Hanbury’s Rob Reis and Tom Powers share honest admissions about their firm’s journey to a sustainable culture
Slow and Steady
We started slow, but we’re catching up. Like more than 460 other architecture firms, Hanbury — a medium-sized, Virginia-based practice — joined the journey known as the Architecture 2030 Challenge. Despite five years of putting one foot in front of the other, the road to 2030 still feels daunting, but 2020 seems a good place to pause for reflection to appreciate how far we’ve come and reinvigorate our efforts. For us, that reflection happened at the recent Design Futures Council Summit on the Future of Environmental Responsibility. The event focused on where our industry hopes to be, needs to be, and will be in 2030 — and how we’ll get there.
The sustainable design movement began with the creation of the United Nations Environmental Programme in 1972, when the links between global
development and the environment were initially discussed at the UN’s first conference on the Human Environment. Fifteen years later,
in 1987, environmental sustainability was recognized as a global imperative by the United Nations’ Brundtland Commission. Momentum
accelerated in the United States with the founding of the U.S. Green Building Council in 1993, the public launch of LEED standards in 2000,
and—in 2006—the initiation of the 2030 Challenge. Per the architecture2030.org website, the U.S. is currently on track to
reach “a 24.5% reduction below 2005 [greenhouse gas emission] levels by 2025, and 30.4% by 2030.”
These emissions reduction projections meet the target set in the Paris climate agreement. All this is great news, but now is not the time to
take our feet off the pedals.
With net zero, net positive, and Living Building Challenge projects gaining attention, and firms such as BNIM and Miller Hull pioneering the
way with early energy modeling and performance tracking on every project, the roadmap to a carbon positive future has arrived, but these
inspirational examples can also be intimidating. Poster projects often depict a level of progressive mindedness not found in the average
architecture client. So, how can the rest of us contribute to the 2030 goals when most firms aren’t producing such high-performing
buildings? For us, the “aha!” moment came with one realization: while these projects are groundbreaking, it’s the
collective progress being made that is the real source of change. The 2030 Challenge is succeeding because a cultural shift is happening in
the participating firms. Countless seemingly modest contributions are now occurring constantly outside the spotlight. THESE actions are the
groundswell that is driving momentum.
Harnessing the Spirit of Good Intentions
Many firms’ consciences remind them repeatedly: “quit flirting with the idea of a more sustainable practice! Jump in and fully
immerse!” But what does “jumping in” look like? This was a major hurdle for Hanbury, and we suspect for other firms as
well. Taking the first step is the hardest part of the Challenge. Hanbury’s environmental re-tooling is still a work in progress, but
we recently evaluated our initial steps toward setting incremental, measurable and well-defined goals. In the spirit of sharing, we offer
our insights and honest admissions to other firms considering or starting out on their 2030 journey.
With best intentions, it is easy to focus on the most innovative, alluring work going on and aspire to be a part of that. We lost time at
the start getting caught in the trap of focusing on things that weren’t in our control: “My clients just aren’t
interested in this,” or “There really isn’t money in the project budget,” were frequent excuses. But in the
interest of realizable and manageable progress toward a more sustainable future, we invite you to think small and appreciate the more
moderate things you can do — and perhaps are already doing — to make progress and shift your culture.
Talk About Sustainability
A sustained change will require consensus and buy-in throughout your firm. This is not something a formal decree alone can accomplish. It
must begin with conversation and be followed with desire. There is value in simply allowing and encouraging discourse about sustainability
to permeate the firm and in its work. This is probably the simplest step, but its importance should not be understated or undervalued.
Promote an open and ongoing dialog about sustainability in every facet: within your projects and your office; across offices; and with
designers, administrators, interns, clients, other firms, and partners. Keep talking, learning, and growing.
The aim is to shift the conversation from what happens — or doesn’t happen — on individual projects toward how to add
operational discipline to every project and to the business itself. These early steps engender and build an understanding of the new
priority and a shared interest in reaching the goal. This dialog nourishes a culture that embraces and produces good, sustainable
design.
At Hanbury, we’ve used existing avenues to elevate sustainability and resiliency in our dialog — and a few new ones that were
easily established:
• We integrated sustainability considerations into our design reviews.
• We inquire about sustainability scores and expertise from product and lighting representatives.
• We invite experts from USGBC, ULI, WELL Building (IWBI), Fitwel and others to brainstorm and discuss.
• We prompt internal ‘experts’ to share their knowledge.
Advocate Strongly
Long-term success can only be created when there is an authentic drive to make a difference.
Getting your whole firm on board will require the endorsement of the firm’s top leaders and the help of internal ambassadors. As you
consider your team, identify champions at a variety of levels. For younger architects and emerging leaders with a passion for
sustainability, a role in your 2030 Challenge transformation can be a professional development opportunity. Specializing in sustainability
or a related idea can make for a prosperous career path in addition to becoming a valuable asset to your firm.
Empower your advocates to educate and motivate their colleagues. If possible, elevate these roles by supporting them with some degree of
authority. Guide these champions in creating systems and protocols that allow sustainability checkpoints throughout project lifecycles.
Encourage these individuals to push beyond superficial box-checking to connect these tools to the goal of grappling with something big and
unfamiliar — not as an end unto itself. Involve support staff to weave the sustainability ethos into office operations — from
double-sided printing (if printing at all), to washable dinnerware, to planting and maintaining a green roof.
