Building bio-cities – investing in nature to transform our urban landscapes

    Building bio-cities – investing in nature to transform our urban landscapes

    key takeaways.

    • Integrating nature into urban spaces – through biomimicry, sustainable materials like engineered wood, and bio-cities – can cut emissions and enhance resilience
    • The transition to a nature-positive economy can unlock hundreds of billions in new revenues while making cities and natural landscapes more climate-resilient
    • Shifting from an extractive to a regenerative economy requires rethinking how we design, build, and live in cities, as well as a fundamental mindset change.

    Despite covering just 2% of the terrestrial surface, urban areas use 75% of the natural resources we consume.1 Towns and cities are also responsible for 70% of global CO₂ emissions2 and 75% of energy-related emissions3, caused largely by transport and the lifecycle of buildings (including construction and day-to-day operations). Cities are an outsized cause of climate change and the degradation of the natural world.

    According to Dr Marc Palahí, Chief Nature Officer at Lombard Odier, cities are also a victim, with those who live in them often most vulnerable to the impact of rising temperatures and extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and wildfires, tragic evidence of which was seen in the Los Angeles fires that began on 7th January this year.

    Despite covering just 2% of the terrestrial surface, urban areas use 75% of the natural resources we consume. Towns and cities are also responsible for 70% of global CO₂ emissions and 75% of energy-related emissions

    Around the world, 2 billion city residents face extreme heat each year, exacerbated by the urban heat island effect.4 More than 800 million people across 570 cities are vulnerable to sea level rise and coastal flooding.5 Meanwhile 1 billion people in cities are facing water scarcity6 and 1.7 billion are living with food insecurity7.

    That’s why, at the prestigious Yale School of Architecture, experts from around the world gathered recently for a three-day symposium, to explore how we can rethink our urban spaces to reduce their environmental impact and make them more resilient to climate shocks. Joining more than fifty leading voices from across numerous disciplines, Dr Marc Palahí, outlined why, as we construct the cities of the future, we should take our inspiration from nature itself.

    Read also: How sustainable cities are reshaping industries

    Absorbing economic shocks

    “We’ve reached a tipping point in human history,” Dr Palahí began. “This is the result of more than 200 years of operating an extractive economy powered by fossil fuels. It’s an economy that has resulted in unprecedented economic growth and technological development, but that has come at the expense of nature, climate, and our own future.”

    “For the first time in history, humans have changed the climate of our planet. We’re crossing the planetary boundaries – the safe operating spaces of our planet – due to massive loss of biodiversity, degradation of our natural systems, and the accumulation of pollutants.”

    Our environment can no longer absorb the shocks that our economy is generating, so our economy is having to absorb its own shocks. Global insured losses as a result of climate change and nature degradation have doubled in the last ten years

    “The problem is that all these different breaches start accelerating each other. For instance, when we lose our forests, we’re not only losing the largest terrestrial carbon sink, and one of the main sources of oxygen and water, but we’re also releasing huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. This accelerates climate change and natural disturbances like wildfires, that in turn will destroy more forests and release more carbon. So you enter a vicious cycle. We saw this with the massive wildfires in Canada in 2023, that burned almost 20 million hectares of forest. Those fires released the equivalent of 3.5 times the annual GHG emissions of Canada in just a few months.”

    “Our environment can no longer absorb the shocks that our economy is generating, so our economy is having to absorb its own shocks. Global insured losses as a result of climate change and nature degradation have doubled in the last ten years. The new normal is now above USD 100 billion per year of insured losses due to catastrophic climate-driven events, and this year we will probably see a record because in just a single event – the recent Los Angeles wildfires – it’s estimated there have been USD 35 billion of insured losses. But, of course, the overall economic losses are much greater still.”

    Read also: Building a Circular Bioeconomy to address the growing risk of wildfires

    Cities shape the world

    However, just as cities are so often at the front-end of climate harms, they can also become a major part of the solution, Dr Palahí explained. “We shape our cities and then they shape our world, our economy, the way we live and consume, even the way we think. This is why cities are so important.”

    “There are so many ways to integrate nature-based solutions into urban regeneration. This will not only help with climate mitigation, it can also deliver adaptation and resilience,” he continued.

    In recent years, a growing number of players in the construction industry have picked up on this call for nature-based solutions. In the US, for example, cement manufacturer Biomason has taken inspiration from the way coral grows to create a lab-grown bio-cement that is 20% lighter than traditional cement yet three times stronger. It is also, crucially, carbon-neutral.

    With timber acting as a natural store of carbon, this switch can cut the carbon intensiveness of buildings by up to 90%, and has the potential to reduce global CO₂ emissions by as much as 31%

    Turning to more traditional alternatives, Dr Palahí noted that “wood, the most versatile material on Earth,” can be turned into strong and lightweight laminated timber to replace the concrete and steel structural elements of even high-rise buildings. With timber acting as a natural store of carbon, this switch can cut the carbon intensiveness of buildings by up to 90%, and has the potential to reduce global CO₂ emissions by as much as 31%8, “transforming cities and buildings into a vast carbon storage infrastructure”9.

