Climate Action & Sustainability
We offer sustainability consulting services and climate action strategies for developers, building owners, and tenants. Focusing on certification, strategy, and analytics, we help organizations and communities achieve carbon targets and sustainability goals.
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The best outcomes happen when sustainability is integrated from the start of design.
—Kirsten Ritchie, Climate Action & Sustainability leader
27 Items
Google at St. John’s Terminal
New York, New York
St. John’s Terminal is a sustainable 12-story workplace designed as Google’s Global Business Organization headquarters located in Hudson Square in New York.
Pacific Center
San Diego, California
Pacific Center, a life sciences campus and mixed-use development in San Diego, is optimized for an enhanced tenant experience and is targeting LEED Zero Energy.
NVIDIA
Santa Clara, California
The Silicon Valley pioneer NVIDIA sought a corporate headquarters that reflected its core belief in people as its greatest asset.
First United Bank
Fredericksburg, Texas
First United Bank wanted to create an open, inviting environment that serves the community with a design that is sustainable, timeless, and long-lasting.
The Lighthouse
South San Francisco, California
The Lighthouse is a shared amenity space for a community of biotech companies in South San Francisco, that is targeting net zero energy.
San Francisco International Airport, T1 Net Zero Program
San Francisco, California
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) has set the goal of becoming the first airport in the world to achieve zero carbon, zero waste, and zero net energy.
Under Armour Global Headquarters
Baltimore, Maryland
Under Armour’s new global headquarters building in Baltimore’s Port Covington reaffirms the company’s long-term resilience commitment in a building, constructed almost entirely of mass timber.
10 Gresham Street
London, United Kingdom
Gensler partnered with CBRE IM to reimagine 10 Gresham Street, an office building transformation that will usher in a new sustainable future in London.
Sustainable Shade Structures
Tirrases, Curridabat, San José Province, Costa Rica
This research initiative focuses on the relationship between extreme heat and vulnerable communities and creating actionable steps to offset climate injustice.
Rancho Los Amigos – Harriman
Downey, California
For over a century, the 212-acre Rancho Los Amigos campus has been a cornerstone of the Downey community, supporting the physical and mental health and wellb...
LinkedIn Omaha
Omaha, Nebraska
LinkedIn partnered with Gensler to design its new 200,000-square-foot campus in Omaha, Nebraska — the first portfolio project embracing LinkedIn’s Future of Work Strategy, developed alongside Gensler.
American Physical Therapy Association Headquarters
Alexandria, Virginia
The new headquarters of the American Physical Therapy Association empowers employee collaboration and promotes mobility, accessibility, and sustainability.
CSULB Parkside North Residence Hall and Housing Administration Building
Long Beach, California
California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) enlisted Gensler to help reach the university’s goal of achieving net-zero status by 2030.
The Link
Denver, Colorado
The Link is a creative mixed-use office tower in downtown Denver that transforms an existing building into a modern, amenity-rich environment.
The Acre
London, United Kingdom
Gensler transformed an inward-looking, closed off building into a modern and sustainable workplace that connects The Acre’s past with its future in the heart of London’s Covent Garden.
Torre Universal Sustainability
San José, Costa Rica
Torre Universal, a modern, class A+ corporate office and retail center in San José, strives to be a benchmark of sustainable development, multimodal mobility, and vertical urbanism.
Café Britt Headquarters
Heredia, Costa Rica
Café Britt tapped Gensler to design a highly sustainable headquarters that mirror its company values and embodies its environmental responsibility ethos.
citizenM
Seattle, Washington
Located in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, citizenM is the city’s first fully modular hotel and a model for sustainable hotel design.
Walmart Home Office
Bentonville, Arkansas
Walmart’s new 350-acre home office will be fully integrated into the community, and inclusive of the natural beauty of Northwest Arkansas.
Holt Renfrew Sustainable Guidelines
Toronto, Ontario
Canadian luxury department store chain Holt Renfrew tapped Gensler’s Climate Action & Sustainability consultants to develop its sustainable design and construction guidelines.
UPCycle
Austin, Texas
Guided by the concepts of upcycling, adaptive reuse, and a sustainable design approach, Gensler repositioned a dilapidated old warehouse into creative offices.
Centro de Convenciones de Costa Rica
Heredia, Costa Rica
Costa Rica’s first convention center sustainable design milestone in a country that pioneered eco-tourism and is committed to a forward-looking green ethos.
CSU Northridge Student Sustainability Center
Northridge, California
Through net zero consulting and LEED certification management, Gensler’s Climate Action & Sustainability consultants helped the Center achieve LEED Platinum status and become the completed net zero energy building in the CSU system, with a 24KW rooftop photovoltaic array with a glazed overhead window that offsets the building’s entire energy needs.
Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC)
Houston, Texas
Gensler designed the Houston Advanced Research Center to embody its sustainability mission and serve as a prototype for affordable, high-performing buildings.
Etsy
Brooklyn, New York
Etsy’s 200,000-square-foot headquarters is one of the largest Living Building Challenge (LBC) Petal-Certified buildings in New York City.
U.S. General Services Administration, Federal Office Building
Miramar, Florida
Along with Hensel Phelps, Gensler is managing a design-build team that will deliver this new GSA office building to meet the 2030 “net zero” objectives of...
Santa Monica College Core Performance Center
Santa Monica, California
This new building at the heart of the Santa Monica College campus serves as a focal point for the physical activities of the student population.
INSIGHTS
Blog
How a New Vision for Flexible Co-Living Conversions Can Support Housing Affordability
Gensler and The Pew Charitable Trusts studied building typologies in 10 cities to better understand the potential in this unique office-to-residential conversion model.
Blog
Scaling Circular Design: Key Policies, Standards, and Strategies
As momentum grows for circular design, cities and clients face significant challenges and opportunities to implement it widely.
Blog
Climate Change Is Threatening What We Love About Cities
If cities hope to thrive in the face of climate change, they’ll need to balance emotional connection with environmental resilience.
Blog
The Carbon Impact of a Workday
When people calculate their carbon impact, they typically consider their cars, food, clothes, and flights. But they rarely consider where they spend their day. It’s time to change that.
Blog
7 Myths Dogging Efforts to Fully Electrify Buildings — Let’s Bust Them
Despite misconceptions, building electrification is a practical and beneficial choice for many building owners.
Blog
Reimagining Haussmann: Adaptive Workplace Design in the Parisian Urban Fabric
A look at how we can adapt these historic apartments to become sustainable, flexible, and human-centered workplaces for the future.
Research
The Carbon Impact of a Workday
The Gensler Research Institute partnered with the MIT Mobility Initiative to quantify workplace, residence, and commuting emissions across U.S. cities to better understand how organizations can cut emissions during the workday.
Blog
How London’s Green Real Estate Can Lead the Global Climate Agenda
Despite global decarbonisation efforts, emissions continue to rise. But the UK is quietly and steadily reducing its carbon footprint.
Blog
How Cities Can Establish Resilient Communities
To mitigate potential damage and risk, cities can form resilient communities to proactively prepare for, respond to, and recover from a disaster.
Blog
A Surprising Reason to Feel Good About Returning to the Office
Why shared office space is a greener choice than working from home.
Blog
How to Design for Resilience
Resilient design is no longer a nice to have; it’s good business. Gensler’s Resilience Design report uncovers some key resilient design strategies.
Sustainability
Resilience by Design
Our Resilience by Design Report presents solutions for transforming the built environment to achieve a net zero carbon impact across our portfolio and the design industry.
Insight
Gensler Product Sustainability Standards Overview
Gensler Product Sustainability (GPS) Standards™ is an open-source tool that empowers architects, manufacturers, and clients with product-specific standardized criteria for the most used materials to move toward more regenerative building materials.
Blog
Creating a More Resilient Future With Green and Thriving Cities
As the demand for sustainable and liveable cities grows, urban planners and architects are adopting innovative strategies to harmonise built and natural environments.
Blog
Why Low-Carbon, Healthy Materials Are an Imperative for the Building Industry
Gensler’s updated Product Sustainability Standards™ aim to reduce the environmental impact of the building material supply chain, while driving industry change.
Trends in Climate Action & Sustainability
The building industry de-risks investments with resilience strategies.
With rising urban heat and flooding, investors seek solutions that protect the long-term value of real estate. Cities and developers turn to nature-based infrastructure, resilient building retrofits, and targeted climate risk modeling to safeguard assets against escalating physical risks.
Circularity takes center stage.
Circular design reshapes the built environment. From adaptive reuse and modular design to material recovery and deconstruction, owners, developers, architects, and urban planners rethink waste as an opportunity. By treating buildings as material banks, the industry cuts carbon, conserves resources, and moves closer to net-zero goals.
AI and machine learning tools improve sustainable performance insights.
AI-driven management systems and machine learning platforms allow building owners and operators to predict, track, manage, and optimize their energy, water, carbon, occupant comfort, and air quality performance in real time.
CLIMATE ACTION & SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP
Kirsten Ritchie
Global Climate Action & Sustainability Leader, Cities Sector Leader, Principal
As a global leader of Gensler’s Climate Action & Sustainability practice, Kirsten Ritchie serves as one of the firm’s leading sustainability ambassadors.
