Sustainability

Moving towards true sustainability is the biggest challenge faced by the construction industry, and requires cross-disciplinary effort alongside support from national and local government.

Industry organisations including the RIBA have been working together over the last few years to provide guidance and resources on what net zero looks like and how to get there. This has been led by LETI, who have brought together experts from many different backgrounds to put together an excellent set of documents. Parallel to this, the RIBA released their 2030 Challenge, setting targets for different typologies that can be utilised by project teams, and providing resources for briefing, setting targets, and monitoring. This guidance tackles embodied and operational carbon, and introduces metrics to capture wider aspects of sustainability including water use, health and wellbeing, ecology and biodiversity. In addition Architects Declare and ACAN have been addressing this topic in different ways, running campaigns, setting up and recording events to share knowledge, and producing a guide for practices.

Outside of our profession, we can engage with the climate crisis by making individual lifestyle changes, and by connecting with our communities. Community is a hugely important part of tackling this crisis, as it enables us to pool resources, share ideas, and maintain positivity.

The CAA seeks to support its members in exploring and tackling the challenges that come with confronting the climate emergency, by hosting events and sharing the latest guidance and resources to help members stay up to date. We support local groups such as Cambridge Carbon Footprint, the AECB, and Transition Cambridge, by advertising their events and through volunteering by individual members.