Reusing our city with Oliver Hall
80 Charlotte Street, completed in 2020, served as the focal point for Head of Sustainability Oliver’s creative reuse workshop. Makers explored various design approaches using our retrofit sliding scale of intervention — refresh, repurpose, reimagine — as well as the option of new build to determine the most suitable approach for the original site if the project were undertaken today.
The aim was to find the best architectural solution that maximised usable space while minimising embodied carbon. An interactive jigsaw puzzle of design interventions allowed Makers to develop numerous permutations for the site, which were eventually grouped into 6 main options, ranging from a baseline refresh (upgrading the existing building with no additional area) to a complete new build. Retrofit was classed as an architectural response that wasn’t always seen to be the most appropriate solution. Factor in the whole life versus embodied carbon argument and it’s crucial that architects, designers and clients be open minded to a range of options.
Material Matters with Ian Hunter
Ian is a materials specialist and co-founder of Materials Council guiding our in-house sustainability and project teams with their materials strategy. His session was an engaging exploration of calculating the embodied carbon of materials by combining the physical sample library with our online database. Various materials were evaluated by weight, volume, and area to calculate their overall embodied carbon. The clear takeaway was that data trumps intuition and informs material choice, so it’s key to employ the right units when making balanced comparisons between various options. Both project teams and clients need to set clear priorities concerning decisions on sustainability. Whether it’s carbon reduction, circularity or health, a transparent approach is imperative.
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) were spotlighted as essential tools for designers and with resources like the Materials Hub available, project teams can translate those EPDs into actionable insights, helping them make informed decisions.
Carbon Accounting with Peter Greaves
Make Neutral Day wrapped up with architect Peter Greaves sharing an update on our studio’s annual carbon footprint. Peter highlighted the steady progress across scopes 1, 2, and 3 emissions. This progress includes reductions in general power consumption — from lighting to air conditioning — as well as our Sydney studio’s transition to a more sustainable energy provider.
However, Peter noted that increased air travel has raised our scope 3 totals due to the global nature of our projects. The carbon cost of these flights has a large overall effect on our carbon totals, meaning we need to carefully justify long-haul business trips. Our recent switch to a B Corp-certified travel agent will allow us to prioritise lower carbon forms of travel and more efficient routes, which should help to bring our scope 3 totals down next year. Transparently communicating both our own and our studio’s carbon footprint continues to be an important commitment.
