You're at odds with contractors on green material timelines. How will you find common ground?

Before negotiating timelines for green materials, it's crucial to assess their needs. Research their availability, lead times, and reasons for any delays. This knowledge becomes your leverage in discussions. Explain to your contractors why these materials are non-negotiable from a sustainability perspective, showing them that you understand the supply chain. By being well-informed, you can preemptively address their concerns and demonstrate that your requests are based on solid facts, not just idealism. This approach ensures a more grounded and effective negotiation, fostering mutual respect and cooperation for sustainable project outcomes.

Respect their views and listen to concerns, convey a team spirit with the common goal of completing the project with the clients interest of a Passive Building design that will pay back in energy savings and future work.

If a client came to us with information on price and lead times of materials this would be a real advantage, as if a contractor does not research the availability and delivery costs of materials at the tender stage, this could potentially cause friction between the client and contractor down the line and lead to delays. While most sustainable materials are readily available in the U.K, the majority will come from specialist suppliers and incur hefty delivery costs, so if the contractor under orders, then they are likely to be footing bills for extra pallet deliverys at high costs, so being informed as a client is a very sensible plan

Designers need to be aware of any materials with long lead times, include that info in the drawings/specs and remind the team early and often. That said, most green materials have standard lead times and only become a problem if the contractor doesn't order them on a reasonable schedule. Always have a back-up plan.

Knowing who the sub contractors are is important because you would either have or could form a relationship. Making sure that credit information and that accounts are current so purchases of material can be made. Many times the sub contractors get a verbal approval and at this time you can get them to put orders in with hold for shipping instructions.

Its true that using some Green/Sustainable materials can have a time and cost implication, such as lime plaster or render. However more often than not the issue is a slight increase in cost over using more traditional non sustainable alternatives. I think its important to look at each material choice independently and then choose the most appropriate material to suit, for example; If insulating a wall internally, the benefits of using natural breathable materials, such as wood fiber insulation, far outways using non breathable alternatives, whereas if looking at external wall insulation, the breathability benefits of the material are less important, so the choice is then more about general sustainability over performance.

The use of green materials should be specifed and planned before the project gets to site, with a full understanding of the costs known by all. This will lead to the most successful outcome for the project.

In the case of some companies, material that is installed that will be removed and taken back for recycling is part of the project. Most of the time delivering material to be installed will coincide with material that needs to be removed. Phasing of the project is very important and will need a hands on approach with a dedicated project manager to make this run smoothly.

One thing I have found helpful is to use concrete floors as a smart multifunctional asset. It is replacing four separate mechanical systems like radiant heating, radiant,l cooling, thermal energy storage in the summer, and thermal energy storage in the winter. Best part, this turns the building into terminally rechargeable one that can take advantage of nighttime electricity to supercharged with cooling or heating. Deducting carbon footprint of the 4 mechanical systems from the carbon footprint from the concrete may turn it into carbon neutral 1 with newly created product functionality. What’s more the operational carbon edge is reduced considerably by eliminating the need for these mechanical systems to be maintained or serviced later.

This is an issue where everyone has to do better. The simplicity and benefits of sustainable building practices has never been easier. It is up to the consultants and sales professionals to make everyone aware of what it will take to set up a process for sustainable building and construction. It has never been more accepted by end users then it is right now.

It is true that sometimes reluctance to change or desire to embrace green innovations can be very challenging. In some cases, decision-makers don’t have the ability to spend more than their limited budget is calling for. It is interesting to note that knowledge empowers people to make educated high impact environmental decisions. While sometimes people perceive outcomes based on their expectations bias. It can happen even when independently validated solutions set to stimulate building better buildings for less. More importantly the educational part is critical on how this can be possible when they deliver Wellness, comfort, safety, lower carbon footprint and are scalable. Touring of these facilities is by far the best way to ensure it.

Communication is key with everyone involved in the project and it's important that people have a basic understanding of why they are using the materials and the benefits and importance to the building/proje t

I found it very interesting and highly impactful the new process of monitoring, innovative, green solutions that can combine two existing products into one multifunctional carbon neutral, smart asset as it relates to embed carbon. Monitoring progress with today’s control systems makes it that much easier to extract various metrics that can be analyzed and adjusted if required to suit. Digital commissioning of the building envelope instead of flying drones at night to check for leaks and cracks in the building Envelope is a real possibility today. AI enabled controls tools allowed to effectively monitor various desirable, environmental, health and safety, resilience and continuity of business metrics from the start.