Footprint+ Review

Senior Sustainability Consultant Hannah O’Brien and Sustainability Consultant Madeleine Lawson attended the Footprint+ conference in May at Old Billingsgate, London.

The event featured an array of companies and a series of insightful talks on topics such as carbon, retrofit, materials, nature, and timber. Industry experts shared their experiences and predictions for the future, emphasising the crucial need for early consideration of environmental impacts and full team engagement to ensure successful project outcomes. This aligns with our approach at L&P of early sustainability engagement at RIBA Stage 0-1.

The talk on the socio-economic impacts of regenerative construction discussed the need for purpose over progress, ensuring the team take the time to identify how a project will benefit the local community. The discussion highlighted the importance of long-term social implications and how they should be considered in a similar light to carbon emissions and material efficiency to ensure future generations are able to retain the highest material value of building and design to adapt and reuse materials. Often, BREEAM credits such as Mat 06 Material Efficiency and Wst 06 Functional Adaptability are undertaken as tick box exercises by the design team. However, it is vital that these elements are considered within the design to ensure we are designing for a sustainable future.

Another interesting discussion was around the embodied ecological impact of materials which highlighted the importance responsible material sourcing. BREEAM credit Mat 03 captures responsible sourcing requirements, identifying certifications such as ISO14001, BES6001 and FSC to ensure companies are managing the environmental impact of materials. However, the discussion steered towards the possibility of quantifying the ecological impact of materials, in a similar way in which we assess the carbon of materials. This would provide an additional metric in which we can compare materials and avoid overlooking environmentally damaging elements not captured through carbon assessments. Understanding our supply chain and ensuring transparency in material sourcing is crucial, which is easier to facilitate when materials are locally sourced. Tools such as the Global Environmental Justice Atlas documents and catalogues social conflicts around environmental issues. It aims to make the struggles of communities across the world more visible to educate the industry on areas of difficulty which in turn can influence decisions of material sourcing.

Senior Sustainability Consultant, Hannah O’Brien