Sustainable Design Statement and Policy

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. While Architects cannot solve the current climate change issue on their own, they can play a significant role in producing high quality sustainable and responsible designs.

Architects have the responsibility to greatly help improve the sustainability of the built environment through conscious planning, design, construction, and careful thinking of the maintenance and operation of our buildings.

At Studio PDP we have focused our effort in helping with the mitigation and adaptation to climate change; working to eliminate waste and maximising resource efficiency; embracing and restoring nature and promoting biodiversity; optimising the health and wellbeing of people; creating longterm value for society and improving quality of life.

Design and Net Zero

Our design approach integrates sustainability from the very earliest concepts through design stages and into construction. We understand the dynamic balance of building, site, climate, and social context and work closely with our clients to design rigorously well-thought-out buildings.

We have achieved and we are working towards producing Net zero carbon design in operation (in use) and Net zero carbon construction (embodied).

We are signatories of the LETI declaration and believe all new buildings must operate at net zero carbon by 2030. This means we only have a few years to improve how we design and construct buildings. Three of our staff, in the past, have been actively taking part in LETI’s working groups, and we use the very clear ‘Climate Emergency Design Guide’ produced by LETI to guide our designs.

We are also signatories to the ‘Architect’s Declare Climate and Biodiversity Emergency’ declaration, which recognises that the twin crises of climate breakdown and biodiversity loss are the most serious issues of our time and that we must act.

Studio PDP are now also benchmarking projects against the pilot version of the UKNZCBS, which, if followed, would enable the build environment sector to stay within our national carbon and energy budgets.