RKA and Sustainability

The built environment contributes to a huge 39% of all emissions, higher than any other individual sector.

Here at RKA we are focused on improving our impact by encouraging ourselves and our clients toward more sustainable choices. Whether this be by lowering the embodied carbon of the build, or the operational carbon once it’s created.

This has realised itself by forming a dedicated team within the office who are beginning to gather data on available products, systems and construction methods. Soon, we hope to all have access to this growing library of information helping the whole team to design and advise clients what sustainable choices can be made in each project specific circumstances.

This goes hand in hand with our newest venture, into the ‘RKA Award’ in which each project will be ranked for its sustainability, from bronze, to silver, and ultimately gold.

At RKA we are glad to see the Building Regulations include for higher targets, but we wish to exceed this, determined for sustainability to become woven into our way of thinking. We love that most of our projects are very bespoke, and it is our sustainability team’s goal to push for a carbon reduction within every project in whatever way best suits the clients requirements, budget and location.

This is why, within the next year we are aiming for many more of our projects to strive for these awards, we look forward to reporting the number of each category every year(hopefully ever increasing).

The following diagrams demonstrate a select few projects which display the variety of possible ways we can integrate various sustainable solutions within each brief.