At the forefront of architecture is the issue of environmental impact. Architectural firms across the world are working to deliver the lowest carbon footprint for their buildings, bringing better health and worldwide recognition for their efforts. In order to track the performance of an architectural project and overall firm performance, team members must enter information and energy model their projects to see what their overall performance will be. Often, these steps can be tedious or over looked. Because these steps are often skipped, it is difficult to track the areas that need improvement in the architectural world and improve the performance of buildings architectural firms produce. To be a firm leader in this industry brings recognition to the company and shares innovative ways to improve building performance. But the question remained, how does complex data both entice participation and generate excitement?
*Data in this project has been altered to preserve company confidentiality
In order to encourage firm-wide participation, research and data collection showed that if incentive was made, more sectors, offices, and project teams would participate in data input for the Green Report. Information was collected and certain data points were highlighted and recognized for their leading progress in this firm-wide effort. After the first report was released, teams asked why they were or were not represented. These question opened up a bigger dialogue, bringing to the forefront the importance of participating in data collection for each project. Project team participation increased by more than 58% and project teams began to make conscious effort to build highly energy efficient buildings. Teams began to discuss strategies for energy efficiency with one another internally and internationally.
The report is now published every quarter. It has been formatted to allow for the firm’s leaders, project leaders, and team members to update and publish this information on their own. The report creates a sense of success, framework for benchmarking, and camaraderie throughout the firm.
