Whilst our design work is underpinned by a strong sustainability ethos, we also recognise the need to critically assess the impacts that our business activities have on our surroundings.

We monitor our utilities consumption, and have done so over the past three and a half years. Furthermore we also analyse staff commuting, business travel as well as our waste and procurement habits.

The carbon footprint for our London headquarters (a Grade II listed building called The Rotunda, where over 80% of the Practice’s staff work) is: 165.3t CO₂ per year, equating to: 1.29t CO₂ per person per year. Our carbon footprint compares favourably to other leading engineering consultancies. These figures take into account carbon emissions arising from the Rotunda’s use of gas and electricity, as well as the CO₂ associated with the London office’s business as well as commuting travel, water usage and waste. It also factors in the carbon emissions related to paper procurement, as paper is arguably one of our most frequent and sizeable annual purchases. The figure does not take into account the fact that we purchase our electricity on a 100% green tariff because green tariffs are not recognised by Building Regulations or environmental assessment methods such as BREEAM.

Fig. 1 Carbon Footprint of the London office (The Rotunda); the figures disregard the fact that we purchase 100% green tariff electricity to enable fair comparisons.