ABSTRACT
Transformational-scale efforts on the part of the built environment professions are crucial to stave off the gravest scenarios of runaway climate change, and the current policy and architectural and engineering work in even leading green cities will not achieve this transformation. Urban planning and policy has tended to consider a strictly regulatory approach to be the most appropriate way to develop the urban built environment and has offered voluntary programmes to industry leaders seeking to distinguish themselves as innovators above and beyond this regulatory baseline. This chapter presents a new approach to regulation and innovation that offers a more pragmatic alternative in the face of climate emergency. A detailed, design-based regulatory approach to greening the built environment that draws upon a wide range of expertise holds promise of achieving the drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. The case of the City of Vancouver’s design-based approach to urban design and built environment regulation, and its step-wise progression towards more ambitious regulation of innovation towards better green building performance, provide an illustration of the potential of a pragmatic approach to regulating our way to net zero cities. The story represents a contrast case to the predominant bias against regulation that sees regulation as opposed to innovation.
