Atomik: Studio Conversations #2.1

Footprints

By Max Fraser - Delivery Director, Atomik

Building footprints, people footprints, carbon footprints, and legacies - with so much data feeding our thoughts and providing information (data footprints), it can be overwhelming.

Globally, we are facing a climate crisis, and despite discussions and comments from global leaders at events like COP, this doesn’t seem to be getting addressed anytime soon. As well As a lack of urgency by the government, it is incredibly worrying when at such events like COP 28 how the President addressed a large audience and dismissed the threat of the impact of fossil fuels, to quote "There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phaseout of fossil fuel is what's going to achieve 1.5°C,"

Rant over for now, let me share a brief anecdote about why I got into architecture (there is a relevance). It happened during a visit to the British Museum on a school trip, where I saw the scars left from WWII on the building facade, shrapnel marks etched into history. This fascinated me then and I still enjoy such reminders of times before.

These marks have left a very clear and honest footprint and stamp on history and is a constant reminder of darker times.

Into the present and what we are currently facing is something that, once again, needs involvement from everyone in the world to reach a common goal of peace and safety for the environment and us. The current fight is against the rapid change in our climate, one which will have a drastic and catastrophic impact on the world we live in. The baseline is - if we don’t change our current trajectory on carbon emission, we will be creating a future environment in which it will be very hard to be habitable.

Whilst there is an argument that large corporations, global powerhouses, and billionaires could make a significant impact on this issue, which could easily outweigh several small changes we make, they don’t seem to be doing so (without seemingly a threat to their wealth.)

Fortunately, we as individuals can adjust our lifestyles to help improve the carbon crisis. By taking personal ownership, we can collectively make changes to our way of life that can help change the tactics of these powerhouses.

For example, if everyone stopped buying Coca-Cola on the basis, they are the biggest plastic polluter in the world, the company would need to change its strategies to stay afloat. They would need to change this or go out of business. Can this feasibly be done? I struggle to imagine so.

We can however have a big impact individually by reducing our use of plastic, reusing, recycling, and buying something that isn’t plastic. This is of course a very simple analogy of some collective changes we can make. Maybe this will be a catalyst for Coca-Cola to start making changes.

The construction industry is ‘responsible for 18% of large particle pollution in the UK according to a new report from Impact on Urban Health (IoUH) and the Centre for Low Emission Construction (CLEC), a figure which rises to 30% in London.’ As reported by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health we have an opportunity as an industry to have a large impact and once we add in the pollution from generating energy to provide lighting, heating and cooling, etc for buildings we can have an influence today and for the future.

The construction industry is doing fantastic things. At Atomik, we are very much pushing in our design for the best options to create healthier buildings. Having set up a sustainability handbook to guide us and clients to make better choices. Through design development, we review the credentials of what we are proposing and questioning alternative options to improve the outcome.? However, the government is not implementing strong enough guidance or requirements for the industry to help support change.

Thankfully several clients we work with are not waiting for this and are pushing through their agendas and passions for change, a lot of which they are advising and holding themselves accountable for in producing ESG’s and recording data on buildings in use.

Whilst this article has focused on the design side, we regularly work with great contractors who are also pushing for change and it is the norm now to work with in-house sustainability personnel who are keen to go beyond the minimum BREEAM etc (I’m not knocking this, it is a good system) and explore options to help their ethos which in turn strengthens the clients and design teams agenda.

On a smaller scale, we need to introduce and maybe train smaller contractors to also join in on this. I read an article recently from a new practice saying they struggle to get contractors who can meet the delivery of their sustainable designs. This is a real issue, smaller contractors without the personnel and the resources need help in justifying this extra level of work and commitment, could there be a VAT saving as an incentive, some sort of master builder recognition as a sustainable builder?

Alternatively, could this be added to building control requirements so that even on the smallest domestic or commercial property a builder as part of their work needs to document and provide evidence of sustainable construction?

We have the opportunity to help create a healthier, stronger future. What scars will we leave on the architectural environments?

#retrofit #sustainability #architecture #buildingfootprints #construction #climatecrisis #COP28