Sustainability

Sustainability is central to our work at RKD. We design with purpose, creating environments that minimise environmental impact while performing over the long term, guided by frameworks including the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Science Based Targets initiative, the Paris Agreement, and international standards including the European Green Deal, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and Fit for 55.

We support clients through green building certification, including LEED, BREEAM, WELL and Fitwel, and through whole building life cycle and whole life carbon assessments at any stage of a project, including the operational phase. At the planning stage, we provide sustainable master planning, technical due diligence and pre-development evaluation. In design, we develop early solutions to reduce embodied and whole life carbon and maximise energy savings, daylight and views, through regenerative, passive and active strategies, supported by material comparison studies and biodiversity net gain assessments.

Our involvement continues after completion, through post-occupancy evaluation, EU Taxonomy and ESG reporting support, and research undertaken for both client stakeholders and policy leaders. We report our own Scope 1 and 2 emissions to CDP, and are working towards becoming a carbon neutral practice, with measurable commitments for both the practice and our clients towards 2025 and 2030.