We are proud to be a Carbon Neutral Plus Organisation
We are in a climate emergency, and urgently need to reduce carbon emissions. The construction process and servicing of buildings is responsible for 49% of the UK total carbon emissions currently thought responsible for global warming. This puts architects in a prime position to make a difference, so we are striving to produce high-quality sustainable and responsible designs. We know that if we want to motivate our clients to adopt the right approach, we must ensure our own business leads by example.
So, with that said, we are delighted to announce that we are now a Carbon Neutral Organisation, offsetting twice our carbon footprint.
Back in 2015 we set up a baseline, to measure and monitor our environmental footprint. This included evaluating our energy use, water consumption, waste production (recycled and non-recycled waste in addition to total paper usage) and mobility (impact of travel). We then set out our five-year plan - a plan to lower different key areas of usage each year. From 2015 to 2020 we tested different strategies to lower our overall environmental footprint but one of the biggest issues was addressing the footprint of our existing premises.
Consequently, in 2018 we relocated our office to Eccleston Yards, an office space which we completely upgraded and retrofitted to our own design and specification. A key part of the process was reducing carbon emissions, and our strategy was to apply a fabric first approach, focusing on reducing the building energy demand as the main way to minimise our operational carbon emissions.
With the opening of our Madrid Studio in 2018 came an increase in travel and an increase in our environmental footprint. It became apparent that measuring and lowering our carbon footprint in our London premises wasn’t sufficient – we also needed to think about offsetting any carbon we did generate.
Then came 2020, and the pandemic. We learned to adapt to the new normal, primarily working from home but also changing our office habits once it was safe for us to open again. Many changes to our business brought about by Covid have positively impacted our environmental footprint. We have learned that we don’t need to print as much to work efficiently; we’ve learned that we don’t always have to travel and that technology can help us to reduce this. On the other hand, servers and computers are switched on more often as people log in remotely, so this is something we need to address. We’re investigating every possible avenue.
With all of this in mind, we carried out our first Zero Carbon Office audit with Carbon Footprint Ltd to ascertain our total current carbon emissions. We have chosen to offset double our generated emissions (in part because our emissions were so small and in part because we know they will increase as more people return to the office). So, we are offsetting 60 tonnes of CO2e this year through a UK tree planting initiative, which sees trees planted mainly in school locations, helping to educate children and support wildlife habitats whilst sequestering carbon emissions. For every tree planted, a tonne of carbon will also be saved in the Brazilian Amazon via a VCS avoided deforestation programme.
As we enter our first year as a Carbon Neutral Plus Organisation, we must continue to monitor our environmental footprint and strive to improve further, ensuring that we are doing all we can to minimise our impact long-term. We want to be proud of our contribution to the efforts we all need to make for the sake of future generations. The information we have gained from this process is now being used to develop practical recommendations to enhance our sustainability programme, reduce future emissions and responsibly offset our current greenhouse gas emissions.
You can read more about what we are doing to realise our global net zero goals, here.