A sustainable development is one which considers impact in whole life, local and global terms. Here at Holder Mathias Architects we are committed to sustainability with our underlying objective being to efficiently maximise the potential of any scheme, whilst striving to minimise its impact on the environment.
Our dedicated Sustainability Group within the practice is tasked to continually build awareness and knowledge of effective and affordable sustainable design whilst promoting innovative and practical methods of construction to our staff and clients throughout the UK and Europe.
Our Practice is one of only a handful of architect firms to be certified with the ISO 14001:2004 standard, this achievement reflects our commitment to sustainability, which is placed at the heart of our approach to design. ISO is an internationally–recognised standard and the auditing process is rigorous. Achieving ISO 14001:2004 is a guarantee to clients of how seriously we take our environmental responsibility.
The achievement of high levels of international energy performance Codes, including BREEAM, is now routine on our projects and (as a minimum) we design all of our projects to follow the principles of good passive design. As part of our ISO 14001 accreditation, we monitor the environmental design on all of our projects at key stages and look for improvements year on year.
This has resulted in us achieving high levels of sustainability on some projects including Brennero designer outlet village, which was possibly one the greenest retail developments in Europe the year it was finished and our recent BRE award for the Bletchley Leisure Centre (the best bespoke building completed last year).
In addition considering the way we design our buildings, the practice has also implemented in–house procedures to reduce its carbon footprint, together with a green travel plan, cycle to work scheme etc.
We are members of the Green Building Council in the UK, Climate Change Business Champions, Prince of Wales Mayday Network, BITC/PofW Seeing is Believing, and the Welsh Assembly Government Coalition of the Willing and Low/Zero Carbon Hub.