NEWS
In The Media
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Metropolis Magazine
Gensler’s David Briefel Is Recognized As 2025’s Sustainability Leader Winner at the Planet Positive Awards
Metropolis Magazine recognized Gensler Climate Action Studio Director David Briefel for his impact in driving industry transformation through both built work and systems change.
October 16, 2025
In The Media
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CNBC
How Gensler’s AI-Powered Tool Can Guide Decisions to Advance Resilient, Sustainable Real Estate
CNBC Property Play Newsletter shared insights from Gensler Co-CEO Jordan Goldstein on how the firm utilizes a proprietary AI-powered tool that measures embodied carbon early in design to inform smarter material choices.
September 23, 2025
In The Media
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Dezeen
Gensler Leads Iraq’s Largest Ecological Development
Gensler’s master plan reimagines Baghdad with civic landmarks, cultural hubs, and urban villages within a vast new forest.
September 16, 2025
In The Media
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Microsoft
How Microsoft Is Building Its First Datacenters With “Superstrong” Hybrid Mass Timber
Designed by Gensler and Thornton Tomasetti, Microsoft’s two Virginia datacenters will significantly reduce their embodied carbon footprint by 35% compared to conventional steel construction.
October 31, 2024
In The Media
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Reuters
Reuters’ The Switch Interviewed Design Resilience Leader Rives Taylor About How Architecture Is Adapting to Climate Change
Taylor shared solutions for locales experiencing extreme heat and flooding, including passive cooling via building orientation and the use of green roofs to absorb rain and help shade surrounding areas. Watch the episode.
October 10, 2024
Press Release
Gensler Product Sustainability Standards Reduce Environmental Impact of Architectural Interiors
Updated standards advance Gensler’s commitment to reducing the environmental impact of the building material supply chain while prioritizing individual wellness and driving industry change.
September 24, 2024
In The Media
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Forbes
How Gensler Is Reshaping Cities To Withstand Environmental, Economic, and Cultural Changes
Forbes interviewed Design Director Roger Sherman, who leads Gensler’s Urban Impact Group. The group fosters urban transformation through innovative solutions including Urban Awning, a new housing typology that reduces construction costs and delivery time.
May 28, 2024
In The Media
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Interior Design
Interior Design Named Gensler the #1 Firm on Its 2024 Sustainability Giants List
For the second year in a row, Gensler topped the list of firms with revenue from projects with measurable sustainability goals.
April 19, 2024
In The Media
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Curbed
Curbed Featured the Recently Revealed Google’s St. John’s Terminal in NYC
Architecture critic Justin Davidson noted that “Gensler has designed an indoor city with looping streets, unexpected plazas, and rooms for every work style, from the conference-table meeting to the slouch-and-hang.”
February 26, 2024
In The Media
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Women in Sustainability Leadership Awards
The 2024 Women in Sustainability Leadership Awards Recognized Gensler Sustainability Director Mallory Taub
Mallory Taub was honored as one of ten sustainability leaders making significant positive changes to the planet. At Gensler, she is committed to turning climate goals into strategic action across multiple scales of impact.
February 16, 2024
In The Media
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Worklife
How Companies Are Prepping for California’s New Climate Emissions Law
Worklife noted how “Gensler has long been at the forefront of helping design sustainable workplaces” in reference to Gensler’s Product Sustainability Standards.
February 07, 2024
In The Media
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MEED Middle East Business Intelligence
Gensler’s Andy Cohen on How the Buildings and Cities of the Future Can Achieve Net Zero
MEED featured an exclusive interview with Andy Cohen at COP28, who discussed why sustainable design is key to cutting carbon emissions.
January 16, 2024
In The Media
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Green Building & Design
The Pros and Cons of Building With Precast Concrete
Gensler’s Jackson Metcalf shared the surprising benefits of precast concrete as a sustainable building material in the short- and long-term.
October 24, 2023
Recognition
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Engineering News-Record
Gensler
Gensler ranked #1 on ENR’s 2023 Top 100 Green Design Firms list.
September 13, 2023
In The Media
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Fast Company
How To Mitigate Extreme Heat in Vulnerable Communities
Gensler designed an adaptable shading structure that can be configured to fit different kinds of public spaces.
September 07, 2023
In The Media
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Ten Across
What Sustainable Cities of the Future Could Look Like
Ten Across interviewed Gensler Mobility & Transportation Leader Dylan Jones at Gensler’s Los Angeles office about what the sustainable cities of the future could look like. Watch the video.
August 04, 2023