UK Green Building Council tells architects to get their house in order
- Published: 19 August 2008 18:25
- Author: Hattie Hartman
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- Last Updated: 20 August 2008 12:22
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The UK Green Building Council's (UK-GBC's) report on measuring and reporting says that the best route to sustainability is for practices to measure their own environmental impact and act on the findings.
This is the main message of its third task group report, issued on 9 July by the measuring and reporting task group (M&RTG).
The UK-GBC says the route to more sustainable business practice begins with measuring the impact of one's own organisation. Only then should a company examine the impact of business operations. This may sound straightforward, but a survey conducted as part of the M&RTG work reveals that surprisingly few organisations have started to measure their own carbon footprint, much less the social and economic factors relating to sustainability.
The M&RTG, chaired by Lend Lease sustainability director Daniel Labbad, was established in January 2008 to clarify the confusion that
surrounds measuring sustainability.
As part of the AJ's aim to communicate greater clarity on this subject to our readers, I have participated in the 20-member M&RTG – along with representatives from Quintain Estates, Aggregate Industries, Davis Langdon, Fulcrum Consulting, Bennetts Associates and others –
meeting twice a week for six months at Lend Lease's central London offices.
Cross-industry input
One of the UKGBC's strengths is the cross-industry input which results from its broad membership base. Members range from major developers to small architectural practices – the M&RTG's challenge was to find a one-size-fits-
all approach.
The M&RTG initially mapped the numerous tools that already exist for measuring sustainability. The acronyms that emerged from this process were as intimidating as the size of the Lend Lease boardroom table. BREEAM and the Code for Sustainable Homes can guide aspects of the design process, but do not address 'how an organisation should strategically embed sustainability in its strategy and decision-making,' according to the M&RTG report.
Global Reporting Initiative
To this end, the M&RTG recommends that the UK-GBC supports the already widely used Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) (www.globalreporting.org) rather than developing yet another reporting framework, and help to develop a real estate/ construction sector supplement to GRI.
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| Graph from a survey of UK-GBC members, showing the perceived benefits of measuring sustainability |
An M&RTG survey identified three main barriers to measuring sustainability: inappropriate measuring frameworks, insufficient resources and concerns
about reporting inaccurate data (sustainability measures taken by three surveyed companies are shown in the case studies below). That's why measuring must start with small steps, as tedious as utility bills (kWh) and travel records (mode and kilometers traveled).
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| Graph from a survey of UK-GBC members, showing the perceived barriers to measuring sustainability |
The M&RTG report describes measuring sustainability as 'a journey', which takes three to five years to get right. The M&RTG report sets out the early steps in the process. Labbad says: 'This is not just about measuring and
reporting. It's about working through a process to understand how your core business and sustainability come together. It's a lot more than measuring meters; it's about reviewing who you are.'
Ongoing support
All UK-GBC members will be asked to report back in three years, and the UK-GBC will support members throughout the process by running seminars and sharing best practice. Collecting data has an impact on financial and administrative staff, and, according to the report, can face inertia despite good
intentions. It's not just about gathering data, which in itself is challenging, but also about feeding the data into a business' strategic direction and driving
improvement from year to year.
HOW TO GREEN YOUR PRACTICE – ADVICE FROM THE UK-GBC
• Establish an organisation-wide sustainability mission statement, based on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) principles: relevance, completeness
and balance, consistency and comparability,transparency and clarity, accuracy and reliability.
• Determine relevant indicators and boundaries for reporting.
• Identify achievable data collection for the first year – start small.
• Start with the practice housekeeping, before moving on to projects and services.
• Measure electricity and gas use, transportation and waste.
• Report results publicly.
• Add more parameters in subsequent years.
• Continually monitor progress to determine savings.
CASE STUDIES
| FULCRUM CONSULTING
Fulcrum is a consulting engineer with 150 staff across six offices. Fulcrum has tackled sustainability measuring over the last year with a target of issuing a Sustainability Report in April 2009. The project, entitled Fulcrum Footprint, aims to document the process as well as provide a snapshot of data. 'It's a gradual process which cannot be done all in one go, and must engage the whole company,' says project leader David Altabev. |  |
FOSTER + PARTNERS
| MARKS BARFIELD ARCHITECTS
Marks Barfield Architects, which has just over 30staff members, achieved ISO 14001 after an intensive six-month process which looked at all office systems and ways to reduce environmental impacts. The practice measured its carbon footprint, using an online tool. Measures which have been adopted include waste recycling, aregime for ensuring all computers are switchedoff, minimising use of artificial light, the replacement of office water coolers with a filter on the tap, and carbon offsets for flights. |
