What Leading Experts Have to Say About Sustainability

The UK’s total carbon emissions is estimated to be as high as 45% and with domestic buildings accounting for a large part of this, there is greater awareness on the impact the construction process has on the world around us.

With the greater need to make a change and slow down the rate of climate change we asked some leading designers: At what point do sustainability issues begin to impact your design solutions?

 

“Sustainability issues should be a constant impact on our design process and not considered purely as a project kicks off. Post Covid, reducing our impact on the earth is our industry’s biggest challenge. Thinking product or project level isn’t going to get us where we need to get to; we need to work together collectively to redesign our industry processes.

We need to think re-use first; to develop a more sophisticated market for second cycle materials and products; we need to develop a more seamless supply chain that works together better; we need to design for disassembly on every project; we need to develop an industry wide approach to material tagging and management.

These approaches – over and above projects – will make the material changes that will start to make a difference.”

 

“I would like to think that sustainability issues drive and inspire our design solutions rather than impact them. The construction industry’s impacts on the environment are not to be underestimated, in fact they are one of the highest contributors to carbon emissions and climate change.

As architects and designers at tp bennett, we seek to embrace those challenges at the earliest opportunity and throughout the design process, making sustainability an intrinsic part of everything that we do.

It is very encouraging to see that over the last few years the whole industry really seems to be coming together in the understanding and action towards a more sustainable built environment.”

 

 

“From the outset of any project, our team starts engaging with the client and professional team to understand the opportunities and aspirations. There are a lot of versions of how sustainability can be measured on varying cost models. Some are also tailored better to different types of projects and it’s important to establish the correct version for the client, (BREEAM, SKA or LEED).

Typically, we have found that late requests have been made once design has commenced and then the client wished to retrospectively achieve a sustainability credential. While this can be achieved, the end result is somewhat diluted because some opportunities may have been missed or be too costly to implement once design has begun.

Since the pandemic, Sustainability has certainly come back into focus stronger than ever, and has started to widen its reach into Wellbeing. Going forward I would certainly like to see each project being evaluated against a set of industry criteria as a minimum within the RIBA Stages, so that the design industry contributes to the issues around Climate Change.”

 

 

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