Our Journey to Carbon Neutral 20 Apr 2023

Tomorrow, April 22, is Earth Day, an environmental awareness movement that has been steadily growing since its inception in 1970. Today, over a half a century later, more than a billion people participate in Earth Day to promote environmental democracy. Reflecting on the theme for 2023 ‘invest in our planet’ our Head of Sustainability Alex Soto shares her thoughts on what this means for studioNWA as we continue our journey to carbon neutral.

Q: The theme of Earth Day is ‘invest in our planet’ – what does this mean to you/studioNWA?

In the literal sense, it’s a reminder that this is the decade of action, as the IPCC reports point out, the time to strengthen ESG commitments and to invest in solutions and technologies to decarbonise our operations.

In the broader sense, I see this year’s theme as a motto of an adaptive strategy, sustainability at its core. A call for us architects and built environment professionals to upskill, collaborate and add value to continue to thrive as a profession in the context of a climate crisis and finite natural resources. An opportunity to spark our ingenuity and problem-solving skills, and I remain hopeful our profession will rise to the occasion.

Q: Speaking of investing I understand you are making inroads to studioNWA‘s HQ – could you clarify what structural changes are being put in place, what stage it is at (planning applied for?), how long it will take to complete?

In the past couple of years, we have done a good job at understanding our operational carbon footprint from electricity, gas consumption, commute to the office, and finding opportunities for reducing carbon emissions where possible. We are now stepping up our efforts by investing in improvements to the property and renewable technologies suitable to the building typology we occupy, including a new air source heat pump, rooftop solar panels and charging stations for electrical vehicles. We are currently working with our supply chain and UKPN to combine efforts and move our proposal to the next stage, planning.

Q: How will these changes positively impact the environment?

It’s all about decarbonisation. Steering away from fossil fuels to sustain our operations as much as possible. The air source heat pump will provide space heating from efficient use of electricity (estimated 1:4 ratio) and will eliminate the need for the on-site LPG tank and boiler. The solar panels will allow us to generate a certain amount of electricity to support our day-to-day activities, making us less reliant on the national grid. The output from the PVs could also feed into the EV charging stations. We want to have the infrastructure readily available for employees -and visitors- who are looking to upgrade their vehicles to fully electric and need to commute to our semi-rural location. Associated nitrous oxide emissions will also come down as a result, helping to reduce local air pollution.

Q: You’ve got some impressive results in terms of reductions in studioNWA‘s operational emissions – have you set targets for yourselves for 2023?

Q: As well as hybrid working are you implementing any other initiatives e.g. car sharing we can talk about?

 In parallel to our day-to-day operational emissions, we have begun to interrogate the carbon footprint of our designs. studioNWA acknowledges the built environment is currently responsible for 40% of global CO2 emissions and our central role as architects and designers to align our collective body of work to a net zero trajectory. We are engaging with manufacturers and suppliers to understand the lower embodied carbon options available to us without compromising on efficiency and performance for our clients. We have also developed an in-house carbon management tool to benchmark embodied carbon of baseline designs and iterations. Our practice is growing and so is our ambition to remain at the forefront of innovation and sustainability.

Stay tuned for further updates on our drive towards net zero!