Runner-up

Ones to watch

Tate+Co
We seek to ensure all our projects create multiple, positive outcomes and exceed the RIBA 2030 Challenge targets whenever possible.

The majority of our residential projects are of Passivhaus standard and meet the 35 kwh/sqm/yr operational carbon requirement. We maximise the use of timber frame and natural materials.

We have been creating projects that substantially improve biodiversity for many years. The Creative Centre for York St John University produced a 53% BNG improvement figure in a central York City site. Perhaps our best example of a project producing multiple positive outcomes is the Esholt Positive Living project for Yorkshire Water. We are working with consultants 3Adapt to survey, measure and analyse existing resources on a broad, brownfield and greenbelt site around proposed residential and commercial developments to create an overall system that will maximise the ‘five capitals’ (financial, natural, produced, human and social) on the site, forever.

Mike Tuck Studio
Small-scale projects can have a significant impact on achieving broader environmental goals, and we look to reduce carbon emissions by tapping into hyperlocal circular economies, such as the Forest Recycling Project. We have been working with Fallen and Felled in Walthamstow to source timber for interiors from local trees that have been felled, saving them from the chipper. We consider the useful life of materials in decades to come, prioritising bolted steel instead of welded, lime mortar instead of cement, and avoiding heavy glues. These actions often do not prove themselves as sustainable on standard metrics such as LCAs, but on small local projects, they are intuitively better for the environment.

Hawkins\Brown
We track energy and embodied carbon against the RIBA 2030 challenge. Of the data so far on energy:

• 41% are above any required target
• 27% are below 2020
• 21% are below 2025
• 9% are below 2030

For embodied carbon (A-C exc B6-B7):

• 39% are above any required target
• 23% are below 2025
• 38% are below 2030

Regulated and unregulated energy analysis is increasing. On the drawing board:

• Commercial/similar projects achieving 70-100kWhr/sqm estimated EUI
• Residential projects achieving ranges of 35-70kWhr/sqm
• Two low energy retrofit HE teaching/administration projects for LSE and University of Oxford, projected to achieve 55kWhr/sqm due to EnerPHit certification, exemplary for complex non-domestic retrofit.
• St Mary’s Catholic Voluntary Academy Primary School (VCAPS) achieves 49kWhr/sqm and rooftop PVs will meet energy use on-site
• The UK’s first Passivhaus hospital

We have similar data for embodied carbon.

We Made That
We use the ‘B Impact Assessment’ to appraise project impacts. The ‘Environment’ pillar underscores ecological responsibility in working towards regenerative outcomes. It means committing to minimising our environmental footprint by adopting sustainable practices, reducing waste, conserving resources, and decreasing emissions. This forms an independently- verified ‘Impact Business Model’ which shows us exceeding benchmarks for our country, sector and size.

MATT+FIONA
Our projects always aim to go beyond mitigating negatives and towards optimising positives but we do not do this though formal benchmarking against RIBA 2030 Challenge or other environmental sustainability credentials. All our projects are structured to mitigate negatives and optimise positives from a social perspective. We ensure the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) are met, particularly where they concern young people’s rights to be involved in the decision-making affecting them, namely those concerning where they live, work and play.

Gale & Snowden Architects
As a small practice we can only undertake a certain number of projects and wish to ensure the ones we work on address the environmental crisis and improve the health of building occupants. We do this by employing good science such as the Passivhaus standards (most of our projects are Passivhaus Certified), Building Biology (we are Certified Building Biology Consultants through the Building Biology Institute IBN in Germany) and having Certified Permaculture Designers at the core of our practice.

Nested Living
We use our regenerative living framework on every project we design and make. This means we are optimising positives. By putting life at the centre of all we do we are working holistically to consider various criteria when designing. On every project we strive to lower our carbon emissions and embodied carbon, specifying sustainable materials with low toxicity. We ensure low-energy rated electrical appliances are used along with solutions for minimising water use.

Human Nature
We have committed to achieving LETI 2030 targets for embodied carbon in the planning application for The Phoenix. Through the use of low-carbon and carbon regenerative materials such as timber and hempcrete the project’s embodied carbon will be negative when accounting for carbon sequestration. We will use a combination of onsite and offsite renewable energy. Although we aspire to LETI 2030 EUI targets, we do not commit to them on the grounds that it is not possible to determine unregulated energy usage (See: Tell the Truth Charter, a campaign for honesty in the built environment).

As a developer, we have the scope to consider whole-place sustainability in addition to buildings and fabric, finding ways to enable behaviours and cultures that contribute to socially and environmentally regenerative outcomes.