Sustainability

A sustainable approach

The principles of sustainable design have always been integral to the work of the practice. The Sustainability Team acts as a catalyst, finding ways to advance our sustainable design processes and offer thought leadership. The team develops sustainability strategies for projects in conjunction with the design teams. Our approach is holistic, working to nurture innovation and enabling every project to meet the highest possible performance standards.

Responsibility Framework

The Sustainability Group employs the Foster + Partners Responsibility Framework (FRF) across all projects. The framework measures sustainability performance and captures and shares key data as evidence. This ensures that progress across all projects can be tracked, audited and reported. Information for the FRF is provided by Sustainability Assessors within the project teams.

This framework covers ten important themes:

  • Wellbeing
  • Community impact
  • Energy and carbon
  • Mobility and connectivity
  • Materials and waste
  • Water
  • Land and ecology
  • Prosperity
  • Planning for change
  • Feedback

Sustainability Reviews

The team reviews all projects from the outset and throughout their lifecycle. The initial conversations align client values with sustainable outcomes and setting a balanced and holistic approach to the ten FRF themes. Working with the project teams, we explore different sustainable approaches – the opportunities they bring and risks they avoid – and recommend core values, showing how they may be integrated within the overall design intent.