Sustainable Design

sustainability in our buildings

Our approach to sustainable design is to integrate low-cost, high impact measures at the outset of the proposals to avoid costly, less-effective ‘bolt-ons’ at a later stage.

We demonstrate a ‘Fabric First’ approach to the design and specification of a building. This approach seeks to reduce the requirement for heating and cooling, and aims to evaluate and quantify the benefits of differing environmental solutions at feasibility stage. We are able to use environmental analysis software to consider site layout, building fabric and renewable energy sources and technologies to establish the most effective building solution.

environmental design assessment

LSI Architects possesses a wealth of experience of undertaking the process to achieve BREEAM and SKA accreditations on projects across a range of sectors. Working in combination with environmental evaluation tools and our in-house sustainable design guide, there can be substantial value in undertaking a formal sustainable design assessment, such as BREEAM or SKA.

Both of these processes are an investment in formalising the project goals into measurable and certifiable outcomes to demonstrate a commitment to sustainable design at all levels.

a sustainable practice

We are conscious of the role the construction industry needs to play in mitigating future environmental degradation and so the practice is a part of the Architects Declare movement, a campaign led by the UK’s leading Architectural Practices to take action on the twin crises of climate breakdown and biodiversity loss, the most serious issue of our time.

We operate an integrated Environmental Management System to our ISO 14001:2015 accreditation by BSI and we regard compliance with current environmental legislation as a minimum level of performance.

retrofit: reusing existing buildings

Key to supporting wider targets around decarbonisation and net zero will be a drive to ‘reuse’ as opposed to ‘build new’.

We can demonstrate an extensive portfolio of completed refurbishment and retrofit projects across a wide range of sectors. We follow processes aligned with frameworks such as PAS 2038 to define decarbonisation strategies on retrofit projects.

On any retrofit or refurbishment project our approach is to evaluate and retain what is good and replace the inadequate, considering the impact on the existing fabric whilst reducing capital expenditure and unlocking the carbon saving benefits of avoiding demolition and new development wherever possible.