Synergy Architects recognise the need for a more sustainable way of life and support efforts to reduce energy use. We aim to contribute to meeting the challenge by reducing the impact on the environment of our own activities and the decisions we make, and by promoting more sustainable practice.

We aim to increase energy efficiency and reduce the amount of material that the office uses, as well as increasing the amount of waste that we recycle. We also encourage staff to use sustainable transport options.

We believe architects can play a major role in the wider process, through the influence that we can have as designers. Energy conservation and the protection of the environment using sustainable materials and systems are given high priority in our designs and are issues that we consider with our clients. We recognise that demonstrating how sustainable choices can be compatible with a client’s more commercial priorities is likely to result in a higher take-up – for example:

• Potential for reduced running costs;
• Potential to add value to projects and increase saleability (eg achieving BREEAM standards and the Code for Sustainable Homes (Ecohomes) et al);
• Potential whole-life-costing benefits.

We have been involved in projects incorporating a range of sustainable design principles and low energy solutions, including:

• Optimisation of natural daylight;
• Optimisation of natural ventilation;
• Active and passive solar shading systems;
• Photovoltaics;
• Solar hot water;
• Superinsulation;
• Prefabricated and modular construction;
• Rainwater recycling schemes;
• ‘Green’ roofs;
• Re-use and refurbishment of existing buildings;
• Urban regeneration/renewal.

As well as integrating individual elements into projects in this way, the practice has experience of a number of schemes that place environmental principles at the core of the design, details of which can be found here.