    Read also: Building green: how engineered wood is transforming sustainable architecture

    Integrating nature into urban landscapes

    Today, urban planners, developers and architects are increasingly echoing Dr Palahí’s call, and turning to nature for design inspiration. Farid Mohamed, an engineer at US-based consultancy Biomimicry 3.8, believes our buildings and cityscapes should aim to mimic nature: “If you were going to create a facility like a factory next to a forest, then that urban environment should perform at the same level as the forest next door. It should be able to perform ecosystem functions like stormwater management, nutrient cycling, air filtration, and providing wellbeing for communities.”

    For people living in cities, it’s estimated that integrating nature could reduce peak urban temperatures by 1-3 degrees Celsius, while reforesting just 5% of uplands near cities could protect urban dwellers by cutting flood peaks

    This approach is perhaps writ largest with the ‘sponge city’ concept which, in recent years, has been deployed in dozens of cities around the world. Instead of relying only on artificial infrastructure to prevent flooding, sponge cities absorb, clean, and channel rainwater through plants, trees, soil, rivers, and lakes. The result is a cleaner and more secure supply of water for city residents, a reduced heat island effect, more ‘nature in the city’, and a substantially lower risk of flooding.10

    For people living in cities, it’s estimated that integrating nature could reduce peak urban temperatures by 1-3 degrees Celsius11, while reforesting just 5% of uplands near cities could protect urban dwellers by cutting flood peaks12. Speaking at the Yale symposium, Dr Palahí said, “By doing this, we are creating a system that sequesters carbon, supports biodiversity, and builds resilience into the landscape. Nature is our best insurance.” 

    Read also: Architects take inspiration from nature to build a sustainable future

    Unlocking regenerative growth

    For investors, Dr Palahí noted, this nature-first approach “doesn’t have to be a choice between protecting nature and unlocking growth – these things can be delivered at the same time.”

    The transition to a nature-positive economy will make cityscapes and natural landscapes more resilient to climate shocks – it will also unlock new avenues of regenerative growth, he explained. In Europe, for instance, it is estimated that putting nature at the centre of city regeneration could unlock EUR 575 billion in new revenues.13 In Africa, 8 million jobs, 5 million new housing units, and USD 200 billion of growth could be created by shifting 50% of wood usage to the built environment14. While globally, the market for engineered wood for construction use is projected to grow at a compound 5.3%, rising from USD 254.2 billion in 2023 to USD 427.3 billion by 2033.15

    In Europe, it is estimated that putting nature at the centre of city regeneration could unlock EUR 575 billion in new revenues

    While the transition is essential, it will not be easy, Dr Palahí warned. “A nature-first economy is also a people-first economy, because we are an integral part of nature,” he said. “However, our greatest challenge is not any lack of technology or regulations, or even finance, it’s in our minds. It’s in changing the collective mindset that has resulted in 200 years of extractive, fossil-based economic thinking.”

    “If we want to change this, and move to a regenerative mindset, we need to understand that nature does not belong to us, we belong to nature. For billions of years, nature has been delivering solutions as the environment has changed. Now we must be humble enough to let nature be our teacher.”

    view sources.
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    1 Resource efficiency & green economy | UNEP – UN Environment Programme
    2 Cities and climate change | UNEP – UN Environment Programme
    3 Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Inventories | Greenhouse Gas Protocol
    4 Global urban population exposure to extreme heat | PNAS – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
    5 Fact sheet – Cities and Settlements by the Sea | IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding | C40 Cities
    6 Future global urban water scarcity and potential solutions | Nature Communications
    7 Strengthening Urban and Peri-Urban Food Systems to Achieve Food Security and Nutrition, in the Context of Urbanization and Rural Transformation | CFS – Committee on World Food Security
    8 Can timber construction overcome its growing pains? | Reuters
    9 Buildings can become a global CO2 sink if made out of wood instead of cement and steel | ScienceDaily
    10 How 'sponge cities' can help protect against flooding | WEF – World Economic Forum
    11 Building Prosperity: Unlocking the potential of a nature-positive, circular economy for Europe | Ellen MacArthur Foundation
    12 How rewilding reduces flood risk | Rewilding Britain; Impacts of Upland Land Management on Flood Risk: Multi-Scale Modelling Methodology and Results from the Pontbren Experiment | FRMRC – Flood Risk Management Research Consortium
    13 Building Prosperity: Unlocking the potential of a nature-positive, circular economy for Europe | Ellen MacArthur Foundation
    14 holistiQ Investment Managers data, LOIM
    15 Engineered Wood Marke Size, Share, Trends – Forecast 2033 | Allied Market Research

    important information

    This is a marketing communication issued by Bank Lombard Odier & Co Ltd (hereinafter “Lombard Odier”).
    It is not intended for distribution, publication, or use in any jurisdiction where such distribution, publication, or use would be unlawful, nor is it aimed at any person or entity to whom it would be unlawful to address such a marketing communication.

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