At the beginning of a recent sustainability charrette with a new client, we could tell the client staff (Director of Operations, Director of Finance, and several facilities personnel) in attendance were there because they had to be and were, for the most part, relatively disengaged. They were on their phones, checking emails, and keeping up to speed with real matters at hand – their jobs. At about 15 minutes in, we asked them what their goals were, and what they wanted to change. As they began to list goals and challenges, we connected each of their concerns to energy efficiency, life cycle cost, customer comfort, productivity, wellness, value, and potential funding opportunities. Over the course of the next two hours, they became engaged and focused on results and new ideas. By the end of the session, we had covered quite a lot of ground, made many good design decisions, agreed on project goals and project vision, and clarified scope, schedule, and budget. During our workshop, we made great progress in developing the trust and working relationships needed to help ensure a positive and successful project. This workshop was a successful example of a sustainability charrette.
Sustainability Charrette, Eco-Charrette, or Energy Efficiency Workshop… What’s in a name?
A sustainability charrette is an intensive, collaborative, and integrative design workshop during which the full project team and major stakeholders gather with the aim of developing a design or vision for a project. It is intended to set goals for the project including scope, budget, schedule, and quality at a minimum, but also to set specific performance goals and metrics around energy use and efficiency, health and wellness, daylighting, glare, water and resource use, operational and embodied carbon emissions, ecosystems and economy, renewable energy, building systems, integration, and inclusion. It is a unique opportunity to involve all major stakeholders in the establishment of a project vison, direction, and consensus-based goals, as well as establish a process by which to achieve those goals.
Whether one calls this session a sustainability charrette, an eco-charrette, or a building performance or energy efficiency workshop doesn’t matter as much as the content and focus of the session. Any name and title can be the entry point to integrated design discussions. At Mead & Hunt we have used all the above nomenclature and titles, tailoring the events to match the client’s and owner’s focus and primary interest. We’ve begun to base the core of our workshops on the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Framework for Design Excellence. The AIA’s Framework consists of 10 distinct but connected categories and is holistic, flexible, and adaptable to project-specific focus areas. It can readily relate to and expand to include strategies from various certification and rating systems, such as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the WELL Building Standard (WELL), and the Living Building Challenge (LBC). We make a point of connecting design ideas to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) requirements. We also include climate analysis, resiliency assessment, early comparative energy modeling and benchmarking, preliminary daylighting and glare analysis, preliminary solar potential, embodied carbon reduction, and bits and pieces other certification or rating systems.
When should you conduct a charrette/workshop?
Every project should include a charrette or workshop as early as possible during planning or concept/schematic design. This initial charrette may be more baseline planning focused or goal-setting oriented depending on the nature of the project. In early planning or concept design we can set broad goals and parameters – identifying focus areas to be developed later. Be sure to check in and follow through on any goals set during subsequent phases of the project.
Consider having additional, separate, and more detailed sustainability workshops during later phases. These workshops should address big picture concepts as well as detailed development of strategies. In these later phases we can look at individual focus areas and goals with more specific intention and develop design solutions around our aspirations with consistent follow-up through-out the project.
Why conduct a Sustainability Charrette?
- Make sustainability easier to understand and embrace. Some people waive off sustainability because they don’t understand it. It may seem too soft, or too focused on doom and gloom future scenarios rather than the here-and-now. A broad and holistic workshop reinforces that while true sustainability is focused in part on environmental concerns, it is also focused on economic returns, durability, equity, and performance. It makes sustainability less ephemeral and more clearly tied to results.
- Increase collaboration and make better decisions. The workshop gets the project team to communicate and collaborate early. This results in more complete decision-making, better solutions, and ultimately better projects. When goals get set and consensus is arrived at early, goals are easier to achieve, and progress can be measured along the way.
- Identify potential risks. Through early collaboration, the charrette helps to identify hidden scope, fees, schedule, and costs in a project when potential risk is lowest and there is more time to solve any potential problems. It helps identify an owner’s project requirements and helps to align scope, work effort, assigned responsibility, and additional or unplanned fees and costs.
- Increase energy and environmental performance. There are many ways in which our profession judges and determines what is good design. Energy and environmental performance should be two of the categories against which we measure successful projects. The charrette sets broad and specific goals for energy performance, cost, and quality. A better performing building is one that lasts longer, is less expensive to operate, and is more thoroughly enjoyed,
- Increase project value and environmental benefits. A sustainability charrette pairs common sense strategies with environmental benefits, including environmental betterment, responsible use of resources, reduced emissions, increased wellness and productivity, and a focus on return on investment (ROI) and lifecycle cost analysis (LCCA), balancing first costs with long term value/cost over a building’s lifetime.
In the end, the workshop becomes the catalyst that improves building performance, reduces carbon emissions, improves value and equity, and generally makes our buildings better places to work and live. This in turn makes us more responsible stewards of the environment. The strategies and design solutions conceived during the charrette not only produce better buildings, but can also help the project achieve additional funding, as well as help with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and ESG reporting.
