Whatever your profession and focus, we can all adopt practices and habits which by their nature create positive or reduced impact on resources and the environment. Whether you are wedded to Net Zero, Carbon reduction or will never own an electric car, adopting less impactful process can save you money as well as be good for the planet.

In these times of reactive non-factual quotes, it is ever more important to listen to varied viewpoints before making your own stance on your personal or companies’ impact. Inevitably there are many consultants and self-appointed experts in the field of carbon impact, counting and management. So please be aware they are all selling something.

This may sound cynical, but experience tells us that knowledge and genuine understanding (born out of first-hand experience) need to be demonstrated in the matters of carbon, energy and physical impact calculation and analysis. These subjects are complex and need to be assessed to respond to your personal needs and situation, not approached generically.

If you are interested in adopting processes and new ways of thinking that will enable reduced carbon impact, whether to achieve targets set by your company, legislation, or your profession, our view is that you need to adopt a particular assessment method and thoroughly follow the process and data collection. Choosing what areas to target (or reduce) and focus on optimising these to achieve best results. You can always expand the aims as you progress rather than set targets you can never achieve and suffer disappointment and supposed failure.

Whatever the improvements you make these should be celebrated and recorded and related to a benchmark that you agree at the outset of such a process. As an example, here at ep architects, we never simply target building regulations, but a standard way above such as AECB or Passivhaus certification. Then at least you can be sure whatever the financial constraints you encounter that positive achievements and the related benefits above purely regulations come from the process. A lot can be done without additional cost if you adopt a more rigorous approach!

Making an effort goes a long way and understanding what can be achieved through adopting a Whole-Life approach to any and all projects can create lower energy use in lifetime, reduced bills, better carbon credentials and reduced impact on the environment. Thinking positively and allowing wider review and debate of what your currently doing can open avenues you have previously not considered. There is nothing to be afraid of and your team may well have some fantastic ideas of how to positively reduce your impact. Ask the questions, share these in open discussion and listen to the doubters and you may be pleasantly surprised at the results.

We all like to save money and above all when reducing impact, if embraced in the right way can often be the result when targeting reduced carbon footprint and improved operational processes. If you don’t try you won’t find out and the learning alone will be of huge benefit and interest to your team. Improvements achieved through setting new targets and the resulting benefits to you and your colleague’s wellbeing can be transformative.

So please consider how you can bring benefit to the environment, reduce your impact by small or large increments. They all count, and any step forwards has to be positive!

Please do not be afraid to ask questions and discuss, whether you agree or disagree!

ep architects   

info@eparchitects.design