Reflections on a hugely encouraging month in structural sustainable design

It can be very easy to become defeatist when it comes to the climate crisis, and our ability to positively impact it through sustainable design approaches. However, a number of things have happened over October 2024 that have given me renewed optimism that things are continuing to move in the right direction, and I think it’s important we share good news to help remind ourselves that we are helping to make a difference.

The month started off with the release of the UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard Pilot. Of particular interest from a structural perspective was Annex A, setting out embodied carbon limits for both new build and refurbishment projects across a wide range of project typologies. While it may not jump out when looking at a table of numbers, this is a huge step forward, providing benchmark values for what ‘good’ looks like where very little information previously existed. It remains to be seen how the industry will react to the Standard more generally, but from a structural engineering perspective, this annex alone will help us to contextualise our embodied carbon assessments and act as a point of reference for discussions with clients to add weight to our arguments.

Shortly after the launch of the Standard Pilot, I hosted the first Sustainability Open Spaces (SOS) session for the Surrey branch of the IStructE. This brought together a number of structural engineers from a range of consultants where, free from the commercial challenges of work winning, we were able to freely discuss sustainability. The ultimate hope for these sessions is that they provide a forum for sharing of ideas and experience with peers, so we can help each other take positive steps forward. If you’re interested in taking part, please do get in touch.

Next up, I took part in a Cundall Breakfast Briefing on “Imaginative design and reuse of buildings”. Amongst other things, this gave me the chance to talk about how, if we’re willing to think outside the box, refurbishment doesn’t have to be boring, and allowed me to showcase the Wellington House project in Wimbledon. In that example, we were able to retain the existing concrete frame by building a new frame to its rear, joining the two together and adding a storey. The really ‘imaginative’ part involved removing one of the existing corner columns to completely change the appearance and massing of the building, making it unrecognisable from its former self despite 80% of the existing structure being retained. Moving forwards, I look forward to working on an increasing number of such projects as our collective reuse of existing assets continues to increase.

Last but not least, the IStructE hosted the Structural Engineers Declare Summit 2024. A diverse range of excellent speakers covered everything from the moral imperative to consider sustainability in all our work, to production of new glulam beams from waste timber and the harrowing reality of where all the sand that goes into concrete comes from. It was also a fantastic opportunity to speak to other structural engineers on the topic, and everyone seemed to come away feeling similarly re-energised at what we can achieve when we collectively put our minds to it.

Obviously, there’s a long way to go, but I’m hopeful months like this will become more common as we start to make some proper headway on sustainable design.