The way forward: Action plan for how architects can contribute to the transition to an ecologically sustainable built environment!
The transition to an ecologically sustainable built environment amounts to an enormous opportunity for us in the architectural profession to show the full breadth of our expertise. What role we take in the design process, with whom we choose to work, and which materials we prescribe will be important for a more sustainable community building.
Society and politics are making new demands. Many new laws related to our climate and to climate change are being implemented, but those are not enough for Sweden to become climate neutral by 2045. In the architectural and building construction industry, a number of pioneering projects are underway that aim to increase the pace towards ecologically sustainable building construction. But we need more pioneers with high ambitions if we are to achieve the climate goal.
Those we make architectural drawings for have new values and behaviours that we must keep in step with. We can achieve value through long-term functionality, adaptability, and aesthetically pleasing living environments, created with wise design and with a minimal climate footprint. We can do this by taking advantage of existing buildings instead of building new ones, by limiting the use of materials, and by contributing to a low climate impact from a life cycle perspective. All this is decided at an early stage in the design process where the architect has crucial influence. Some of us have great power and can do a lot, others have fewer opportunities. Everyone can do something, and something is always better than nothing. No one has a choice anymore to remain on the side-lines, be passive, or continue as before. Those options have been removed by alarming climate change as well as legal requirements and political decisions.Architects Sweden’s sustainability council has mapped out how architects can best con-tribute to the urgent transition to an ecologically sustainable built environment – in terms of both what each individual architect can do and what the architectural offices can do. Based on the mapping, the board of Architects Sweden has developed this action plan. See it as a source of inspiration when you have to transition your own work and your business in a direction that is both kind to the planet and improves your chances of getting the most exciting assignments.