Seek sustainability expertise from outside of the firm. This could be a formal role or alliance as a firm advisor, or as an ongoing energy
modeling consultant — even something as casual as a guest participant in project critiques.
Frequent input from outside authorities can add a constructive, level pressure and emphasize sustainability’s priority to the firm.
At Hanbury, this advocacy work resulted in several meaningful changes:
• We identified a Sustainability Leader and established a Sustainability Task Force within our firm.
• We created a “design FOCUS group” to elevate internal design and sustainability discourse surrounding projects.
• We are evaluating candidates with expertise in sustainability/resiliency as an external member of our Board of Directors.
• We are establishing an internal resiliency research position.
• We updated our Core Values to reflect our commitment to sustainability.
• We made “rigorous sustainable consideration” one of our Ten Non-Negotiables of project process.
Evolve
Establish manageable initiatives to reach achievable goals that can have lasting impacts on your work. For example: update specifications to
include sustainable design considerations, research and develop better criteria for material libraries, and purge specifications and
materials library options that are decidedly noncompliant with your sustainable design criteria.
These steps have a direct impact on the work being done, and the process of accomplishing them grows knowledge within the firm. Evolution
may happen in small steps but can result in big changes.
At Hanbury, we have made incremental changes to our culture, operations, and practice. To date we:
• reconfigured our physical offices to reduce our footprint and reinforce a collaborative and dynamic studio environment.
• created a “ONE Hanbury” initiative to promote unity and the free flow of ideas across different offices.
• enacted a leadership development and transition plan to ensure the longevity of what we are building.
• promote thought leadership at all levels of our firm so that all ideas can be heard, and all members of the team can be invested in the direction our firm is headed.
• are overhauling our materials and samples library to purge options that do not align with our values.
• are integrating sustainability into the baseline specifications used as project starting points.
• brought a focus on sustainability into firm legacy programs, such as: our “Summer Scholar” program, which explores a research project related to sustainability; our “Virginia Design Medalist” program, which invites an expert from outside the firm to share their expertise in research and sustainability; or our “Design Retreat” program, which traveled to Denmark last year, where the role we saw design play in building and reinforcing sustainability as a core cultural value inspired us to ask the question, “What If Architecture Could Change the World?”
• promote more recycling within our offices.
• signed on to the 2030 Commitment.
• are developing sustainable design talent through dedicated training and mentoring.
• have hosted AIA 2030 Challenge training for both the firm and the local design community.
• are expanding financial incentives for our employees to gain accreditation with green building programs such as LEED.
• worked to minimize our project-process carbon footprint by expanding virtual capabilities and reducing travel.
• have started new programs aimed at promoting a diverse conversation on sustainability and resiliency.
‘A Conversation on Collaboration’ is an educational program focused on exploring sustainability and resiliency through the
lens of multiple disciplines such as science, manufacturing, community activists etc. The program is designed to heighten our
employees’ literacy and networking capacity, provide access to experts in the field, and bring together multiple disciplines to
diversify our collaborative design process and engage and educate our local community on these topics.
Continuously Assess and Celebrate Success
Throughout this process, be mindful of how you set up your initiatives so they can be measured. Your initial benchmarks are important. They
show you how far you’ve come. Collect data and notes at each interval to understand where you are. Set goals to improve and to
evaluate shifts along the way. The data need not be technical or scientifically rigorous to start. Goals don’t have to be high-minded
or overly ambitious. The real value is in making an effort to advance the cause.
Celebrate your victories (even the small ones) and the lessons learned through failures. These small efforts motivate your team and
recognize individuals who try something new. Celebrations don’t have to be a party, they could be as simple as a blog post, a social
media shout out, or a silly desktop award.
These opportunities to be creative and light-hearted reinforce the importance of sustainability in surprising ways.
Ready. Set. Go.
In hindsight, our slow start was probably more productive than we realized. An initial heroic push to operate at the same level as
established practices would most likely have backfired. Instead, we used the early days to prime the studios for the journey ahead.
We’ve managed to stay committed while gradually laying the groundwork for our unique route to 2030. It’s a path uniquely
suited for our firm, culture, markets and project types. As a result of our 2030 pursuit, we are developing and documenting projects that
will become our initial entries into the AIA 2030 Commitment’s Design Data Exchange (DDx). Sustainability is now genetically encoded
in our conceptual thinking, design process, and firm values. Our slow and steady start helped us bring the whole firm with us as we
accelerate toward 2030 and beyond.
You can do it too.
A principal and Design Director at Hanbury Norfolk, Rob Reis, AIA, LEED AP, believes sustainable design is always the consideration of good designers and an opportunity for innovation. Rob’s award-winning designs throughout the United States and abroad include a wide range of project types in government, higher education, and corporate-commercial sectors. Originally from Minneapolis, Rob holds a BA in architecture from Iowa State University and a master’s in architecture from the Harvard University GSD.
Tom Powers, AIA, is an architect and Sustainability Leader at Hanbury. He believes sustainability is an essential facet of design, and that the quality of a design is measured by the culmination of all the impacts it has — for good or ill. He holds a BArch in Architecture and a BA in Philosophy from Virginia Tech.
The Hanbury Sustainability Task Force — in addition to Tom and Rob — includes Bill Hopkins, AIA, LEED AP; Paige Conrad, CID; Jeffrey Butts; Ashley Montgomery; Annesley Cole, LEED AP; and Lauren Eaton.