Designing for climate change – why architects needs to take the lead

Architects are pivotal in setting ambitious sustainability and net zero goals. Early decisions in the design process have the greatest impact at the least cost. Architects’ influence extends across clients and the entire supply chain. This makes their leadership essential.

Climate change is an existential crisis that demands our urgent attention now if we are to avoid catastrophic tipping points around the natural world. The International Energy Agency has warned us that we’re off track for net zero by 2050, with emissions still rising.

Buildings are responsible for a third of global emissions – 26 per cent from operations and 7 per cent from construction. To achieve net zero by 2050, all new buildings need to be net zero from 2030. A significant leap from less than 5 per cent of new buildings today.

The time for incremental change is over. The time for strong, positive action is now. We must change the things we can – in particular, we must stop fossil fuel use and dramatically reduce consumption.

In response to this, the architecture industry has seen the need to create groups such as Australian Architects Declare (AAD) and others to challenge the status quo. The Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) is helping its members understand this as a major opportunity – and responsibility – for architects to lead the charge.

The Architecture Industry Decarbonisation Plan 2025-2050 was released by the RAIA in mid-November 2024 and identifies five key issues to be addressed by the government to assist architects and the built environment sector in delivering significant reductions in carbon:

• updating the NCC 2025 to implement mandatory measurement of embodied carbon in accordance with NABERS
• updating the NCC 2028 to achieve buildings that are all electric, highly e?cient, grid responsive, effectively net-zero operational carbon, and reduce upfront carbon in all new buildings and major renovations by 40 per cent by 2030
• government procurement of buildings to require grid-responsive, net-zero operational emissions and reduce upfront carbon by 20 per cent using NABERS methodology from 2025.
• funding NABERS and NatHERS to extend operational and embodied carbon ratings across all building types
• investment in transforming skills, practices, and supply chains to keep pace with a rapidly evolving industry and maintain investment confidence

The milestones identified in the plan for how to achieve grid responsive, net zero operational and embodied emissions in buildings are broadly aligned with leading industry bodies, including the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC), the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) and the Property Council of Australia (PCA).

ASBEC wrote, “The built environment has the technology to decarbonise now – but we must do this at speed and scale to smooth the way for other hard-to-abate sectors.”

So, what does this mean for architects and their practice?

As people around the world recognise the importance of reducing carbon urgently, regulations are being implemented to account for carbon throughout business practices and supply chains, and bold, innovative benchmarks that outstrip government standards are being set by leading businesses. This means that future projects will need to reduce their carbon significantly.

As lead consultants on most building projects, architects are pivotal in setting ambitious sustainability goals and driving the design process. Their influence extends across clients and the entire supply chain, making them essential leaders in the journey toward zero-carbon buildings and industry-wide decarbonisation.

It is the early decisions that have the greatest impact at the least cost in the design process. Relying on material substitution or leaving it up to the engineers and sustainability consultants will not achieve the impacts that architects can by design and will diminish our profession. Architects who can develop the skills to design zero-carbon buildings will be in high demand.

As we focus on a fabric first approach to minimise operational carbon and doing much more with much less (including using what we already have) to reduce embodied carbon, architects will need to explore how these approaches can creatively inform their design. How can we shift our focus from heroic cantilevers that require large amounts of steel and concrete and excessive amounts of glazing to ensure that every investment in carbon is optimised and its purpose is validated by its positive societal impact? How can we move from the current unrestrained knock down and rebuild approach that doesn’t value existing buildings and their materials to one where their embodied cultural and carbon investments are appreciated?

Rather than seeing this as possibly boring and uninspiring, architects have the opportunity to use their creative talents to showcase how they can make this exceptional. They must lean into the agency they have to lead innovative approaches to finding compelling solutions to complex problems.

High performing buildings are not only urgently required but also feasible today. They are more resilient to extreme weather events like heat waves and foster health, well-being and productivity through better comfort and indoor environment quality.

How is it possible to make such changes in our work at this time, with so many other regulatory requirements consuming any time and space we have for learning new ways? Practice in 2024 is hard enough already… The RAIA understands this and recognises its responsibility to step up and help its members address this future that is already upon us. A key part of this is aligning with other leading industry groups and advocating to the government to help by implementing regulations to deliver certainty, leading with its own procurement practices to proactively simulate the market, and investing in training to help the industry transform.

The RAIA, supported by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, has already invested in developing an embodied carbon curriculum, toolkit and roadmap. This is in addition to many other resources, such as webinars, lean-ins and environment notes, to help architects navigate their way forward. More are being planned to help deal with real practice issues. Together with the AAD, the Handprints of Good Design framework with layers of resources is being developed to inspire your clients and teams to have different conversations about what might be possible. A Future Practice Playbook will help practices find ways to envision and plan for changes going forward, with a real focus on embedding these ideas into your practice, the value of such work and how this can be promoted.

It is no good pining for another time when designing resourcefully was not valued as much as it is now. The future will be different and there is no time to be wasted in thinking otherwise. Let’s together find joyful and creative ways of realising this opportunity.

“Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.” – James Baldwin

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall