Planet

Our approach has always been one of creative custodianship - learning from the rich history of the buildings we work with and innovatively imagining ways to ensure their long-term enjoyment, accessibility and functionality for future generations.

In other words, understanding the past in order to project forward into the future in the most positive way.

Never has this approach been more relevant.

Heritage buildings are one of our most powerful assets in the constant struggle against climate change and biodiversity loss. By preserving and prolonging the life of our existing buildings, we are protecting our natural resources by making use of what we have. Furthermore, historic approaches to constructing buildings and our modern methods of conserving them are influencing the way we design new interventions to ensure we have minimum impact on our environment.  

Climate resilience

The evident effects of our changing climate are already impacting many of the places we value and the buildings we use, making them more vulnerable to damaging change. Rising sea levels, extreme weather events, increased temperatures, coastal erosion and drought are all placing lives at risk, threatening the loss of buildings that are important to us, including irreplaceable heritage assets. As an intrinsic part of our cultural identity, the adaptation of our built heritage to make them resilient to these changes is crucial. We consider how our climate hazards will affect our built heritage, and the likelihood of their occurrence, helping our clients understand how best to mitigate against the risks. 

Retrofit

We strongly believe heritage buildings should not be seen as a barrier to a sustainable and equitable future. In recognition of this, we have been at the forefront of delivering pioneering research and guidance for energy efficiency retrofits in heritage buildings. We worked closely with Historic England to examine the efficacy of retrofit projects in traditional and listed buildings.

We co-authored the Historic England Handbook on Energy Efficiency Measures in Traditional and Historic Buildings, and our collaborative work with the City of London Corporation has culminated in an open-source Heritage Building Retrofit Toolkit, launched in March 2024. Working with many clients facing the challenges of decarbonising their complex estates, we take a whole building approach, one which ensures heritage values are balanced against the urgent need for climate adaptation.  

Circular economy

Whether through the adaptive reuse of an existing building, or the meticulous repair and reuse of individual materials and components, circularity is embedded in our day-to-day. We were founded in response to the speed at which the past was being demolished and replaced in the post-war period and grew out of an instinctive understanding that if we didn’t start protecting, adapting and enhancing our heritage, it would be gone before anyone realised the consequences.

Today, the core values of circular design are rooted in our working practices, helping shape and inspire modern methodologies and innovations, providing vital lessons for how we can tackle over consumption, resource depletion and biodiversity loss. 

Regenerative design

We know that to create socially just and thriving places for all, within planetary boundaries, we must go beyond standard concepts of sustainable design. This is far from easy in today’s economic systems. However, we are working hard to challenge what is possible on our projects, aiming to deliver net positive impacts for the environment and the communities within which we work. Through the reuse of structures and materials, the specification of natural, locally sourced materials that sequester carbon, and the creation of resilient and inclusive places, we aspire to be a force for good, delivering positive environmental and social outcomes to ensure both human and planetary health.

Keeping our own house in order

We are committed to understanding, reporting and continually reducing the carbon impact of our own business operations. We are proud of our considerable progress over the last two decades and the 71% reduction in our operational footprint since we started reporting it in 2007. Our first Carbon Governance Strategy was published in 2010, then updated in 2019, setting a clear target to halve our operational emissions (from our 2019 total) by 2030.  

In 2020, we committed to the declarations set out by Architects Declare and Heritage Declares, recognising the greatest impact we have is through our projects. At the same time, we became signatories of the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge and have been working hard towards meeting these commitments since. Our annual Environmental and Social Impact Report documents our progress against these commitments as we continuously strive to improve our working practices, our project impacts, and how we assess and report on both of these.

We know we have a long way to go, and there is lots more we can be doing.

Each year we gain a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t, sharing our lessons and holding ourselves accountable.