Sustainability Processes

At Snøhetta, we have developed our own sustainability workshop. This workshop is conducted in early phases of each project, supports implementations of environmental, social and economic sustainability in our design process, and helps us define key strategies for achieving sustainable designs.

The workshops starts with an introduction to the local climate, and then guides us through six sustainability chapters:

1. How to enhance ecosystems & develop smart infrastructures.
2. How to increase outdoor comfort relating to natural impacts such as wind, sun, rain, etc.
3. How to adapt to climate, implementing indoor passive strategies.
4. How to reduce embodied emissions (selecting materials and circularity principles)
5. How to reduce emissions from energy use (selecting energy systems and renewable energies)
6. How to increase health and well-being, improving user experience.

As a result of this workshop our teams gets an overview of a wide scope of sustainable strategies, and select those most relevant to the project. This layes the foundation for our project specific design guidelines.

Snøhetta's Sustainability Network is a collaborative effort dedicated to improving environmental sustainability throughout our global studios. As we journey towards our goal of a net-zero impact, this network ensures that knowledge, best practices, and innovative strategies are consistently shared and refined across all Snøhetta locations.

The Sustainability Network was created to bring representatives together from each studio to amplify our global impact. The networks mandate is to raise the bar on sustainability, and to increase the level of knowledge throughout our studios. 

Sustainable design must be grounded in data. This involves incorporating knowledge of local climates, energy sources, building materials, and construction techniques into the design process from the very beginning. These environmental factors should be given equal importance to the more familiar constraints we typically consider, such as urban context, social conditions, and local building regulations.

We use many different software tools to obtain the necessary data points for every project. As the landscape of tools is ever changing, we keep each other updated on insights, experiences and tutorials in our internal channels.

Implementing environmental sustainability in projects requires an iterative design process. Clear goals and ambitions should be established from the outset, and testing is essential to validate the effectiveness of specific design solutions. Additionally, the process must allow flexibility and time for refinement, enabling the exploration and evaluation of alternative strategies through repeated iterations.

Our ideal process can be described by the following steps, adapting to each project's typology and requirements:

1. Define the goals
2. Implement them in the design
3. Evaluate the implemented solutions
4. Improve the results through iterations (repeat steps 1-3)
5. Review the final design

Architects and designers often enter projects at early stages, when outlines are still taking shape. This means we are in a unique position to influence directions and the level of sustainability ambitions. Integrating this position with insights from consultants and sustainability experts increases the likelihood of solid and sustainable designs. We recognise that one of our most significant shifts will come from a more transdisciplinary approach, which in turn calls for more dynamic and collaborative processes, where open communication is essential.

We will continue to challenge and collaborate with clients and stakeholders to achieve our sustainability ambitions. Each project can make a difference, but our overall impact will stem from the total body of our work.