Even when clients don’t ask us to specifically design for sustainability, we’re already doing it. We feel like it’s our obligation in our profession, so we make that an automatic part of what we do as architects. Now, the good news is that most of our clients are looking to build a high quality of construction, and typically when you’re doing that, you’re actually really close to building sustainably as well.
So it’s usually not a big leap for most clients to get there with this, even the ones who are less interested. A lot of the things that we do that are sustainability-minded are actually not that big and increased costs are actually, in a lot of cases, not even very noticeable. Whether it’s a certain type of installation you use or whether it’s just the fact that you’re building with more engineered wood products, some of which are very expensive and some of which are not expensive at all.
In some cases it’s as boring as putting your air conditioning equipment within the heated and cooled envelope of the house, which is extremely unglamorous, but it’s actually a really highly impactful way to achieve sustainability. Other ways to boost sustainability in the design is to select WaterSense fixtures or energy-wise appliances. All of these things are really very readily available on the market in both low and high priced options. So it’s hardly a noticeable cost for most projects.
The things that do cost more is when clients want to do something that’s above and beyond the basics. For example, rainwater collection, solar PV electric generation, and other, more sophisticated systems usually do come at a premium and they don’t pay for themselves as much, which is why they’re often value engineered out of a project. They’re still really, really great things to do for the clients who are committed to sustainability.