With_Architecture Studio is intent on walking its talk when it comes to sustainability.
The Northbridge firm was the first in its industry nationally to become certified as carbon neutral and remains the only Western Australian architecture practice with the status under the federal government’s Climate Active program.
This means the business accounts for every kilogram of CO2 it emits through its operations, from the paper it consumes to how its workers commute.
As climate change assumes prominence in the private and public agenda, the property industry is exploring initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint.
With_Architecture Studio is not the only firm on the carbon neutral path in WA, with others, including Hames Sharley, working towards the federal government certification.
The global Architects Declare movement, whereby firms pledge to raise awareness of the climate and biodiversity emergencies, has attracted several WA signatories since its inception in 2019.
These include iredale pederson hook architects, Hassell and Woods Bagot, who were founding signatories to the movement.
Given building and construction accounts for 39 per cent of carbon emissions globally, according to the World Green Building Council, architects are banding together to reduce their environmental footprint.
With_Architecture Studio co-founder and managing director Jane Wetherall has seen that shared push gain momentum in recent years.
“The industry as a whole has identified the huge part that the built environment plays in climate change and the huge potential there is for us to help them with the road to reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Ms Wetherall said.
“As a collective, the architectural industry has become a lot more collegiate.
“There has been a lot more sharing of information.”
With_Architecture Studio designed Guildford Grammar Boarding House to align with sustainability principles. Photo: Dion Robeson
Commitment
During a career spanning more than two decades, Ms Wetherall has been acutely aware of the extent her industry impacted on global emissions.
As a result, she felt she could make a difference by reducing that effect.
“We decided to start at home, I suppose,” she said about a 2015 conversation that took place within the firm.
Ms Wetherall and her colleagues, including With_Architecture Studio co-founder and director Geoff Warn, wanted to embody the preferred approach they took to projects by focusing inward.
“(We thought) the journey in bringing our house in order would help us advocate to others (and) lead by example with clients and potential projects,” she said.
“So, when we’re suggesting that they (our clients) consider sustainable options, we’re doing so from a position where we have already done so ourselves rather than asking them to do something that we’re ignoring.
“It just felt fitting.”
With_Architecture Studio works with the Department of Finance to design developments for WA schools, including Christ Church Grammar School, Guildford Grammar and Kiara College.
Ms Wetherall said helping schools understand how to become carbon neutral, including through reducing embodied energy during the construction phase was a priority for the firm.
She said the studio encouraged clients to retain and upgrade existing structures, rather than demolishing and building, where possible, thus reducing the carbon footprint.
“It’s amazing how quickly, in the last two years, sustainability has taken hold,” she said.
The firm made the call to pursue carbon neutral certification via the federal government’s Climate Active pathway, formerly referred to as the National Carbon Offset Standard, seven years ago.
The status requires a rigorous audit process. An organisation’s practices are scrutinised by outside bodies to measure their impact.
It came at a cost of about $4,500 annually for With_Architecture Studio, plus the fees associated with obtaining carbon offsets, which for the firm last year were $850, accounting for 45 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
“It was really about understanding which aspects account for the operational carbon footprint,” Ms Wetherall said.
Christ Church Grammar School has started its road to carbon neutrality.
“It is a journey of going through as much detail as you can, working out what you can measure exactly and then what you have to do by assumption and making sure that you keep receipts and records for absolutely everything.”
The audit largely focused on electricity and water consumption, as well as waste production.
Ms Wetherall said the process resulted in a shift in behaviours among the 20 staff members at the studio.
“It led to a real consciousness, (to) not producing as much waste,” she said.
National carbon energy specialists Pangolin Associates, which has just this month opened a Perth office, were engaged to calculate With_Architecture Studio’s impact.
By 2017, it became accredited carbon neutral – the first architectural firm in Australia to do so.
Now, the firm is one of 24 architectural firms nationally with federal certification.
Property groups, including Hesperia, Frasers Property Australia, CBRE and Goodman Group, have also gained the national certification.
As Pangolin Associates managing director and founder Iain Smale told Business News, there are many architecture firms practising the measures adopted by carbon neutral organisations without being officially certified.
“Architecture is leading the way in carbon neutral certification,” Mr Smale said.
“I think a lot of architects out there want to do the right thing for the planet, engineer things differently and the right way, and they’re the people who can influence some change.” 
Kiara College retained and re-used its buildings in its latest upgrade. Photo: Ed Janes
Ms Wetherall said rising construction costs presented a challenge for sustainable design, as the costs associated with carbon neutral elements were often higher upfront.
A recent analysis conducted by the firm showed a cost increase of less than 5 per cent to include initiatives to reduce embodied carbon and CO2 emissions in a project’s lifecycle.
“Construction escalation costs are really causing trouble with a lot of clients … that’s one of the big challenges in the whole sustainability movement, that it becomes almost one of the first things to get value engineered out,” she said.
You can design a solar passive building, but then once you start adding the active measures on, they are easy candidates to go ‘let’s just allow for future PV electrical vehicle charging’.”
Tangible assets
As well as organisations, physical structures can be classified as carbon neutral.
Climate Active’s website lists dozens of carbon neutral buildings nationally, including Sentinel Real Estate’s Element 27 development, Dexus’ portfolio and Cbus Property’s 140 William Street in Perth.
Australian Institute of Architects WA president and City of Perth councillor Sandy Anghie gained the majority support of council for her recent motion for the city to explore incentives for carbon neutral buildings.
