How can Clients make Informed Choices about Sustainability?
13th October 2020
Our understanding of the need for sustainable development has risen exponentially in recent years. The body of scientific knowledge, professional services, and available technology aimed at delivering sustainable solutions has developed rapidly, led by groups of specialists in a wide variety of distinct but interrelated topic areas.
Larger clients and developers, such as those who are members of the Better Buildings Partnership, are setting a great example by making public commitments to zero carbon and other targets, often supported by in-house specialists who can plot pathways through their decision-making processes and champion those decisions in the board room.
However, for most small and medium sized clients without dedicated expertise, practical responses to the sustainability agenda remain relatively hard to establish.
Background and Context
There are some parallels with the early days of BIM, when a range of specialists conceived and developed the processes, techniques, and potential of the emerging digital design technology. This was being done in real time, on real projects, everything was moving fast and never stood still. I recall it being very difficult for clients to engage at a strategic level and decide how to ‘jump on the train’, how to create any sort of decision making framework to allow their planned entry into the digital world, how to capture value and learning from the actions they were taking, or how to achieve any planned outcomes. Take-up was slow and painful.
Then one day someone produced the embryonic ‘Employers Information Requirements’ for data – a simple workbook which set out a checklist of topics, definitions, explanations and decisions which became the first step in the road for non-specialist clients and senior managers in consultant teams to grasp a context for decision making, and consequently to influence project decisions.
We are in a similar - but arguably much more extreme - situation with the sustainability agenda. More extreme because the consequences of clients of being unable to make informed decisions is much more catastrophic. Mounting evidence over the last 5 years has escalated what were for decades ‘niche’ agendas into a suite of interrelated global crises across the environmental, social and economic spectrums. As with digital transformation a decade ago, a range of specialists have been busy creating and developing processes and techniques for measuring and monitoring aspects of these often-intangible topics and projecting the appalling consequences of inaction. The industry and its supply chains have been trying to respond in real time - and in good faith - to the ethical and market pressures to save our planet.
In short, the ‘sustainability’ agenda, which such a short time ago was a niche topic, has suddenly become – and will surely remain – the new fourth leg of that traditionally three legged time/cost/ quality stool. While it is easy to acknowledge targets, and there is appetite to meet them, it remains difficult for clients to decide what choices to make at the project level, especially when legislation lags behind the ‘target’ requirement. As professional advisers and brief writers, we need to nudge a large number of non-specialist clients towards decisions which support the sustainability agenda, by enabling deliberate choices that suit our clients value drivers, ambitions and budgets – both now and in the future.
By influencing underlying decisions at the strategic briefing stages of a high volume of projects, we can improve the general ‘direction of travel’ towards 2030 targets even when if we cannot measure it. To enable this, clients need to be confident in the reasoning behind their decisions, and the impacts to them in terms of quality, cost, and programme.
Defining Sustainability
‘Sustainability’ is a broad term that describes the impacts that a development has on the environment. The process of creating and operating a built asset such as a building, bridge or tunnel has complex environmental impacts over its whole lifecycle.
In a recent paper, Julie Townsend of CBRE considers the ‘terminology minefield’, observing that the headings ‘… ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance), Sustainability, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) or Corporate Citizenship, are all broadly the same thing, and all essentially refer to business ethics i.e. voluntarily taking greater responsibility for the impacts an organisation has on society and the environment than they are required to by law…’
Much recent media coverage focusses on net zero whole life carbon, however this fits in to a broader tapestry of 8 distinct but interrelated topics as defined in the RIBA Sustainable Outcomes Guide, which clients should consider on projects of all scales.
1. Net zero operational carbon
2. Net zero embodied carbon
3. Sustainable water cycle
4. Sustainable connectivity and transport
5. Sustainable land use and biodiversity
6. Good health and wellbeing
7. Sustainable communities and social value
8. Sustainable life cycle cost
Each topic has an underlying body of knowledge, a method of measurement, and some high-level target outcomes. But how does a client team prioritise their efforts and resources?
Establishing the position of Sustainability topics amongst other Value Drivers
The Construction Innovation Hub’s new Value Toolkit, launched in July 2020 sets the Sustainability topics in the context of other client value drivers including time, capital cost and quality/functionality; use of this this will be key to establishing a starting point for considering a clients sustainability briefing requirements in more detail.
The first module in this toolkit - Value Definition - has two key tools which support the creation of a Value Profile and the generation of Value Indices to ensure that each project is aligned with both the client’s value drivers and broader strategic policy objectives. Each project or programme will have its own unique Value Profile – a shape that sets out the Value Drivers for that client, for that project, in that location. The Value Profile is established by setting the relative importance of industry-wide Value Categories, based on a Five Capitals Model.
In essence, this approach can start to define which of the eight sustainability topics carry the most weight for the client, and where to prioritise attention and effort.
Defining the Employers Sustainability Requirements
Once the high-level value drivers have been established, we find we need a device - much like that early Employers Information Requirements for Data – to help clients move towards practical strategies. We have given it the working title of Employers Sustainability Requirements (ESR). Setting out a simple checklist of topics, information links, baselines, and target metrics to, this aims to inform and record any clients’ desired sustainability outcomes for any project or program – not just specialist clients with expert teams. Drawing on the wide body of recent publications and good practice, and based on the RIBA Sustainable Outcomes guide, it acts as an entry level ‘cheat sheet’ for clients of all shapes and sizes, and for use by their advisers and design teams.
The ESR prompts an initial consideration of value drivers using a simple ‘high, medium, low’ ranking to express the relative value of a topic or sub-topic to the client and the opportunities afforded by the project, to help prioritise the activity and direct the project effort at the early briefing stage. It prompts definition of the baseline and target measures, assessment and verification methods for each topic that will be required by the client from both their own internal team and from suppliers for the development of the project, and for the operation of the completed built asset. Relevant extracts from the ESR may be included in procurement documents for the appointment of each supplier appointed directly by the employer, which may include advisors, consultants, contractors and so on.
The populated ESR will be the starting point for BREEAM and other assessment methods. Above all, it will provide an auditable record of the decision- making process around these complex and interrelated topics at the early briefing stages, promoting accountability and good practice in subject matter that often seems intangible and subjective.
By prompting dialogue on these eight key topics, it seeks to prevent unconscious poor decisions, while directing clients towards the most relevant and digestible information.
If you would like to pilot the Design Thinking ESR workbook, please contact jennifer@dixonarchitects.com or sarah@swilliamsarchitects.com
Photo credits: Seth Hughes