What is Regenerative Construction?
Responsible construction means reducing, reusing, and regenerating. We aim to construct net-positive buildings and restore natural resources – going beyond ‘do no harm’. Regenerative construction incorporates sustainable practices and materials, ensuring buildings interact harmoniously with the environment and enhance its health and resilience.
At Gilbane, regenerative construction aligns with our mission of Building More than Buildings. We are dedicated to creating a positive impact through sustainable practices, including eliminating waste, reducing pollution, recycling materials, and increasing energy efficiency to reduce our carbon footprint.
Regenerative Practices Across Gilbane
While we are always actively working to leave communities better than we found them through sustainable practices, one of our standout projects where this can be seen is the New York City Economic Development Corporation Solar One Environmental Education Center. This new facility bordering New York City’s west side highway is designed to educate the public about renewable energy and sustainability while embodying regenerative principles. The Center demonstrates how buildings can positively contribute to their environment with features such as:
- Energy generation via a 38kW solar array with a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS)
- Flood resistance components that make the Center a model of resiliency in the face of hurricanes and storm surges.
This setup allows the building to generate off-the-grid solar electricity, and the energy storage capacity ensures that the building can serve as a community disaster relief center during potential emergencies. This design not only protects the building but also demonstrates how regenerative construction can contribute to urban environmental stewardship.
Gilbane’s efforts to support the ever-evolving landscape of sustainability and clean-energy jobs can also be seen in the LEED Gold Baird Center Expansion project in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The facility raises the bar for sustainable practices that include:
- 90% of the 6,000 tons of steel sourced from recycled materials.
- Solar roof saving 98,130 kWh, equal to the CO2 emissions of charging 7.5 million smartphones.
- 320,000-gallon StormTrap® system for stormwater management and flood mitigation.
- Ceramic fritted glass for better insulation and bird collision prevention.
- Low-flow plumbing fixtures to conserve water.
- LED lighting that adjusts to occupancy and natural light.
- ORCA food digester converting food waste into liquid, diverting up to 438 tons of waste from landfills annually.
Everything on this expansion project, down to the smallest details, was considered, with regeneration remaining a top priority throughout construction.
Sustainability Goals and Achievements
Ensuring a healthy and sustainable environment is at the core of our operations at Gilbane. We continuously monitor indoor air quality during construction and before owner occupancy. Our commitment to protecting biodiversity involves sustaining native habitats and restoring sites to their preconstruction states as soon as possible. We work closely with suppliers dedicated to reducing their carbon footprint and use materials with the end in mind, limiting environmental impacts. We also work closely with suppliers committed to reducing their carbon footprint. One of these suppliers is Gilbane’s Next 150 Construction, a wholly owned subsidiary offering highly skilled and diverse trade labor, job site equipment rentals, and site consumables.
To improve recycling diversion rates, Next 150 developed a forward-thinking approach to on-site recycling protocols. On a busy project, small mistakes like improper sorting of construction waste can lead to recycling kickbacks and inefficiencies. On a recent project in California, Next 150 set up a dedicated recycling staging area with multiple sorting zones. A designated team member ensures materials are correctly organized and sorted, facilitating proper disposal or reuse. This intentional sorting has significantly increased our reuse rate. The initiative has become part of the site culture, with trade contractors sorting materials themselves before bringing them to the staging area. This has led to more sustainable practices and increased the overall waste diverted from landfills to 92.3%.
Gilbane is leading the way in regenerative construction, demonstrating that buildings can enhance the environment while serving their purpose. By integrating regenerative principles into our projects, we are truly “Building More than Buildings,” creating spaces that contribute to a healthier, more sustainable future.
