Learn to become a “trim tab”
Harness the power of momentum to drive creativity
We’ve all heard the phrase “the perfect is the enemy of the good.” Perfection is often what holds so many people back. Trying to reach it means that nothing much can get completed, and inspiration itself is often blocked as people either procrastinate or endlessly self-edit. By chasing perfection, it remains elusively further away.
The world is full of half-baked ideas—but almost no perfect ones. With The Magic of Imperfection, readers will learn how to seriously amp up what they do, how fast they do it, and simultaneously how well it gets done.
“For anyone looking to get more out of themselves, their ideas, and their ambition, this book is a must-read. Drawing from his experience as a transformational thinker, McLennan shares his method in a clear and engaging manner, providing a blueprint for optimal efficiency and success.”
—Paul Scialla, Founder, International WELL Building Institute; Founder and CEO, Delos
“There are two words that come to mind in describing this work: creativity and courage. This book is a roadmap on both subjects, which are intertwined in a perfect web of what human effort should really be.”
—Harlan Stone, CEO, HMTX Industries
“The world needs big ideas, and it needs them urgently. McLennan’s ¾ baked approach teaches us how to get important things done with clarity, purpose, and wit.”
—Phil Harrison, CEO, Perkins&Will
“This gem of a book is packed with energizing stories, practical tools, and inspiring lessons to help aspiring leaders achieve big impacts in little time.”
—Lindsay Baker, CEO, International Living Future Institute
HOUSE UP ON THE HILL tells the story of an important design partnership that represents a bellwether for both the green building movement and regenerative building materials industry. Jason F. McLennan, CEO of McLennan Design and the founder of the Living Building Challenge, along with Harlan Stone, CEO of global flooring manufacturer HMTX Industries, joined forces nearly a decade ago to envision and create a dynamic and restorative headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Colloquially known as the House Up on the Hill (or HUOTH), HMTX’s new home base is more than “a place to sit and answer emails,” according to Stone. It is “a house, a place where we gather to create.” The building is many things at once: a collaborative maker space, a community space, an exhibition space, a museum, an office building, and a retreat all under one roof. Completed in 2022, HUOTH is a future Petal-certified, mixed-use building that embodies a lowimpact approach to sustainable and passive design.
Situated on a rocky and forested promontory along the edges of Norwalk, the building’s unusual siting is both secluded and urban. The land’s topography is tenuous; the linear site itself, oriented along a north-south axis, is surrounded by a combination of second-growth forest, wildlife habitat, transit infrastructure, and medium-density commercial and multifamily residential development. Within this distinct context, McLennan and Stone assembled a design team that could rise to the challenge of designing a four-story, 24,000-square-foot building that simultaneously responded to and restored this once-neglected pocket of land.
This book details in depth the collaboration between McLennan and Stone and how their design vision for HUOTH was brought to life. It likewise explores the history of the Living Building Challenge and its impacts to date, as well as the decades-long evolution of HMTX Industries that led the company to become a global leader in corporate transparency, employee equity, and responsible material sourcing. The story of HUOTH is one of these two paths converging; it is a catalogue of best practices, and an examination of what restorative development truly looks like when design visionaries are at the helm.
“The
new HQ is a unique space for artists, engineers, developers and architects, as well as creative and disruptive thinkers, to exchange ideas and thoughts. It’s more than a place to sit and answer emails, talk on the phone, and communicate with distant people. Let’s think about it as a house, a place where we gather to create rather than a place to go to the office.”
HARLAN STONE CEO, HMTX Industries
$38.95 USD
Can I see the buds that are swelling in the woods on the slopes on the far side of the valley? I can’t, of course, nor can I see the twinleafs and anemones that are blooming over there bright-scattered above the dead leaves. But the swelling buds and little blossoms make a new softness in the light that is visible all the way here. The trees, the hills that were stark in the old cold become now tender, and time changes.
– Wendell Berry
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND STUDIO
1580 Fort Ward Hill Road
Bainbridge Island, Washington 98110 mclennan-design.com perkinswill.com/studio/bainbridge-island admin@mclennan-design.com
KANSAS CITY STUDIO 1475 Walnut Street
Kansas City, MO 64106 perkinswill.com/studio/kansas-city
