CABE appoints leading consultancy to look at its environmental impact

CABE has appointed the sustainability consultants Beyond Green to undertake a comprehensive audit of its environmental impact. Beyond Green will be working in collaboration with footprinting experts Best Foot Forward.

As the government's advisor on architecture, urban design and public space, CABE has a key role to play in stimulating the market for more sustainable goods and services and for championing more sustainable buildings and urban environments. CABE wants to embed sustainability in its internal operations, external activities and practical advice.

Richard Simmons, CABE chief executive said:

'Buildings are responsible for no less than 40 per cent of UK carbon emissions, making a major contribution to climate change. It is essential that buildings are better designed, constructed and occupied in order to reduce carbon emissions, energy consumption and resource depletion.

CABE does not believe that the sustainability agenda is just a box-ticking exercise. Sustainable design should be synonymous with good design. No building, public space or neighbourhood can really be considered well designed if it does not contribute to environmental, social and economic sustainability at the local, regional and global scale.'

Jonathan Smales, CEO of Beyond Green said:

'Public interest in and concern for the environment is perhaps higher now than ever before in modern times. Action to safeguard our climate, the planet's ecology and all living systems, while improving quality of life through fine places and spaces is a hugely important agenda. It is an agenda on which coherent leadership and expertise is urgently needed. Beyond Green is delighted to have the opportunity to work with CABE commissioners, teams and stakeholders to explore the ways in which CABE can make the most effective contribution to a step change in standards and environmental performance in the built environment.'

As part of its corporate commitment to addressing the issues of climate change and environmental sustainability, the Audit will look at CABE's environmental impact and identify practical ways in which the organisation can reduce its footprint. It will look at three distinct but interrelated areas:

1. Organisation: the building CABE staff work in and the resources, goods and services consumed.
2. Family and contractor: the activities of the CABE staff, commissioners and expert advisors as well as the contractors and service providers used.
3. Impact and influence: CABE's research and campaigns, guidance and practical advice.

Notes to editor

• All central government departments and their agencies are required to produce sustainable development action plans. CABE's sponsor and funding departments, DCMS and DCLG, have both produced sustainable development strategies. This is likely to be extended to non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs). CABE will produce a sustainability strategy and action plan in March 2007.
• Beyond Green are consultants and practitioners working exclusively on sustainable communities and developments and the promotion of sustainable lifestyles. Led by former Greenpeace Director, Jonathan Smales, the practice advises on policy and strategy, brand and communications, housing, development process and financing, public consultation, and renewable energy, water and resource management practice. Beyond Green has worked with a wide range of leading architects, urban and landscape designers and has its own in-house design practice based in Copenhagen.
• Best Foot Forward (BFF) are one of Europe's leading sustainability consultancies specialising in energy and natural resource accounting methodologies such as resource flow analysis, ecological footprinting and carbon accounting. Best Foot Forward were awarded a Queen's Award Queen's Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development in April 2005.
• CABE is the government's advisor on architecture, urban design and public space. We promote the need for more sustainable buildings in our design review and enabling services and also through initiatives such as Building for Life and the Prime Minister's Better Public Building Award.
• 'Carbon footprint' is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide. Ecological footprint is the area of biologically productive land required to meet resource demands, disposal of waste etc.