Across BNIM, we redoubled our commitment to sustainable design by developing an aspirational Sustainability Action Plan in 2019. Our Action Plan requires that all projects, big and small, start off by setting clear performance goals with the project team and client, and then report metrics through the life of the project across six categories: Energy, Water, Ecology, Wellness, Equity & Resources. BNIM’s sustainability team dedicated the last year training staff, building a new suite of tools and strategies, and working with project teams to establish project metrics and baseline office-wide goals in our united quest to shape a regenerative future.

This is our “Year Zero” of a decade-long period of intense focus on transforming the way we design, build, and measure our projects. While not every project can afford to be net zero energy on day one, or have time and fee to support detailed modeling and analysis, what is clear is that establishing a goal makes a difference. Asking the question that might not have been asked can divert the course of a project into a new direction.

BNIM first Annual Sustainability Report Subject to Change shares project highlights, calls out exemplary solutions and strategies across the firm’s work, and identifies areas for improvement and focus in 2020. This is the springboard, intended to be both an internal tool for learning and improvement, as well as an external resource to share our progress and lessons learned with our industry peers.

Click here to view the full annual report of Subject To Change with a summary of our Year Zero firm-wide metrics, representing a snapshot in time of current projects in every phase of design. All reported projects began design in 2019 after the launch of our Sustainability Action Plan, so we had the opportunity to develop performance goals based on the same information.