Updates to the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) P100 Facilities Standards in 2024 expanded the requirement to include “value ecosystem services” for GSA-owned buildings and building projects. Will it be an inflection point for greater sustainability in the federal building sector?
Action to address global biodiversity loss has been picking up pace since 2022 when 196 countries signed off on the Kunming-Montreal agreement, which aims to halt and reverse nature loss, including protecting 30% of the lands and oceans by 2030.1
Multiple jurisdictions are legislating policies that put a firmer focus on sustainability in the built environment, including in the U.K. where changes to the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 released in April 2024, now require developers to deliver a 10% biodiversity net gain for all building developments.2
In May, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) released the new updates to P100 Facilities Standards for the Public Building Service. P100 sets design and construction standards and performance criteria for around 300,000 federal buildings across the country.3
The updated standards include stringent sustainability requirements for new and renovated GSA-owned buildings around energy conservation and use, low carbon materials and water reuse. For the first time, GSA also requires developers to “value ecosystem services”.
Ecosystem services are the services and benefits that we derive from the natural world, such as clean air and water, healthy soils and climate regulation. They are services that we — and all other species on the planet — rely on - for health, wellbeing and, ultimately, survival.
Requiring federal projects to value ecosystem services is a firm step towards ensuring the built environment is nature-positive, says Jacobs Global Principal - Regenerative & Nature-Based Solutions Chris Allen.
“In the past, the environment was often sacrificed for development and ecosystems were degraded by built environment projects. Today, we are far more aware of the vital role ecosystems play in species health and wellbeing, as well as the economic success of many global industries and businesses.”
“Policies like this are a first step towards improving and even restoring ecosystems and ecosystem services performance, but it stops short at specifying how these services should be measured.”
“Currently, there are no widely accepted or standardised metrics for valuing and measuring ecosystem service performance. To shift the dial even further on sustainability in the federal building sector will require a consistent set of metrics for developers to use to measure ecosystem services and track changes to service performance over time.”
Moving beyond measuring to delivering ecosystem services
Jacobs’ long-term partner, Biomimicry 3.8, was key to getting the new requirement added to the standards and see it as a positive step.
“Understanding the level of ecosystem service performance on a project site provides a baseline for measuring the net impact of construction and design interventions on nature, which includes employees, and the local community embedded in the larger web of Life,” explains Zeynep Arhon, a Certified Biomimicry Professional with Jacobs’ long-term partner, Biomimicry 3.8.
“It is the first step in designing a built environment that functions like the wild lands next door.”
Jacobs and Biomimicry 3.8, in collaboration with EcoMetrix Solutions Group, help built environment projects move beyond measuring ecosystem services to designing with these services in mind.
Using Biomimicry 3.8’s built-environment-specific methodology “Positive Performance”, the team works with clients to deliver large-scale projects such as hospitals, schools, facilities and even cities, aligning the project site’s ecosystem service performance with that of a healthy local habitat by integrating nature-based, nature-inspired, and nature-informed solutions in the building design. The local, healthy habitat not only shapes the project goals for delivering ecosystem services but also informs the selection of optimal solutions tailored to the project site.
“The methodology helps organizations identify innovative, holistic and regenerative design strategies that close the gap between environmental commitments and actual performance in a way that is meaningful to the places where the organization operates,” explains Zeynep.
From sustainability to regeneration: The power of biomimicry in transforming the built environment
After 3.8 billion years of evolution, nature already has solutions to our most pressing challenges. Discover how biomimicry — the innovation and design practice that learns from nature — can transform the built environment into a showcase for a regenerative world.
Updates to the GSA standards are an important step toward sustainability and demonstrates GSA’s commitment to improving environmental outcomes from built environment projects.
“GSA's leadership in incorporating ecosystem services valuation into the P100 sends a powerful signal to a wide range of stakeholders — including federal, state, and local agencies, employees, and the private sector — who are invested in the integrated economic, social, and ecological performance of federal properties," concludes Chris.
“More needs to be done to ensure all GSA projects provide ecosystem services that are on par with the healthy habitats nearby. It’s time to turn to nature’s time-tested design strategies to set truly regenerative goals and find the best solutions to get us there,” says Zeynep.
As we continue in2025, we’re excited to see how this change helps drive nature positive outcomes in the federal building sector.
References:
Find your next sustainability read
-
How biomimicry can transform the built environment into a showcase for a regenerative world.
-
Ensuring future building and infrastructure projects do not cause further degradation of the environment.
-
Why reducing the environmental footprint of power-hungry data centers is becoming increasingly important.
Explore more from our newsroom
-
News
Jacobs Joins the Network for Engineering with Nature
Jacobs has joined the Network for Engineering with Nature, an organization bringing together researchers, practitioners and academics to drive alignment between nature and engineering.
-
News
Inspired by Nature’s Genius
Jacobs has pledged to Get Nature Positive and work towards halting and reversing the decline of nature by 2030, a target considered crucial in achieving the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. The campaign, led by the Council for Sustainable Business, sees 95 leading companies unite across different sectors in the U.K. to Get Nature Positive by 2030. Aligned with COP26 ambitions, business leaders will be joining forces to create a global goal for nature.
-
News
Designing Wellness: 5 Lessons for Building the Hospital of the Future
Building the hospitals of the future requires technology, talent and evidence-based design. Dochitect Dr. Diana Anderson shares her five-point blueprint for building hospitals that improve healing and well-being.
You might also be interested in
Project Positive - A collaboration of change agents - including Jacobs - using Positive Performance methodology to transform the built environment - https://www.biomimicry.net/project-positive-regenerative-design-built-environment-transformative-biomimicry/
Biomimicry 3.8 and Ecometrix’s Nature is Positive paper - https://biomimicry.net/naturepositive/
EcoMetrix Solutions Group’s Ecosystem Intelligence Platform - https://www.ecosystemintelligence.com/