Wearing green, eating green and thinking green
As an architectural and design practise, we have always had sustainability at the core of our design considerations and client delivery. According to new research by construction blog Bimhow, the construction sector contributes 23 % of air pollution, 50% of the climatic change, 40 % drinking water pollution, and 50% of landfill waste. ‘Buildings and construction play a major part, accounting for nearly 40% of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions’ UK Architects Declare. With these stats in mind, our starting point this month was to reference Architects declares ‘11 step commitment: we recognised we are in a fortunate position that the majority of our projects rejuvenate existing buildings to make them fit for purpose, naturally reducing our carbon emission. We use predominantly UK suppliers and try re-use and upcycle whatever we can.
However, we also want to challenge ourselves to better collaborate and educate our clients to bring awareness to sustainability and environmental impact right from the get-go of a project, so it becomes more integrated into decision making.
We understand the impact materials make, not just fabrics made of plastic bottles but the manufacturing process. We are on a quest to seek good quality materials and products that have green guarantees, with a consideration of life cycling costs.
Closer to home , as an office, where does all our paper go? We have started asking questions on our recycling process and reducing our waste. What parts of our design process could we do better to reduce environmental impact? Travel, communications, visiting clients, we need to challenge ourselves and consider impact as part of of our daily lives.
We look to educate ourselves further. We are eager to become specialists in order to help and educate our clients, drive the changes and in return share that knowledge with our community. Once we achieve this, we can extend this to onsite practices.
Whilst we recognise, we are not in a position yet to publish our full mission statement, we are working towards a policy and statement of intent.
Watch this space as we progress our sustainable journey and move our practice into a place we can be proud we are doing all we can to reduce environmental impact and to then make a promise we can keep.
What do you do in your own practices to be green aware?
Reps, are you ready to answer our questions on your manufacturing processes??
Let’s start the conversation!
