HDR’s Regenerative Design Framework Honored as a Fast Company World Changing Idea
HDR’s Regenerative Design Framework was among Fast Company’s 2023 World Changing Ideas announced today. The annual awards program honors ideas, tools and projects that are changing the way we work, live, and interact with the world.
Earning kudos as both a finalist in the Architecture category and with an Honorable Mention in the Large Business category, the Regenerative Design Framework is an interactive, online tool that allows HDR's multidisciplinary teams to design holistically for a project’s connected ecosystem. Comprised of 125 data sets and 40 calculators specific to a given site and location, it establishes an ecological baseline for the project and then drills down into specific design strategies that achieve key performance indicators for carbon, water, air, biodiversity, nutrients, human health, and community to move the project toward regeneration. Projects shift from “doing less harm” to actually “doing good” by actively contributing positive impacts to the people who use them and the local ecology that surrounds them.
“The regenerative design tool establishes performance metrics to remediate the harm that has resulted from years of conventional development,” noted Colin Rohlfing, sustainable development director at HDR. “Because it emulates natural systems, regenerative design incorporates leading-edge design for wellness and actively participates in place-driven social equity solutions. Calculation methodologies for all KPIs determine the point at which regenerative performance is achieved.”
World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 2,200 entries, which are featured online and in the publications May 2023 issue.
This marks the fourth consecutive year that Fast Company has honored HDR in its World Changing Ideas award program. In 2022, three HDR projects were recognized; in 2021, five of HDR’s projects were featured; and in 2020, six projects were recognized — including the Regenerative Design Tool in the Experimental category before it was developed and launched.
