Australia must seek innovative ways to bring nature back into urban environments and use nature-based solutions to deliver important urban outcomes, a new paper has found.

Released last month at the organisation’s Transform conference, the Building With Nature 2.0 report published by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) outlines GBCA’s current thinking regarding strategies which are needed to bring nature back into the built environment.

GBCA Chief Impact Officer, Jorge Chapa, said that the built environment sector is at a turning point when it comes to protecting and enhancing nature and biodiversity.

“Nature and biodiversity can no longer be an add-on to projects,” Chapa said.

“When we incorporate it into our early planning for building projects, we can enhance biodiversity, reduce emissions and create a healthier environment for people and our planet.”

The paper’s release comes at a time when nature and biodiversity is under threat.

Worldwide, the Living Planet Report published by the World Wildlife Fund last year found that wildlife populations declined by an average of 69 percent between 1970 and 2018.

According to that report, land clearing and land-use change is currently the most significant cause of nature and biodiversity loss. However, climate change also looms as a growing concern.

In Australia, the 2021 edition of the five-yearly State of the Environment Report indicates that almost 2,000 (1,918 to exact) plant and animal species were listed as threatened in June 2021. This represents an increase of eight percent from 1,774 in June 2016.

Turning to the built environment, the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark reports that buildings and infrastructure accounts for around 35 percent of all biodiversity …