Our responsibility as architects and designers extends beyond the completion of construction, as we focus upon the lifecycle of a building.
This is reflected in our commitment to environmental, social and economic sustainability.
Climate Friendly
In December 2006 Woodhead became a Climate FriendlyTM company – the first Asia-Pacific architectural practice to offset all our carbon emissions. Our carbon emissions have been measured by an independent consultant across all offices and all staff throughout the Asia Pacific. An equivalent value has been committed by the firm to Gold Standard carbon credits.
Our carbon audit covered all carbon emissions-related business activities across the entire group;
- Electricity and gas consumption
- Paper use and recycling
- Air travel – international and domestic
- Taxis, couriers, staff mileage
By investing in Kyoto-compliant Gold Standard carbon offsets we sought a long term solution to the causes of global warming – our commitment is for the future.
Woodhead’s Climate Friendly commitment has three key objectives;
- Improving our operational efficiency and reducing our business-related carbon emissions
- Raising awareness amongst our staff, families and clients
- Bringing increased knowledge of design-related climate change issues into the design process
Environmental Management System
Woodhead’s Environmental Management System (EMS) aims to reduce the environmental impacts that may result from our operations and from the projects we design.
Our EMS has been tailored around our existing ISO 9001 Quality Assurance system, and focuses primarily on actions needed to address our Climate Friendly commitment.
We are working towards our Environmental Management System accreditation ISO 14001.
Greenhouse Impacts from Projects
Our core service is in the delivery of world-class design. The built environment has a significant impact on global warming and water use, and we believe that we can drive positive change in our industry, ultimately to the point where sustainable development is part of the solution to global warming.
Our Climate commitment objectives have been incorporated into our design process, whereby every project is assessed for sustainable benefits and outcomes. These outcomes are balanced between environmental, social and economic benefits.
Woodhead are increasingly raising the sustainability value in all of our projects – we believe that every client should benefit from improved building performance, improved user comfort, and reduced environmental risk.
Green Star
As an inaugural and continuing member of the Green Building Council of Australia, Woodhead have been actively involved in the creation of Australia’s first Green Star rating tools. In fact we were using similar rating tools on projects even before the creation of the GBCA, and we now support the GBCA in all their endeavours.
Accredited Professionals
Woodhead are committed to maintaining Green Star Accredited Professionals with in each studio and portfolio of expertise across the group. Since the accreditation programme began, Woodhead has maintained a consistent commitment to training staff as Green Star Accredited Professionals.
Environmentally Sustainable Design Minimum Benchmarks
The ‘Woodhead ESD Performance Targets’ are quantifiable measures relating to energy, water and materials.
The ‘Woodhead ESD Essential Requirements’ capture additional initiatives to lower the overall environmental impact of the building during design, construction and operation.
ESD Performance Targets
The Woodhead ESD Performance Targets cover energy, water and materials.
