Our Workplace
As a company, we are committed to providing a high-quality service in a manner that ensures a safe and healthy workplace for our employees, visitors and minimises our impact on the environment.
We will operate in compliance with all relevant environmental legislation and we will strive to use pollution prevention and environmental best practices in all we do.
Where practicable we will exceed requirements in terms of our environmental impact.
Specifically, we will:
- integrate the consideration of environmental concerns and impacts into all of our decision making and activities
- promote environmental awareness among our employees and encourage them to work in an environmentally responsible manner, such as by working electronically wherever it is safe and secure to do so while ensuring that all key information is fully and securely backed up
- reduce waste through re-use and recycling and by purchasing recycled, recyclable or refurbished equipment, products and materials where these alternatives are available, economical and suitable
- ensure responsible disposal of remaining unavoidable waste
- promote efficient use of space heating/lighting, equipment, materials and resources including water, electricity, raw materials and other resources, particularly those that are non-renewable
- purchase and use environmentally responsible products accordingly
- include energy efficiency as one of the selection criteria when purchasing new equipment
- avoid unnecessary use of hazardous materials and products, seek substitutions when feasible, and take all reasonable steps to protect human health and the environment when such materials must be used, stored and disposed of where required by legislation or where significant health, safety or environmental hazards exist, develop and maintain appropriate emergency response programmes
- communicate our environmental commitment to clients, customers and the public and encourage them to support it
- strive to continually improve our environmental performance and minimise the social impact and damage of activities by periodically reviewing our environmental policy in light of our current and planned future activities
- use public transport in preference to travel by car wherever it is possible and effective to do so.
Our Designs
We recognise that the products of our designs will have far more environmental impact than our own operations therefore we are further committed to exercising our professional skills in such a way as to minimise environmental impact in so far as this is possible within the instructions received from our clients.
We are committed:
- to raise the awareness of clients about sustainability and environmental protection, and help the members of the design team to develop a shared vision of environmental aspirations
- to ensure as far as possible that building projects are supported by a travel plan that promotes sustainable travel choices through public transport and cycling provision
- to assess sites for their ecological value and microclimate, and ensure buildings make best use of the natural features of the site including sun, wind and landscape
- to ascertain the potential for local power generation from renewable energy sources locally or on site
- to ensure that biodiversity is protected or enhanced
- to make best use of orientation and shape to reduce the need for artificial forms of conditioning
- to operate a ‘right-first-time’ culture (through our QM system) for our production information in order to avoid wasteful site reworking
- to minimise the use of construction materials, and specify materials and components with the optimum balance between environmental impact and performance in use
- to ensure that building services are inherently efficient and controllable, and that metering encourages monitoring and management of resource use
- to ensure that buildings are commissioned fully before handover, and that full operating manuals are provided
- to support clients in the first few months of operation by providing on-site training and advice to ensure that systems are fine-tuned and operate in accordance with the design intent.