At Grimshaw, our design work takes many forms. Wherever we operate, our innovative design solutions seek to leverage opportunities for social, economic, and environmental re- balancing, seeking to support the goals of the UN’s Agenda 2030 (the UN Sustainable Development Goals), as well as the Paris Climate Agreement. In order to do this, we require multidisciplinary collaborations and a return to ‘first principles’ design research into the specific programme and place-based potential of each project. These projects build critical capacity for our clients, the communities in which our clients’ projects are located, and beyond.
Grimshaw recognises the climate and biodiversity loss emergency humanity faces. To improve the situation, we believe the built environment must move from being a net taker of finite resources to net positive, where through regenerative design it gives back more than it takes.
Grimshaw’s Group Environmental Policy seeks to support our sustainable and regenerative design agenda.
Grimshaw’s strategy is to design and deliver socially and environmentally regenerative buildings and assets by 2030, and as a first step to reach this, to design net zero carbon / net zero carbon ready buildings and infrastructure by 2025. Grimshaw is also committed to making its operations (energy use in offices and business travel) carbon neutral, first through reducing energy consumption, energy efficiency and procurement of renewable energy, and finally through buying carbon offsets.
Grimshaw acknowledges that it has an impact on the environment both directly, through business operations, and indirectly, through the designs it develops on behalf of clients. In relation to our direct impacts, we recognise that we must ‘lead by example’ and commit to protecting and restoring the environment. This involves effectively managing our significant environmental impacts through the implementation of appropriate controls designed to limit adverse impacts and promote beneficial impacts of the direct and indirect aspects of our business operations and services.
Whilst we have the most influence over our direct impacts, we also realise that our designs can impact the environment. We therefore endeavour to do everything we can to ensure that our designs limit the potential for negative impacts and seek to enhance the natural environment, recognising the need to restore planetary boundaries. Furthermore, we inform our clients of their legal obligations and encourage them to go beyond compliance and to recognise the current climate emergency and biodiversity extinction crisis.
Grimshaw commits to:
- operate in compliance with all relevant environmental legislation
- manage our environmental impacts from our operations through an environmental management plan (EMP) which is incorporated into individual studio action plans
- fulfil all our own voluntary obligations and those set by our clients in relation to our designs
- undertake regular reviews of our business operations and design reviews for projects checking for environmental non-compliances, which are noted and followed up at subsequent reviews
- educate and train our employees in the environmental issues, compliance obligations under our EMPs, and the environmental effects of the company’s and their own activities, promoting environmental stewardship
- support regular initiatives (talks, training, competitions) run by our in-house environmental experts
- communicate objectives internally and externally, including roles and responsibilities in relation to the administration of our EMPs
- continually improving our environmental performance by setting environmental objectives and targets, based on our most significant direct and indirect aspects and their impacts, and to regularly monitoring and record our progress
This policy is set by the partnership, who review the EMPs annually with a view to making recommendations for improvements. The identification of aspects and impact is also regularly reviewed against any changes to our operations and design services to ensure our significant aspects are relevant to both. The practice leader for sustainability acts for Grimshaw in developing a plan to enable us to reach the commitments set out in this policy while fulfilling applicable legal, regulatory and other requirements.
April 2023
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