SUSTAINABILITY

As a practice, we are acutely aware of the scale of the challenge arising from the climate emergency, and our responsibility as architects and designers to initiate and support change in an often conservative construction sector – where building materials and construction are responsible for 11% and building operations responsible for 28% of global carbon emissions.

These are some of the things we are doing to play our part in addressing the climate emergency:

DESIGN

• We are aligning our design principles to the RIBA 2030 Challenge and the LETI Climate Emergency Design Guide targets on new projects.

• We always explore the feasibility of retaining existing buildings and retro-fit where possible in new projects.

• The reduction of embodied carbon in all work is a key design consideration; including avoiding carbon-intensive materials like steel and concrete and advocating for natural, locally sourced materials and less carbon-intensive structural materials with EPD certification.

• A staff member is currently training to be a ‘Passivhaus-Certified Designer’ - we intend to diffuse this knowledge through the studio within all project work to reduce the reliance on operational carbon.

• We audit our current projects, assessing strengths and weaknesses, looking for ways to strengthen our design.

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE & TRAINING

• We hold regular sustainability-focused CPDs which helps us stay connected with leading experts across the industry.

• We provide dedicated time to a member of staff to champion sustainability within the office. Their role is to make sure the whole studio keeps up with the latest innovations and thinking ensuring that sustainability is at the heart of everything we do.

ADVOCACY

• Goldstein Heather is a member of Architects Declare.