Ten years ago, when we woke up to the realisation that we are hindering mother nature in her quest to regulate the planet, our multilateral response, was the Paris Climate Agreement with commitment to an overarching goal “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C”. In turn, the built environment responded with colourful roadmaps to net zero, but with zero implementation governance, greenwash ran amok, and in the interim, little headway made. Last month, with commitments unfulfilled, the BBC reported the “World’s first year-long breach of key 1.5°C warming limit”.
We are delighted to welcome Rob Buckley as our new Global Head of Sustainability.
Climate change, environmental decline and global health are the most serious challenges of our time. At WW+P, we believe that as architects, we play a key role in mitigating and resolving climate change effects.
Bruichladdich Distillery has secured £2.65m of funding from the Green Distilleries Competition to decarbonise their distillation process by 2025. The funding, from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial strategy Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, will allow Bruichladdich and their energy partner Protium to install innovation hydrogen combustion technology to heat the stills, removing a major contributor to the distillery’s overall carbon emissions.
As a major contributor to the Climate Emergency, the construction industry must change the way it operates and ultimately the types of buildings it delivers. According to the World Green Building Council, buildings account for 39% of the world’s total carbon footprint; 28% from the day-to-day running of buildings, their operational carbon. The other 11% is from the embodied carbon associated with the construction process, and the manufacture and transportation of materials. Improvements are clearly needed across the industry if we are to meet Net Zero targets.
As the UK begins its hosting of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, our thoughts have turned to how we, as architects can address the climate change emergency through our work.
How can we help?
Please get in touch if you’d like to know more about us and how we work with our clients, consultants and colleagues.