Duncan Baker-Brown speaks on the second in a series of videos by the Architects’ Journal about whole-life carbon in architectural design.

Speakers include:

Michael Pawlyn, director of Exploration Architecture

Duncan Baker-Brown, director of BBM Sustainable Design

Mina Hasman, associate at SOM and member of RIBA Commission on Ethics and Sustainable Development

Simon Sturgis, managing partner at Targeting Zero and chair of RIBA Sustainable Futures Group

Hero Bennet, principal sustainability consultant at Max Fordham

Architects have great agency to address climate change. We specify the materials we use to build with, and have long-standing relationships with the construction supply chain. We also work with a wide range of services and industries, bringing together clients, suppliers of raw materials, and structural and services engineers. We are uniquely placed to champion an environmental agenda to both clients and other building specialists, widening the group of people working together to reduce whole-life carbon.

In a series of short videos, the AJ asked experts in sustainable design why whole-life carbon is important for architects to think about in their day-to-day work.

Our director and the author of The Re-Use Atlas: A Designer’s Guide To The Circular Economy, Duncan Baker-Brown, gives his thoughts on designing sustainably in these clips. The first video in the series asks why whole life carbon matters for architects.

Speakers include:

Duncan Baker-Brown, director of BBM Sustainable Design

Hero Bennet, principal sustainability consultant at Max Fordham

Michael Pawlyn, director of Exploration Architecture

Mina Hasman, associate at SOM and member of RIBA Commission on Ethics and Sustainable Development

Anthony Thistleton, founder and director of Waugh Thistleton Architects

We have less than twelve years to radically change our approach towards the environment, and avert an increase in global warming above 1.5C, which will cause huge consequences for millions of lives. Individuals making sure to recycle and use canvas shopping bags is not making a big enough impact; we need entire industries to completely overhaul how they operate. The UK construction industry contributes at least 40% of the UK’s entire carbon footprint. Architects are therefore in a unique position to contribute towards reducing our carbon footprint, because we decide exactly what materials our built environment is made of and where they come from. As Duncan Baker-Brown, director of BBM Sustainable Design says, “That’s why it matters, we’re right in the middle of the problem.”