What would happen if the world’s leading practitioners, officials and entrepreneurs in sustainable bio-based buildings committed to strategically working together as a global team?

Very few global systems are as complex as forests or the built environment. Integrating these in a mutually-beneficial relationship demands profound sensitivity, collective intelligence and cooperation. We believe that systemic collaboration is the vital key to scaling-up the use of biobased materials to decarbonize the global built environment.

In 2023 we started a global initiative to boost systemic collaboration and accelerate the forest-positive building sector. Deep systems change is required to achieve this, but practically it must also be an incremental process that meets ongoing day-to-day needs. Systemic and incremental dimensions are key to our initiative; we envision a series of national-level pilots that support adaptive incremental change, and the development of an accessible permanent global infrastructure to serve all collaborators on this shared mission. 

This initiative is being developed in collaboration with several intergovernmental institutions, private sector and NGO partners.  We welcome additional participation and investment from national governments, the private sector, and NGOs to support the first series of national-level pilots and platform infrastructure development. Be part of the solution and join our network for updates and opportunities to collaborate.

Background

The global built environment is currently responsible for almost 40% of total global emissions, with embodied emissions accounting for almost half. A “business as usual” trajectory will escalate global emissions to over 10 Bt CO2e / year by 2050, due in large part to urban housing and infrastructure demands in the global south. Timber and other bio-based building technologies offer substantially-lower carbon footprint alternatives, particularly for the primary structure: beams, columns, walls, floor slabs, and cores. At the same time, forests worldwide are vastly undervalued, leading to deforestation (land-use conversion) and degradative management practices. It is estimated that halting deforestation and restoring forests in the tropics alone could reduce global GHG emissions by 30%.

An enormous gap lies between today’s emissions-heavy global built environment linked to the degradation of global forests, and a world where the growth of cities worldwide actively supports the expansion, stewardship and conservation of the world’s forests.

A transition from "building as usual" to a forest-positive built environment must be prioritized as existential and immediate. A global forest-positive built environment is a team sport and radically inclusive. It is for the young and the old, the urban and the rural, the north and the south. It is for scientists and prophets, teachers and builders, nurturers and risk-takers. It will rely on commitment to team play, and on co-creating roles and relationships that are interdependent, demanding and resilient. And it will depend on new ways of sharing the benefits of value-creation that surpasses our current vision and imagination.

Integrating the development demands of new urban buildings with the fate of the world’s forests must be an essential part of any legitimate climate strategy. This integrative approach to demand and supply is a global challenge, and it has extraordinarily high stakes for developing countries and tropical forests.

With this shared mission, thousands of organizations, networks, initiatives, projects, programs, funding mechanisms and technologies currently exist and are offering a vast array of diverse solutions and expertise. Collaboration within this universe is common, but not necessarily strategic, well supported, or systemic. This is evidenced by the consistent and resounding calls from governments, NGOs and private sector actors for more and better collaboration, and that without it we will not meet our collective climate targets. This assumes that current methods of collaboration are not sufficient – most calls assume that more money will incentivise collaboration but few people are proposing new methods of collaboration to create breakthroughs where massive budgets are years away. This is the massive opportunity gap that this initiative seeks to address. 

The Systemic Collaboration Framework will be made up of two parallel work streams: Systemic Collaboration Pilots that demonstrate incremental achievement and build capacity amongst actors, and a Systemic Collaboration Infrastructure which supports long term interdependence between multi sectoral actors in the forest-positive building sector.

Systemic Collaboration Pilots (National Level)

Each Systemic Collaboration Pilot will have unique goals defined by the participating countries and their stakeholder groups. Pilots will be supported by a series of Systemic Collaboration Workshops to meet the co-defined goals and build systemic collaboration capacity amongst participants. Workshops will be multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary. Pilot goals will be rigorously co-created in a unique process, along with targets, measurement protocols, and commitment to collaborative action by all workshop participants. Pilots will be co-designed and implemented to address specific national challenges and commitments; the process and results will be linked to the development and maintenance of the Systemic Collaboration Infrastructure. 

Systemic Collaboration Infrastructure

The Systemic Collaboration Infrastructure will support regional and international collaboration through five interdependent components:

1. A rigorously curated Resource Library with relevant content

2. A comprehensive Organizational Database and Map of potential partners

3. A Global Dynamic Supply and Demand Map for scenario modeling

4. A new Funding Model to incentivize systemic collaboration

5. Pilot Project Support to help each project achieve max potential for impact and scale

This infrastructure has a direct feedback loop with the Pilots. Each component will be informed by and tested during the Pilots. In turn the Pilot process will have full access to the infrastructure at each stage of development.

How much does a lack of collaboration cost us?

In 2021, the International Energy Agency (IEA) published their “Net Zero by 2050” roadmap, which outlined 400+ milestones necessary to  achieve a global net-zero energy sector. The IEA conclude with the priority action: “Take International Co-Operation to New Heights”, stating that this net-zero scenario will not be possible without enhanced international cooperation.

Theory of Change for The Systemic Collaboration Framework.

The Theory of Change elaborates on the structural issues stalling forest-positive built environment development and proposes a systemic solution with the goal of inducing long-term impacts. Moving past the assumption that collaboration amongst actors in the forest-positive built environment is indispensable to articulate a legitimate climate strategy, the Theory of Change further details the suggested steps, outputs, and outcomes that lead to the implementation of a culture of systemic collaboration. A culture of systemic collaboration adapts solutions to local contexts and guides stakeholders, organizations and civil society into reaching net-zero goals and advancing climate-smart solutions globally. The detailed rationale and guiding principles are available here.

Additional Articles, Events and Projects:

WOOD for GLOBE and COFO in Rome: A global convening on timber construction and forests

2024 Buildings & Climate Global Forum Session, Paris

Co-creation workshop at COP 28: A gathering of global leaders met in Dubai to explore what a global platform for systemic collaboration might look like.

Systemic Collaboration: Sink, Swim or Sail

Read more about our COP28 event

Immediate actions for policy and industry leaders on bio-based low carbon construction