Arup to offer green design service

Arup will launch a design strategy next month to help its clients create fully sustainable buildings.

The strategy, which will be unveiled at next month’s Think08 event, details six objectives that projects need to achieve to be green. Arup, which is working on the world’s first sustainable city – Dongtan in China – will use the list to show clients how it is possible to make projects sustainable and to encourage them to use sustainable design at the earliest stage of a project.

The objectives are to create buildings that are carbon neutral, able to collect and re-use their water and are built using sustainable materials. They should also be able to cope with climate change, make a positive contribution to the community and be sustainable in operation.

Adrian Campbell, associate director at the firm, said: “We’ve been offering a sustainable service for 10 years but have not really identified ideals and a strategy around it.”

He stressed that sustainable design had to be implemented at the earliest stage. He said: “It’s haphazard at the moment. People are tending to cherrypick issues so as to achieve a particular target. This process allows you to achieve sustainability in the round.”

Campbell added that parts of the strategy, which is offered as a free service to clients, had been used in the Heart of East Greenwich project, a mixed-use scheme in London planned by English Partnerships and developer First Base.

The firm has a full-time psychologist, Bruno Reddy, working within its sustainability team, looking at issues such as biophilia – how people feel within buildings.