Supporting our signatories

We have a growing collection of resources to help our signatories put their declarations into practice: initiatives, guidance and videos. These are also freely available for others too (unless indicated for signatories only).

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As well as this practical support for our signatories, our other focus is on helping to change the goals of the system governing how our built environment is planned and delivered to align with the needs of the planetary emergency. Here you can find a range of resources for leaders in government, industry and the wider sector: policy resources, statements and talks from experts leading the way on how our system needs to change.

Regenerative Design Primer

We've produced our new Regenerative Design Primer - launched in 2024 - to help architects and other designers lead the transition away from degenerative, destructive built environment practices that perpetuate the planetary emergency to regenerative design that creates positive outcomes for people and the natural systems we are part of. It supports our new Regenerative Architecture Index, adopting the same core principles of Being a Good Ancestor, Co-evolving with Nature, and Creating a Just Space for People. The Primer complements our Practice Guide (2021), replacing the short chapter there on regenerative design.

We hope it will speak to all who really care about the future and meeting their full commercial, social and environmental aspirations.

You can now watch the video from our October 2024 Regnerative Design Resources event, which gives a walkthrough of our Primer and the need for regenerative design for the built environment as well as signposting a range of other key resources others have brought to this critical challenge. And we've created a short summary of the discussions from the Q&A session and Zoom chat, along with all the links to the resources and other sources mentioned in the event.

And you can watch short videos about the Primer with those who helped create it, starting with:

Anna Pamphilon (AD Steering Group member & leader of our working group on the Primer)
Eike Sindlinger (Associate at ARUP & a member of the working group)

Note: The Primer is designed as a digital document. If you wish to print a copy, please consider omitting section title pages 7, 12, 33, 35 & 40, to save ink and energy.

Regenerative Architecture Index

Developed by UK Architects Declare with Architecture Today, the Regenerative Architecture Index - launched in 2024 - benchmarks regenerative policies, actions and working practices. It aims to share best practice, celebrate success, raise awareness across the wider construction sector and act as a catalyst for regenerative practice across the industry. We will also use the initiative to identify obstacles to progress, encourage knowledge sharing and identify tools, methods or policy measures required to support the transition to a low-carbon, high well-being and resilient future.

The Index asks participants about their practice and its projects under three broad headings:

Part 1: Being a good ancestor. This is about a shift in practice mindsets to consider truly long-term thinking. Our decisions today should consider seven generations ahead, ensuring adaptability and flexibility for the future. This requires innovative thought, as current models are rarely beneficial in the long term.

Part 2: Co-evolving with nature. This is about recognising that we are part of nature, within integral living systems, not separate from it. Our work should actively regenerate ecosystems by learning from and working with natural systems. This requires designing for circularity and encouraging closed-loop energy, material and water cycles.

Part 3: Creating a just space for people. This is about providing social connection, economic opportunity and wellbeing for all. Our design processes should foster a shared sense of stewardship where neighbourhoods can self-organise and build their resilience. This requires ethical, inclusive and participative approaches.

We launced the results of the inaugural RAI at a special event on 12th September 2024 - and you can find all the results will be published in September 2024 in this special issue of Architecture Today.

Design Conversations: Talking through your declaration challenges

Meeting the design challenges of the Planetary Emergency is a journey - and making your declaration is only the start. Each signatory practice needs to govern its own progress toward achieving its commitments, and AD has have developed ‘Design Conversations’ to help. Launched in 2022, these short, informal sessions of focused and confidential discussions offer an additional layer of support to our signatories, and help AD better understand the barriers to delivering on the declaration.

A Design Conversation session is usually via Zoom or Teams, lasts up to 2 hours and remains in confidence between your team and our small panel of Steering Group members. Design Conversations are free and unfunded, so we're looking to offer a handful of sessions as we explore and develop our process.

If you would like to find out more and how this might help your practice, contact us: [email protected]

Practice Action Masterclass videos

In 2022, UK Architects Declare held a series of online masterclasses on key topics in our Practice Guide (2021), as part of our Practice Action collaboration with ACAN and in partnership with the RIBA.

We launched this with a special 'roadmap' event in April to share expert guidance and participants' experiences on using our Practice Guide's principles to build more sustainable and regenerative projects and practices. This video has all the presentations and Q&A discussion - as well as the launch of AD's Practice Guide Masterclasses series.

Designing your own Practice Roadmap event video

Our workshops then ran from May to September. The 5 workshops brought together a wide range of experts for presentations and Q&A with participants around key topics in implementing the Practice Guide. The videos last from 40 to 70 minutes approximately.

Masterclass 1: Climate Literacy (May 2022). This workshop helped participants to assess existing levels of climate literacy against the Climate Framework – an industry-recognised tier system for climate literacy.
Masterclass 2: Understanding Impact (June 2022). This workshop helped practitioners to measure and reduce their impact by developing an understanding of the relative impact of project and business carbon footprints, reporting against scope 1-3 emissions, and carrying out early-stage life cycle assessments.
Masterclass 3: Working with the Client (July 2022). This workshop helped participants to explore how to: work with clients to develop a project brief that achieves sustainable or regenerative outcomes; challenge weaknesses in the brief; overcome typical barriers during the development and delivery process; develop in-house office champions; galvanise support within the design team; develop a compelling business case demonstrating clear value to the client.
Masterclass 4: Collaboration & Learning within Practice (August 2022). This workshop helped practices to foster a culture of collaboration and learning: how to grow climate literacy and share expertise, galvanise action within design teams and draw on what is successful already.
Masterclass 5: Closing the Loop (September 2022). Including case studies of Post Occupancy Evaluation, this workshop helped participants to: develop a successful feedback loop looking at types of building evaluation; to engage other members of the team with the process; gain an understanding of how clients and practice benefit from such appraisals.

