Institute for the Built Environment

01/16/2026

IBE's Brian Dunbar was voted 2025 Colorado Green Building Guild Green Champion. Karen Ramsey, principal of Building Wellness who worked with Brian to remodel Fort Collins' Teaching Tree Childcare facility, nominated him and shared these kind words during Wednesday's awards ceremony:

"Brian is a leader in Colorado’s clean energy and building performance community, and a driving force behind the work of CSU’s Institute for the Built Environment. Through IBE, Brian has helped bridge research, industry, and real-world implementation, turning ambitious climate and energy goals into practical tools that designers, builders, and building owners can actually use. Brian has been instrumental in programs like the Lifelong Homes & Communities certification that is making our homes healthier, more resilient, and more energy-efficient across the state. His ability to connect big ideas to real-world impact is why he's been chosen as the 2025 Green Champion award winner."

Congratulations, Brian, and thank you for all you've done and continue to do for our communities!

01/09/2026

Voting for the the Colorado Green Building Guild 2025 awards is open and IBE's very own Brian Dunbar has been nominated for the Green Champion Award. Voting closes this Sunday, January 11, at midnight. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/25HMZG6

This nomination recognizes Brian’s long-standing leadership and impact in advancing high-performance, sustainable, and regenerative practices in the built environment, and his decades of influence as an educator, collaborator, and advocate. On behalf of IBE and those we serve, thank you, Brian, for your service!

10/28/2025

Early bird pricing for our new Regenerative Planning & Place Stewardship course ends this Friday, October 31!

This team-based course is designed for city and county planners, landscape architects, and other land stewards. Join IBE and the Regenesis Institute for Regenerative Practice to deepen your capacity for co-creating places that harmonize with the local ecology and lift up the local community. Together with your team, you'll build greater resilience in the face of regional and global challenges.

Learn more and register today: https://ibe.colostate.edu/regenerative-planning-place-stewardship/?fbclid=IwY2xjawNt0GNleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFRd3hPR1c3bmdIZzVMQ3h0AR4vStmKPLZFuovtcIX2IQoRchpQgx7K9fot7gEVwEPibvc3bRt6eYiVWGpP7A_aem_J5QDvIJ1XJq3ZG1JhX1UKw

Regenerative Planning & Place Stewardship A six-month course for planning and place stewardship professionals Course Overview The Institute for the Built Environment and the Regenesis Institute for Regenerative Practice are offering a new course focused on applied regenerative practice for local gov...

10/15/2025

Early bird pricing ends October 31 for our new team-based course in applied regenerative practice, designed for city and county planners, landscape architects, and other land stewards.

We're partnering with the Regenesis Institute for Regenerative Practice to offer the course, starting in January. Join with your team to deepen your collective capacity for place-sourced work grounded in living systems principles. Together, you’ll learn to co-create places that align with local ecologies, strengthen communities, and build resilience in the face of regional and global challenges.

Learn more and register: https://ibe.colostate.edu/regenerative-planning-place-stewardship/

10/02/2025

We're excited to be partnering with the Regenesis Institute for Regenerative Practice to offer a new team-based course focused on applied regenerative practice for local government planners, landscape architects, and other land stewards.

Participate with your team to generate new capabilities to lead place-sourced work grounded in the principles of living systems and to increase your capacity for co-creating places that harmonize with the local ecology and lift up the local community. Working together, your team will grow its collective and each individuals’ ability to respond to pressing global and regional challenges.

https://ibe.colostate.edu/regenerative-planning-place-stewardship/

09/25/2025

In this time of profound change, many of us are seeking ways to contribute more meaningfully. IBE’s new guidebook, Shifting Toward Regenerative Design, explores what it takes to move beyond mechanistic, humanistic approaches toward a regenerative paradigm rooted in living-systems thinking.

Drawing on decades of collective practice, including that of our friends at Ashley McGraw Architects, the paper offers fresh insights into the shifts in mindset, ways of being, and design practices needed to re-imagine what designers — and the field of design — can make possible. We hope it sparks curiosity, dialogue, and new insights into your own work.

Access the paper here: https://ibe.colostate.edu/shifting-toward-regenerative-design/

04/10/2025

Living and working during precarious times is an invitation to evolve. IBE’s Beyond Hope & Despair Studio will help you renew your sense of direction and re-imagine what is uniquely yours to do right now to make a difference.

