Navigating the complexity of sustainable design can be challenging. At EDable we have developed a toolkit and checklist to help inform this process, which we have begun to implement on our projects as a first step towards improving our approach to design. The toolkit includes a list of over 100 sustainable design strategies listed in order of project level (e.g. wider site level or detailed level) which can also be filtered by theme (e.g. passive design or movement and infrastructure). 

The purpose of this Climate Action Toolkit is to encourage new development and buildings that support and advance sustainability objectives. The checklist acts as an important prompt for clients and the design team at all stages to review the actions being taken to deliver a project as sustainable as possible. This checklist should be reviewed at all RIBA stages; from development of the brief, siting of the proposal, to the operation of the site during construction and the use over time.

The first section of the toolkit is ‘Design Process & Delivery’ and this sets out the sustainability goals at the start of the project between the client and design team. These will then form the overarching principles to guide the design through the consequent RIBA stages. 

The second section is split into three parts relating to scale; ‘Community’, ‘Building’ & ‘Detail’. These cover a range of criteria which may or may not apply depending on the scale or type of project in question. For example, a masterplanning project is likely to have more points relevant to ‘Community’ than ‘Detail’. Whereas a refurbishment project will likely be able to utilise the points within ‘Building and ‘Detail’. 

The toolkit uses colour coding to identify themes. Some themes such as ‘Circular Economy’ or ‘Passive Design’ span across the main sections whereas others such as ‘High Performance Technology’ are specific to particular sections.