By
Stuart Eatock
ECE Annual Sustainability Report – 2023
In 2019, we declared a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency.
Since then, we have worked hard to ensure our performance, our business, and our policies align with this declaration. As part of this, we have committed to becoming a carbon neutral practice by 2030.
To publicly show our current commitments and hold ourselves accountable in the future, we have published our first Annual Sustainability Report.
Read the full report here or look through our summary below.
Achievements
In the financial year 2022-2023, we focused on identifying areas of improvement within our own studios and our projects. Through this work, the year included several milestones for us as a group. Some noteworthy accomplishments of our team:
Pioneering Passivhaus project approval
We received unanimous approval for a Passivhaus project for Worthing Borough Council, which revitalises an existing site with 11 energy-efficient flats and sets a national benchmark for Passivhaus standards in emergency housing.
Sustainability-focused events
We hosted our first-ever Passivhaus Client event as well as an internal embodied carbon workshop and actively participated in local events and national guidance, like the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard.
Expertise and qualifications
Two team members are now Certified Passivhaus Designers and are proficient in assessing, designing, and managing low-carbon operational buildings.
We also extended our comprehensive services offered at all development stages, ensuring sustainability at the forefront.
Decreasing our consumption
Our sustainability initiatives have yielded promising results in terms of energy usage and we have seen a significant reduction in the past five years. With a growing team, it is only natural that our consumption increases in terms of electricity usage. Finding initiatives to help offset this, will be an important task going forward and is one of our focus areas for 2023-2024.
Future commitments
Although we have seen a reduction in our KgCO2e consumption, it is clear there is much work to be done. For the next 12 months, we are focusing on the following areas of improvement:
- Operational Carbon – Include Energy Use Intensity predictions for Design and Access Statements as standard.
- Embodied Carbon – All technical staff to understand EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations) and how typical products perform in terms of embodied carbon.
- Building Performance in Future Climate – Include Simplified Overheating (Part O) checks for Planning applications to reduce the risks of our designs in warmer and more extreme weather.
- Post Occupancy Evaluation – Develop ECE Customer Journey beyond handover, and include simplified energy data collection to identify and help reduce performance gaps.
- Knowledge Sharing – Continue to promote a knowledge sharing culture within our studios, and present at local and national events to develop the construction industry’s understanding of the climate emergency challenge.
- Studio – Test POE services on our own studios, to identify potential energy savings and continue to reduce our carbon footprint. We will also investigate Science Based Targets to quantify our aspirations against recognized frameworks.
In addition to showing our commitment, we hope this report will educate, inspire, and raise questions about the role of architecture in creating a more sustainable future.
This is also an opportunity for us to learn, so please get in touch with any advice, feedback or questions.
Share this