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Built to Heal: When Buildings Start to Regenerate

Built to Heal: When Buildings Start to Regenerate

Charlie Cichetti
November 16, 2025

Smart strategies. Sharp stories. Sustainability that sticks.

📬 Intro: Built to Heal

Inspired by YouTube’s most positive influencer, Sam Bentley (https://www.youtube.com/@itsSamBentley), this week we’re bringing a big dose of good news in the run-up to your Thanksgiving week!

We scoured the world for encouraging news for those who design, build, or operate commercial buildings, and here’s what we found:

The shift from sustainability to regeneration is increasingly underway. Renewables have quietly overtaken coal as the world’s largest power source. In labs and job sites alike, new materials are learning from nature—mycelium insulation grown from agricultural waste, algae façades that capture carbon while shading interiors, and self-healing concrete that seals its own cracks. Meanwhile, in London, classrooms are breathing cleaner air through green walls and smart filters, while Chile’s skyline is clearer than it has been in decades.

Across every scale—from power grids to classrooms—the built world is beginning to act less like a machine and more like a living system

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🌱 Field Notes: Good News - Signs of Regeneration

🌞 Renewables Overtake Coal — Global electricity data from Ember shows solar and wind now generating more power than coal for the first time—5,072 TWh versus 4,896 TWh in the first half of 2025. Proof that the macro systems can heal too. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-mid-year-insights-2025

🍄 ‘Shroom Building Insulation — In a move that will make Mario proud, London-based startup BIOHM grows insulation from fungal mycelium bound with farm by-products, replacing petrochemicals and locking up carbon in the process. https://www.biohm.co.uk/mycelium

🧬 Self-Healing Concrete — Microbial concrete developed at Delft University and now in commercial pilots uses dormant spores to fill micro-cracks with limestone, extending lifespan and slashing maintenance costs. https://www.tudelft.nl/en/ceg/research/stories-of-science/self-healing-of-concrete-by-bacterial-mineral-precipitation

🌿 Algae Façades — Building skins seeded with microalgae are capturing carbon while providing dynamic shading and potential biofuel feedstock. Pilot façades in Hamburg and Seoul are already generating measurable oxygen output. https://www.arup.com/en-us/projects/solarleaf

🏫 London’s Living Classrooms — New indoor-air filters paired with green walls have cut PM 2.5 by up to 68 percent at St Mary’s Primary and other schools, setting a precedent for IAQ retrofits that literally breathe. https://www.london.gov.uk/mayor-invests-ps27m-air-quality-filters-schools-clean-air-classrooms

🌁 Chile’s Clean-Air Comeback — Santiago’s smog levels are down two-thirds since the 1990s thanks to electrified transit, limits on crop-burning, and sustained air-quality policy—a national-scale proof that persistence pays off. https://impactful.ninja/santiago-cuts-air-pollution-by-66-freeing-residents-from-constant-black-cloud

🏛 BUILT TO LAST: For Designers, Builders, and Operators, the shift is practical:

Specify materials that regenerate — mycelium composites, agricultural waste boards, and other bio-based products can store carbon instead of emitting it.
Let façades function like leaves — we all know that facades should breathe, but innovations out there today can enable both cleaning air and regulating heat.
Design for self-repair — choose systems that monitor and mend themselves, from bacterial concretes to predictive IAQ sensors.

Run on renewables — align projects with the global pivot away from fossil fuel generation that’s already underway.

🧠TL;DR:

Renewable energy now leads globally, and materials that grow, heal, and clean are redefining durability. The future of green building is self-sustaining.

🧰 Action Step:

Audit at least one spec or system in your portfolio / design catalog this month—ask, “Could this be regenerative?” Then research one alternative to test next quarter.

💬 Quote of the Week:

“The recovery of nature and the recovery of people can move forward together.” — Sam Bentley

RETROFIT THIS 🖼️

TOOLS DOWN🔧

We’ve spent decades learning how to build efficiently. Now we’re learning how to build regeneratively.

The difference?

Efficiency saves energy. Regeneration gives it back.

✍️ Brian Bollinger, our Head Writer, helps sustainability pros connect the dots among best-in-class results, resilience and innovation.

🌍️ Charlie Cichetti, our Fearless Leader and LEED Fellow, has guided >150,000 professionals in building careers that adapt—and thrive—through change.

Let’s Green Up together.

👉 [Explore Sustainability Credentials at GBES.com]
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