We believe
We believe in climate emergency. The science is complex and there are many who for various reasons raise doubts about the severity of the problem. However, the scientific community and the global community (through the IPCC) are in consensus that this is not a problem, but rather a crisis. We trust the science and we will not use the complexity or the difficulty of grasping the many facets of the issue as an excuse for inaction.
We are learning
We are committed to educating ourselves about climate change so we can better make our contribution through design and also through advocacy and communication. We maintain a humble stance and aim to have critical thinking towards what we read and who we speak with about the topic. We have started reading books together and will share what we learn on the blog below.
We are acting
Climate change paralysis comes from the challenge of balancing the many different priorities that compete for our attention and our efforts. We understand the dilemma of our clients when they have to make difficult choices, as we also have a business to run and staff to support. We believe in small steps leading to bigger steps. Success leads to confidence, leads to success. We are starting with manageable actions that we can commit to on a weekly basis, and as we succeed with implementing those month by month, we will continue to increase our ambitions and record the results here.
We will seek to:
- Raise awareness of the climate and biodiversity emergencies and the urgent need for action amongst our clients and supply chains.
- Advocate for faster change in our industry towards regenerative design practices and a higher Governmental funding priority to support this.
- Establish climate and biodiversity mitigation principles as the key measure of our industry’s success: demonstrated through awards, prizes and listings.
- Share knowledge and research to that end on an open source basis.
- Evaluate all new projects against the aspiration to contribute positively to mitigating climate breakdown, and encourage our clients to adopt this approach.
- Upgrade existing buildings for extended use as a more carbon efficient alternative to demolition and new build whenever there is a viable choice.
- Include life cycle costing, whole life carbon modelling and post occupancy evaluation as part of our basic scope of work, to reduce both embodied and operational resource use.
- Adopt more regenerative design principles in our studios, with the aim of designing architecture and urbanism that goes beyond the standard of net zero carbon in use.
- Collaborate with engineers, contractors and clients to further reduce construction waste.
- Accelerate the shift to low embodied carbon materials in all our work.
- Minimise wasteful use of resources in architecture and urban planning, both in quantum and in detail.
