The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has released a new sustainability guide to help RIBA members and the wider architecture sector embed sustainable outcomes into practice.

Named Sustainable Outcomes Guide, the 52-page guide aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and outlines eight clear, measurable goals that practices can aim for on projects of all scales, underpinned by specific design principles to achieve them.

The RIBA listed Sustainable Outcomes as: net zero operational carbon, net zero embodied carbon, sustainable water cycle, sustainable connectivity and transport, sustainable land use and bio-diversity, good health and wellbeing, sustainable communities and social value and sustainable life cycle cost.

The new guide has been created to support the RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge, an initiative to encourage RIBA Chartered Practices to achieve net zero whole life carbon for all new and retrofitted buildings by 2030.

"In order to meet the ambitious net zero in all new and retrofitted buildings by 2030, we must employ a thorough method of assessment that can be embedded into practice. The RIBA’s Sustainable Outcomes Guide provides this framework and clarifies the absolute targets for a sustainable future," said RIBA President, Alan Jones.

"As architects, we are guardians of the built environment. Thanks to our education and continuing professional development, we are equipped with the tools to combine strategic ideas with performance and regulation, choice of material, construction and technology – from initiation to occupancy and use. The time for warm words is over. I urge all members to use the guide as a matter of urgency."

The RIBA's guide includes a lot of charts, tables, metrics and performance analyzing tools to deliver fast, measured and verified outcome for all projects in all scales. 

"The RIBA Sustainable Outcomes Guide offers a clear road map to address the climate emergency. The differing complexities of sustainability have been distilled into a set of eight sustainable outcomes, aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with concise metrics that can be measured and verified in use," said Chair of the RIBA Sustainable Futures Group, Gary Clark. 

"Only by a rigorous ‘measurement and verification’ method of assessment can we deliver real and lasting reductions in carbon emissions, that not only address the climate emergency, but create beautiful places that are also sustainable."

You can download the Sustainable Outcomes Guidance here.

In autumn 2020, the RIBA plans to publish a new Plan of Work with updated sustainability guidance.

Top image © Markus Spiske, emergentthinkers.com.

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