We ended the series in December with a special event with ACAN, in London, Edinburgh and online. You can watch the ‘Practice Action - Assembly!’ video, with videos from ACAN’s Conversation series complementing our Masterclasses, on ACAN’s YouTube channel.

You can read more about the series in this short guide: UK Architects Declare - Guide to the Practice Action Masterclasses - which includes a link to the template Miro Boards we developed. During the workshops, participants used these to share ideas and their practices’ progress on the topics.

Practice Guide

Architects Declare launched this Practice Guide in 2021 to help signatories convert their declaration into meaningful action and build momentum within their practice. Part 1 is a Practice Roadmap that provides 5 simple steps to transform your business. Part 2 is the Project Design Guide, focused on the fundamentals of truly sustainable design and demonstrated through exemplars. It is intended to be a live, working document that helps fulfill the fourth point in our 12-point declaration by encouraging the sharing of knowledge and research on an open-source basis.

There is also a short form here for signatories to give their feedback on the document and for anyone who would like to help develop further versions of the document to register their interest.

We held a special online event in November 2021 to introduce the Practice Guide, featuring a 'walkthrough' of the Guide and a short Q&A session:

Ideas Into Action videos

In April 2021, our Ideas Into Action online two-day conference brought a close focus to both bold ideas (Day 1: a series of inspiring talks from Roman Krznaric, Dr Gabrielle Walker, Farhana Yamin & Jojo Mehta, interspersed with break-out sessions) and to practical actions to translate these into reality (Day 2: with three short talks from companies: Expedition, Interface and British Land - who have all undergone transformative change, sharing some of the successes and challenges in how they have risen to the planetary emergency - and series of PechaKucha style presentations about emerging and provocative ideas. We also launched our Strategy for Change, and you can see all the plenary sessions here.

Embodied Carbon Workshop presentations

In March 2020, we held a one-day workshop at Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios in London, with 12 expert presentations on embodied carbon.

Changing the goals of the system

We've created a range of resources to help leaders in government, industry and the wider sector change the goals of the system governing how our built environment is planned and delivered to align with the needs of the planetary emergency: policies, statements and talks from experts leading the way on how our system needs to change.

Click or scroll down for

As well as this support for changing the goals of the system, our other focus is on practical support for our signatories to help them act on their declaration. Here you will find our growing collection of initiatives, guidance and videos for practices.

Building Blocks to Transform the Built Environment

Our manifesto - launched at a special event in Parliament with MPs, Peers and industry experts on 12th March 2024 - is the culmination of considerable work by AD and others, starting in 2023. Ahead of this year's UK general election, we've developed this comprehensive policy framework to address the need to transform our built environment in line with the realities of the planetary emergency. Key bodies have endorsed a set of early adoption policies from the manifesto.

Our new Building Blocks website brings everything together - where you can also show your support for drive to have the manifesto adopted by parties ahead of the election and implemented by the next government.

Building Justice: Crisis Solutions video

On 3rd November 2022, we held a special in-person event (with livestream option) on climate justice as a key aspect of the planetary emergency resulting from the failing systems that govern our built environment and economies. This event - kindly hosted by Levitt Bernstein in their London offices - took place ahead of the COP27 global talks, and as households, businesses, communities and professions had to navigate the ongoing energy crisis. We had an excellent panel of speakers and you can watch all the talks and discussions in our video, which is just over 90 minutes.

Built for the Environment report

In partnership with the RIBA, we published Built for the Environment: Addressing the climate and biodiversity emergency with a fair and sustainable built environment ahead of the COP26 international climate change conference in Glasgow in 2021. The report - and the demonstrates how:

The built environment has a significant environmental footprint
Ambitious change in the built environment sector is possible
The built environment has the capability to transition to a sustainable future
The built environment sector is committed to change
There are enormous social, economic, health, and wellbeing benefits to shifting to a sustainable built environment.

Built for the Environment - published in the lead-up to the RIBA and Architects Declare Built Environment Summit ahead of the COP26 global climate conference in Glasgow - sets out ten principles for a transition to a fair and sustainable built environment. Specific recommendations address international agreements and commitments, national strategies and roadmaps, financial frameworks, building codes, planning systems, public infrastructure and procurement, voluntary standards, contracts, appointments, and procurement documents, design processes and collaborative approaches, and education and qualifications.

"Whatever actions are taken now, average global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least the midcentury. Given the scale of existing built environment and the time it takes to transform systems effectively, we need robust interim targets to hit breakthroughs in the coming years and decades'. While it is fair to say that changes to norms, customs, and culture do take time, understanding of human-induced climate change has been developing for several decades. We now stand on the brink of a global breakthrough in climate action.

"This report shows that it is possible for the built environment to operate within planetary limits, and as such all those involved in the sector – including policymakers – can and must take decisive and ambitious action now."

Resources