Sustainable Designer of the Year

Winner

Feilden clegg bradley studios

In recent years Feilden Clegg Bradley has cemented its reputation for sustainability. According to the judges, the practice consistently does outstanding work on a wide range of building types, all of which have been designed with sustainability at their core. As well as projects such as Accordia, which became the first housing project to receive the RIBA’s Stirling prize, the firm stood out for its knowledge sharing – it is currently uploading sections of its environmental handbook onto a dedicated website, sharing lessons learned over 30 years of design. It is also the only architect to be a founder member of One Planet Products.

Runner-up

Aedas Architects

Aedas’ commitment to sustainability is evident from it groundbreaking initiatives . These include the CarbonBuzz, a platform to benchmark and track project energy use and carbon emissions from design to operation; the Aedas Green Tool, an online resource supporting architects’ workflow. Its most recent development is its Tall Building Simulation Model, developed in partnership with Arup, Hilson Moran and Davis Langdon, a cross-disciplinary research project that demonstrates the effects of key design and briefing decisions across the life-cycle of a project.

Bennetts Associates

Bennetts has been at the forefront of sustainable design since the practice was founded in 1987. Seminal projects include Wessex Water, Brighton library and more recently New Street Square in London and the Queen Elizabeth building in Winchester (featured elsewhere in these awards). All its latest projects are BREEAM audited and many achieve “excellent” ratings. The practice itself has a comprehensive sustainability policy and has carried out audits of its own emissions over the past few years – and they are down at 0.52 tonne per person.

Cundall

Sustainability is fundamental to this consulting engineer, not only when it comes to delivering green projects, but also reducing its own environmental impact. It is producing its first sustainability report which will be issued to all staff and be made publicly available, as well as implementing initiatives such as internet-based metering which will enable staff to review the energy consumption of their offices in real time.

Jestico + Whiles

This outfit has an international reputation for a holistic approach to low carbon, environmental buildings. It has in place a policy to purchase and specify environment-friendly products wherever possible, both through its office procurement and project specification. This is demonstrated through its accreditation to the ISO 14001 environmental management system.

PHA Consult

PHA Consult is still a relative newcomer but has a growing reputation for low-energy design. Since 2005 the company has grown from three to 25 staff and has been engaged on projects around the world. The company promotes learning and development among its employees and boasts 11 LEED-accredited professionals, three BREEAM and two Code for Sustainable Homes assessors.
PRP

If evidence was needed of PRP’s commitment to driving forward the sustainability agenda, how about the six shortlisted entries it had in the government’s Retrofit for the Future competition. Or how about the Mayfield Drive development in Huntingdon, which includes five homes achieving level five in the Code for Sustainable Homes, or its zero-carbon compendium, an analysis of who’s doing what in housing worldwide.

Ramboll

Ramboll has a simple philosophy – to focus on achieving carbon savings through project delivery. As a firm it has achieved a 10% reduction in its operational carbon output over the past 18 months, which adds up to a roughly 8 tonnes of carbon dioxide; in the same period, its application of sustainable design principles has generated embodied carbon savings of approximately 1,800 tonnes. This has been achieved through the application of lean design, the use of renewable and recycled materials and continuing research into sustainable construction techniques.