Architects assume a significant amount of responsibility when it comes to considering designs that will be successful for not just their clients, but any person who inhabits or is impacted by their spaces. Topics of sustainability, social inclusion, economic opportunities, and overall urban equity, have consistently been top of mind in recent years, ultimately creating a new holistic approach to designing for a better future, that many people are referring to as Environmental, Social, and Governance metrics, more commonly known as ESG.
ESG is a set of standards for how to measure the sustainability of something as it pertains to its impacts on our environment, society, and governance. Many people often pair this term with financial investment strategies, which give guidelines to investors based on how a company’s policies and initiatives respect the environment and society. But in design, ESG analysis and implementation involve careful partnerships that explore how buildings can achieve more than just monetary returns, and how to qualify and quantify the experiential aspect of design. Strategies that range from demolishing existing buildings in an environmentally friendly way, creating healthy outdoor spaces for users, engaging surrounding communities for their input on new developments, and ensuring labor standards are properly implemented on construction sites are just some of the ways that ESG principles are impacting the design industry.
Taking a look at the “E”, in ESG, this piece of the puzzle is by far the aspect that people are the most focused on. As the threat of climate change increases, sustainable design and the benchmarks that are needed to ensure that architecture is having less of a carbon footprint on our world is at the forefront of almost every aspect of how we design projects from start to finish. The social considerations include things like the health and safety of people in and around a project site, understanding the extent of community impact by thoroughly researching socio-economic issues of a neighborhood, and upholding the right of unionized tradesmen and other workers. Many architects have become aware that new developments often displace marginalized groups of people, so they seek ways to ensure that their projects allow these communities to flourish and thrive in new spaces. This also considers things like understanding the need for affordable housing and how to design and distribute these units in an equitable way. Lastly, governmental issues concern interactions with key stakeholders that can mitigate risks to projects and ensure that there are no illegal activities or corruption involved. Every architecture project is a combination of multiple interests. Ensuring full transparency as to how resources are allocated and how a project is progressing will protect each party's rights.
So how does ESG get measured? There is not yet a universally agreed upon way to measure or benchmark ESG in design, which makes some of the outcomes difficult to understand, there are some established, small-scale ways to understand our progress. For instance, sustainable practices have long been implemented, and with ways to measure CO2 emissions, we can understand how our buildings have better performances. The future of ESG predicts that eventually, we will have a sort of matrices or score cards that will allow us to compare buildings and their overall strategies.
The fact that architects are considering these issues before their projects are even brought to the drawing board, and understanding how to address these issues with prospective clients and integrate them in a meaningful way is the first step. Measuring absolute performance will be possible when the outcomes are more established and agreed upon, and when we understand a qualitative and quantitative way to describe when a design is successful, and when it is not.
