How to make Environmental Consideration Integral to all parts of the Business – Bond Bryan’s Sustainability Story

At Bond Bryan, we are committed to creating architecture that not only serves the needs of today but also contributes to a more sustainable future. Sustainability is not a side project for us – it’s embedded into every aspect of our practice. Whether we’re designing new buildings, refurbishing existing structures, or looking at our own operations, we are dedicated to reducing our environmental impact and making a positive contribution to the planet.

Our sustainability journey began in earnest in 2018, when we won the RIBA Yorkshire Sustainability Award for our design of the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure in Doncaster. The project, designed to achieve a BREEAM Excellent rating, was a milestone for us—it proved that high-performance, sustainable buildings were within our reach and ignited a passion within our team to push for even higher standards across all our projects.

The built environment is responsible for around 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and as a practice, we recognised that we had a part to play in addressing this challenge. The statistics were stark, and the urgency of the climate crisis was undeniable. We knew that if we were to meet the goals set out in the Paris Agreement and contribute to keeping global temperatures within safe limits, we would need to make real changes—not just in the buildings we designed, but in how we ran our practice and worked with clients.

However, while we knew we had to act, we didn’t always know exactly how. This is where our internal team, our ‘Circular Thinking’ group, came into play. The idea was to bring together passionate individuals from across the practice to take action on sustainability—people who understood the big picture, but who could also focus on the day-to-day decisions that would lead to meaningful change.

The first major step we took was understanding our own carbon footprint. In 2019, we set a baseline year to start measuring our emissions. Since then, we’ve refined our processes and gained a deeper understanding of how to make our footprint as accurate as possible. We have set ourselves ambitious targets, with the goal of becoming a net zero carbon practice by 2030. To make sure our data is robust, we are also working towards having our carbon footprint independently verified.

This focus on data has allowed us to track our progress and set clear, measurable goals for the future. But the true challenge was always going to be cultural—the sustainability shift couldn’t just be a top-down directive. We needed the whole practice to be on board.

Creating change across a business of our size requires more than just policy changes; it requires a fundamental cultural shift. To get there, we needed to make sure that every single staff member understood not only what we were doing but why it was so important.

We appointed sustainability specialists from our ‘Circular Thinking’ group in each studio. These team members became champions of sustainability, providing guidance, promoting sustainable practices, and continuously driving the conversation forward. At the same time, we began to offer dedicated training programmes—by 2023, half of our Continuous Professional Development (CPD) sessions were focused on sustainability topics.

These training sessions were vital in helping staff feel confident with sustainability principles and terminology. We didn’t just want to talk about sustainability in broad terms; we wanted every team member to understand how these issues impact their day-to-day work and how they could take action. As staff began to grasp the implications of the climate crisis and the role they played in addressing it, we saw a noticeable shift—a genuine desire to do more.

In the past year, we’ve worked hard to embed these sustainability principles into every part of our business. From the way we design buildings to the way we run our operations, we’re making sustainability a fundamental consideration in everything we do.

As a result, we’ve taken significant steps to reduce the environmental impact of our projects. We use sustainable materials wherever possible, integrate energy-efficient designs, and prioritise circular design principles that focus on reducing waste and improving the longevity of buildings.

But we’ve also expanded our focus beyond carbon reduction. We want to do more than minimise harm—we want to make a positive contribution to the environment. Our focus now includes enhancing biodiversity, creating healthy environments for building occupants, and considering the impact of our projects on local ecosystems.

Our commitment to this holistic view of sustainability has already been recognised. We were recently named ‘Ones to Watch’ in the Regenerative Architecture Index, a global initiative that celebrates practices making a positive impact through their work.

Additionally, we are actively exploring B-Corporation Certification, which would formally recognise our commitment to social and environmental responsibility across all areas of our business.

The lessons we’ve learned through this journey aren’t just for us—they’re tools we can share with others. As our practice becomes more sustainable, we’re better equipped to support our clients, consultants, and the wider community in their own sustainability journeys. We’re working with clients who share our values, helping them navigate the challenges of creating sustainable buildings, and providing advice on how to reduce their carbon footprints.

Our efforts to become a net-zero carbon practice by 2030 are ambitious, but we are determined to meet them. We know that becoming truly sustainable is a continuous process—one that will require constant learning, adaptation, and innovation. But the progress we’ve made so far has shown us that it’s possible to make meaningful change.

At Bond Bryan, we’re proud of the steps we’ve taken, but we know the journey isn’t over.

Through our dedication to sustainability, we are not just designing buildings; we are helping to create a more responsible, resilient future for everyone. By embedding environmental considerations into every part of our practice, we believe we can make a real difference—one building, one project, and one decision at a time.