I’m writing to see who would be interested in collaborating during the month of December on a position paper that would be given to the incoming Biden administration, outlining things that firms in our industries (i.e. architecture, engineering and construction) would be excited to see advanced as part of Biden’s Build-Back-Better (BBB) program. How do we help the administration make sure that the program is set up for success in advancing GHG emission reductions, health, and equity in projects across the built environment spectrum?
We’re imagining this piece would be relatively short and high-level, focused on narratives like:
- Rapid job creation
- Electrification (of everything)
- Decarbonization
- Human health and equity in the built environment
- Other meta-themes?
We know that lots and lots of people are already delving into similar efforts, outlining a raft of things Biden can/should do early in his administration without having to pass legislation. Here is an example article from the American Prospect: The 277 Policies for Which Biden Need Not Ask Permission
Given this, the reason for a group like ours to provide a paper is because it would be coming from “Industry”, which is a key constituency politicians listen to. We also know that a host of great NGOs (e.g. RMI, NRDC, 350.org, Sierra Club, etc.) will also be providing their opinions, but their opinions are largely known and expected, and sometimes discounted because they are “special interests”. The technical depth of their contributions will be invaluable to the administration, but the administration needs to know that new policies and rules being proposed are realistic, achievable, and that they will be supported and embraced by the industries responsible for meeting those rules and regulations.
Given this, we can try to coordinate our message with those coming from the NGOs, such that our position is complementary to theirs.
One example of such an approach is:
- Electrification of buildings and infrastructure – policies, rules and incentives:
- The NGOs will be providing well researched data for things like:
- Why electrification is so important to carbon draw-down
- How (positively) jobs-intensive such an effort can be
- What sort of industry transitions may be required for such a shift
- How effective such a strategy will be in the near, mid and long term
- Etc.
- Our segment of the design and construction industry can make points like:
- We know how to design and build these buildings and infrastructure components today, cost-effectively
- Our firms (read “Industry”) will publicly support such policies and work actively to help our broader industries make the necessary shifts and transitions to a new way of building, in order to Build-Back-Better.
- The NGOs will be providing well researched data for things like:
For this effort to be maximally effective, we will also need to determine who is already focused on these issues within the Biden administration, and hopefully leverage connections in our robust network to get this information to those individuals. If we just “mail this in” we can expect that it will get put on a tall stack of letters that will get opened sometime in Q2, if we’re lucky.
We need the collective wisdom (and network connections) of this group to pull this off! So if you are interested, please reply to this message and BuildingGreen will set up a coordination and brainstorm session for early December. Here is a link to a sign-up form to accelerate pulling the group together. You can also make somments in the forum if you wish, but if you want to participate, please use the form.
Best regards,
Clark and Nadav
