Designing sustainable buildings

The UK government has committed to reducing carbon emissions by at least 60 percent by 2050. Alistair Guthrie, Global Buildings Sustainable Business Network Leader for Arup, looks at making sustainability a core part of building design

The UK’s Climate Change Bill proposes that CO2 emissions should be reduced by between 60 and 80 per ent by 2050. About 40 percent of these emissions are generated by buildings, with non-residential buildings responsible for approximately half of this . Put these two facts together and it becomes obvious that sustainability is essential to building design, and not a nice-to-have add-on.

But how do we change the established mindset? How do we challenge presumptions about the costs and tangible benefits of doing this, both for clients and those who work within the industry?

There are commercial and philosophical reasons for offering clients designs which incorporate sustainability at every level. The commercial reasons are clear: the anticipated introduction of mandatory energy ratings for public buildings will mean that tenants are more likely to judge a building by its energy consumption. Likewise, the spiralling cost of fuel makes energy efficient buildings increasingly attractive. When you combine these with awareness about the amount of carbon dioxide that buildings emit, the depletion of resources such as water and construction materials and an increasing sense of responsibility for tackling these issues, a sustainable approach to design becomes a no-brainer. 

Imagine the possibilities
Arup’s answer to the needs of clients and the industry’s responsibility is its design strategy for buildings - ‘Designing Sustainable Buildings’. This outlines how a client’s building might be:
Carbon neutral
Self-sufficient by collecting and re-using water
Built using sustainable materials
Able to cope with future climate change
A positive contribution to the community and built environment
Sustainable in operation


The strategy is a stimulant for discussion between the project team and the client, to help them imagine the possibilities and work out how these could become reality. Following this discussion, a comprehensive Sustainability Design Plan is created to show specifically what needs to be undertaken to develop a sustainable building. 

How is this different from any other firm’s approach? Whilst supporting the introduction of specific ratings for buildings such as BREEAM, rather than aiming for a specific rating, Arup’s project managers and engineers start with the best imaginable scenario – zero carbon, limited use of potable water and construction with sustainable materials. They work down from the ideal position to design the most sustainable solution. They are not working to the constraints set by the schemes, but to the constraints of that particular building’s location, end-use and local planning requirements. This method is known as ‘backcasting’ (as opposed to forecasting). Desired conditions are identified and steps are taken to make sure that these conditions can be created. The more traditional approach is to analyse current trends to work out what will happen in the future; backcasting is much more proactive.

Backed by facts and figures
Designing Sustainable Buildings provides guidance and supporting information to facilitate the discussion between the project team and clients when shaping the ensuing Sustainability Design Plan.
This is backed up by a raft of materials to guide the project teams’ thinking. A dedicated intranet is stocked with articles, briefing sheets, case studies and definitions of key terms. An eLearning module is available to all staff in Arup’s Buildings sector to fill in any gaps in their knowledge, and the organisation’s Sustainability Network encourages people in each of the four global regions to engage with the strategy and with the philosophy behind it.

The ultimate aim of this network is to make sustainability as much a part of the design process as health and safety is.
Although the motivation behind the strategy was concern about the effects of climate change and about the depletion of the world’s resources (including water and building materials) Arup’s approach has to be not just acceptable, but also positively embraced by clients to be a success. So, as well as steering the thinking of Arup’s engineers and project managers, an external version of the strategy helps clients to collect their thoughts. It is a succinct overview of the six areas and why they are so important.

The external version gives Arup’s clients a better overall understanding of sustainability in a clear and organised manner. It encourages a concise, orderly discussion of the implications of certain features of a design. This is appreciated by clients; it stops ‘sustainability’ feeling like an unwieldy and sprawling area of concern, turning it instead into a clear and well-ordered series of issues for consideration.

A sustainable design culture 
The approach is not new for Arup. Sir Ove Arup founded the firm over 60 years ago on the basis of a holistic approach to the built environment. His philosophy was to think about society in a sustainable way, looking at the long term impact on the people who live and work in and around his buildings.

Sustainable design has been in evidence in Arup’s buildings for many years: from the CEGB Regional Headquarters Building in Bristol, which opened in 1976; to the recent 1 Coleman Street, a building which has won high acclaim for its use of secondary aggregates; via The Helicon (one of the first speculative office developments in the City of London to use low energy systems such as chilled ceilings, completed in 1996).

Another of the firm’s deep seated beliefs is that of collective decision-making. The firm is owned in trust, giving everyone who works at Arup a stake in its success. The design strategy was created in this fashion. Representatives from around Arup were brought together to explore ways in which Designing Sustainable Buildings could become a core facet of the business. They agreed unanimously that metrics and targets would not ensure that each and every project was as sustainable as it possibly could be. The only way to meet the targets for 2050 set out in the Climate Charge Bill was for each project to aim for carbon neutral status and for a bespoke approach to be developed for each project.

With this in mind, the strategy aims to help organise the designers’ thinking, rather than to be a tick box exercise. It offers a steer, but no proformas or templates. This means that project teams have to fully consider the implications for each individual building or group of buildings; there is not an option to copy and paste from stock responses.
Designing Sustainable Buildings represents Arup’s commitment to providing creative and viable strategies to encourage clients to imagine how they can develop fully sustainable buildings. Arup’s specialist teams in a broad range of disciplines are able to offer clients the most advanced approaches in each of the six areas covered by the strategy, and encourage clients to think about solutions to issues which they might not even have considered. We believe that this is a strong move which will meaningfully contribute to a more sustainable future, including reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050.

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 www.arup.com/designingsustainablebuildings