SW Architects act on climate emergency

The Plymouth and Truro offices of leading architecture practice Stride Treglown have kicked off the practice’s Climate Action Relay initiative by taking time away from their desks to clean up Firestone Bay and Perranporth beach.

The firm, which was recently certified as a carbon neutral business and a B Corp, has launched the relay to highlight the role the construction industry plays in the climate crisis and identify potential solutions, as well as to inspire local people and businesses to play their part in addressing the emergency.

Beginning last week in the south west, the relay will work its way through the UK with events organised by individual offices, finishing in Glasgow to coincide with the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 at the beginning of November. Stride Treglown is working with colleagues at TODD Architects and Keppie based in Northern Ireland and Scotland respectively with events taking place in Belfast and Glasgow, as well as Cardiff, Bath, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Winchester and London.

The beach clean was part of the “Be Inspired” programme and was carried out together with fellow South West B Corp, Ward Williams Associates. The Stride Treglown team hopes that people around the south west will follow their lead and make similar small, but important contributions to the environment.

The Plymouth office also hosted a week of events to share different industry perspectives on Net Zero Carbon development. This included events focused on why conscientious clients and developers should demand better-performing buildings, how to design low carbon buildings and how every project interprets net-zero carbon differently.

Sarah Lee, Senior Associate Architect at Stride Treglown and Chair of RIBA South West commented:“The south west has really felt the effects of large numbers of people not being able to travel abroad this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, making it even more important that we look after our land and our beaches.”

Rob Delius, Stride Treglown’s Head of Sustainability, added: “Through our Climate Action Relay initiative we wanted to highlight activities that could be done by anyone, not just architects and not just businesses, to help mitigate the effects of the climate crisis.

“We at Stride Treglown have long been concerned with the effects that the buildings we build and the work we do has on the environment. Our Cardiff office was built to net zero standards some ten years ago and we have recently become a registered BCorp as well as certified carbon neutral.”