GIGABASE™ benchmarks materials, products and projects according to the most relevant global green standards as well as RESET™.

RESET™

Regenerative Ecological, Social, Economic Targets

RESET™ defines a set of targets that regenerate our ecological, social and economic environments for both developing and developed countries.

Target 1: Everything we make needs to improve our ecology.

Imagine a factory, a building or a city that fosters biodiversity, cleans water and air, generates topsoil and sequesters carbon, all while being powered by current solar energy. This may seem impossible but it isn't: nature has been achieving these standards for hundreds of thousands of years. Our ecosystem has evolved this way, eliminating every organism that undermines its ability to meet these standards. Being eliminated from the ecosystem is the reality that we face today.

Target 2: Everything we make needs to improve our society.

We have long ago realized that the ecological challenge will be impossible to achieve unless our basic societal needs are met. Beyond the needs of our ecosystem, we must also foster a stable society, equal opportunity, health and knowledge.

Target 3: Everything we make needs to improve our economy.

Finally, of all our societal creations the economy has long been identified as the single greatest engine of ecological and societal destruction. Realizing that a great force of destruction can be a greater force of creation, we believe the economy can and should be the single greatest engine of regeneration.

Our standards are both positive and extremely ambitious. The challenge is bold, but our survival depends on it.

Introduction

Past: Everything we make is bad

Over the past 40 years the West has developed an approach to sustainability that has spread internationally. It is based on the assumption that everything we make is bad - that everything we make is part of the problem. Logically, the solutions that have grown out of this approach focus on minimizing the impact of what we make: minimizing toxicity levels, carbon emissions and resource use to name but a few, with minimization typically achieved through higher efficiency levels. In the words of the Cradle to Cradle approach this means that we're still being bad, we're just being less bad.

We have now realized that minimizing negative impact will buy us a little bit of time - at best - but that it will eventually lead to the collapse of the ecosystem that sustains us.

Future: Everything we make is good

More recently, various pioneers have begun to ask a different question: what if everything we made was good? Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, Jaime Lerner, Janine Benyus, Michael Braungart, William McDonough and Jason McLennan are a few great examples. What these people have challenged us to consider is this: what if everything we made - from industrial design to fashion and print media, from building materials to buildings and cities - were part of the solution. What if they improved our environments? If they were, we could focus on scaling their impact and maximizing growth that actually repairs the damage we've done.

China has a history of leap-frogging the West. Although it is beginning to mimic the West, it could very well leap-frog this path and define the future.

Sustainability vs. Regeneration

Sustainability is just another word for maintenance. Its current goal is to reduce our negative impact on the environment to zero and maintain it at that level. Not only is this contrary to the way our ecosystem functions, it also suggests that our environments are in conditions worth sustaining.

We need to be honest and pragmatic about the state of our environments. Before we can even talk about sustainability we must act on solutions which repair the damage we've done. We must first enable our ecological, social and economic environments to regenerate, and then sustain their ability to grow and change. Sustainability and reducing our negative impact to zero is not enough. If we are to survive we must increase our positive impact. We must prioritize repair and regeneration. GIGABASE™ was created for precisely this purpose.

Developing a system for the developing world

Over the past 40 years, sustainability has been for the elite. If it wasn't, it would have spread to the developing world a long time ago. Currently, it hasn't even spread to the developed world. From this perspective, we think of all countries as 'developing'. Up until now, measures of sustainability have used an 'all or nothing' approach, making evaluations and certifications extremely expensive and time consuming. GIGABASE™ has pioneered an incremental system that drastically lowers the barrier to entry for manufacturers and developers - large or small.

GIGABASE™ begins with a simple analysis of the big picture. It then provides a set of targets that can be achieved incrementally. Every incremental improvement raises a product's ranking, enables them to gain further market share and invest into further improvements. In this way, the RESET™ standards remain affordable, attainable and un-compromised.

The 3 simplest things designers can do to participate:

- Ask material suppliers how their product ranks on GIGABASE™. This is a simple and extremely powerful way to participate. Not only does it help us build a better database for you, it also signals to manufacturers that our environments are important to you.

- Let material suppliers know you will not consider their products unless they are ranked. Be bold. GIGABASE™ was created to prioritize transparency and the manufacturers who are making the greatest efforts. Being bold creates demand and allows you to find the best materials in the industry.

- Use, use, use. Use the database. Use the forum and the blogs. Ask questions. Answer questions. Give us feedback... this site was created for you. The more you use it, the more you become an expert and the more you prioritize improving our environments.

The 3 simplest things manufacturers can do to participate:

- Use the RESET™ and MNI matrix to look for ways to improve your products. Each item represents an opportunity to differentiate yourself from your competition, gain market share and have a positive impact on our environments.

- Test your own material / product: upload it into the user-database. This will help you understand your own product better while connecting you to designers, contractors and developers who are looking to support change.

- Participate in forum discussions. As an industry expert, your perspective helps designers and differentiates you from your competition.