Registration closes April 15: https://lnkd.in/eKwGBQhF

Join our studio and...
..Expand your perspective: Learn regenerative, living systems approaches to change instead of superficial “tips and tricks” or generic best practices.
..Do deep work: With dedicated time and space, and structured guidance, engage deeply with complex challenges.
..Learn in community: Learn alongside a committed, intimate group of peers who also seek to evolve themselves in their work.

04/10/2025

A personal message from our Beyond Team Leader

04/10/2025

Living and working during precarious times is an invitation to evolve. IBE’s Beyond Hope & Despair Studio will help you renew your sense of direction and re-imagine what is uniquely yours to do right now to make a difference.

Registration closes April 15! https://ibe.colostate.edu/beyond-studio/

Join the Studio and...
..Expand your perspective: Learn regenerative, living systems approaches to change instead of generic best practices.
..Do deep work: With dedicated time and space, and structured guidance, engage deeply with complex challenges.
..Learn in community: Learn alongside a committed, intimate group of peers who also seek to evolve themselves in their work.

02/06/2025

In response to the intensity and chaos of the past weeks, our team at IBE is doubling down on the work we believe is most important. As a result, we’ve deeply reduced the price for our 2025 Beyond Hope and Despair course and have extended the early bird deadline.

We believe our respective and collective work is more important than ever and we're dedicated to making this course accessible to as many people as possible.

The new pricing structure and deadlines are:
Early bird rate: $3,300 before March 1 (previously $4,500)
Regular rate: $3,600 March 1 or later (previously $4,800)
Registration closes April 30.

More info and register at the link below:

Beyond Studio If you sense that our current sustainability efforts aren’t going far enough and you’re looking to deepen your practice, read on… IBE’s Beyond Studio offers in-depth developmental education for professionals who are looking to what’s beyond – beyond best practices, beyond t...

01/21/2025

Registration is now open for IBE’s first Beyond Studio offering. For this year’s intensive, we'll explore the theme “Beyond Hope & Despair: Discovering the Potential of Living (and working) in Transformative Times.” As we experience the difficult and often painful realities of the modern world, it’s easy to oscillate between hope that we can ‘turn things around’ and despair that we’re headed for catastrophe.

In this course, we’ll explore our true potential to meet the moment, gaining a renewed sense of the work worth doing now. We’ll grow our individual and collective capacities to work holistically from a living systems understanding. An alternative to frenetic conferences or short courses, Beyond Studio provides structured space for deep reflection, dialogue, mindset shifts, and authentic connections with other humans and places.

Join us this May through September for a five-month adventure that blends online sessions and a four-day, on-site retreat at the CSU Todos Santos campus in Baja, Mexico. Learn more and register today: https://ibe.colostate.edu/beyond-studio/. Register by February 14 to enjoy an early bird discount of $300.

11/13/2024

To commemorate turning 30, IBE is looking to the future. In our completely updated and expanded whitepaper, Lifelong Homes & Communities Initiative: Safe, Healthy & Accessible Homes for All, we rethink how our homes and neighborhoods can help us live our best lives now and in the future. The whitepaper documents the growing need for lifelong homes and communities, offers updated focus areas and design criteria, and showcases four pilot projects.

IBE's Brian Dunbar and Elicia Ratajczyk are at U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)'s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo this week, presenting Lifelong Homes & Communities with our partners, Drew Sorrells and Bill Swalling. We're thrilled to be laying the groundwork for developing a robust Lifelong Homes & Communities certification program.

Read the whitepaper: https://ibe.colostate.edu/lifelong-homes-communities-initiative-safe-healthy-accessible-homes-for-all-2024/

Let us know if you're interested in piloting, partnering, or keeping updated on our Lifelong efforts: https://ibe.colostate.edu/lifelong-homes-initiative/?et_fb=1&PageSpeed=off

Lifelong Homes & Communities Initiative: Safe, Healthy & Accessible Homes for All | 2024 Click to download report Our homes are the heart of our communities and the hubs of our lives. Studies have shown that adults in the U.S. spend approximately 90% of their time indoors, much of that at home, with...