RIBA: Built for the Environment report

Today 38% of global energy related greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to the built environment. The latest RIBA report, Built for the Environment, demonstrates the role the industry is playing – and must play – in tackling the climate emergency.

The report, produced in partnership with Architects Declare, brings together a cross-section of research and publications submitted by the built environment sector, including our own Colma Creek, South San Francisco. Using this evidence and ahead of COP26, the report urges governments to take urgent action, set more ambitious targets and building codes, and embed sustainability within planning systems.

However, we cannot tackle global climate and biodiversity emergencies without changing the way we design and construct buildings. Built for the Environment makes a collective call to the entire built environment sector to embed, replicate and scale up sustainable best practice design that considers the needs of future generations.

This global report makes the case that the built environment must drastically reduce its carbon emissions to work towards net zero.

Download and read the full report here.

People

Angus Bruce

Project

Resilient South City, San Francisco

Before it became known as the Bay Area’s‘industrial city’, South San Francisco was the kind of place where people could walk the length of the one creek to swim in the bay. A proposal by the Hassell+ collective aims to make that possible again.

Project

Resilient by Design Challenge, San Francisco

San Francisco is one of the world’s most captivating waterfront cities. It also happens to be one of the most vulnerable – with the Bay Area predicted to confront sea level rises of up to 66 inches/168 centimetres by the year 2100.

People

Richard Mullane

Conversation

Seven lessons for creating social impact by design

At a very high level, creating social impact is about increasing the capacity for communities to thrive. And when we talk about thriving communities, the role of design is key.

Studio