Sustainability

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. At BNIM, we use firm-wide goals that are informed by the projects we work on and our own operations as a firm. Rather than treating these goals as a checklist to be reviewed and forgotten, we approach our firm and project goals using mesh strategies used to meet them in integrated ways.

BNIM has set several goals including:

2030 Challenge – Net-zero energy use across our portfolio by the year 2030.

2040 Challenge – Net-zero total carbon emissions across our portfolio by 2040, including all project operational and embodied carbon emissions. Further, we are committed to a 20% net positive (carbon negative) portfolio by 2050.

JUST Label – We measure our firm performance using the ILFI’s JUST Label process, transparently reporting our firm progress to improve social, environmental, and economic justice and equity across all firm operations.

Net Positive Firm Operations by 2030 – Starting in 2023, BNIM reduces and offsets all Scope 1 and 2 operational impacts, and we are now working to measure, reduce, and eliminate all Scope 3 emissions by 2030.

To fulfill BNIM’s bold commitment and Big Goals, BNIM tracks our projects and strategizes on solutions organized through our Sustainability Team. The “Subject To Change: Sustainability Action Plan” is one of our main ways to measure projects and our firm progress. Using 18 firm-wide goals within six focus areas: Energy, Water, Ecology, Wellness, and Resources, we can push our projects to achieve more. These are informed by the current thinking from institutions and certifications such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, LEED, Living Building, and WELL building certifications.

These goals range from reducing overall projected energy consumption, potable water, planting native vegetation, bringing more daylight into occupied spaces, contributing to stronger neighborhood walkability, and finding ways to reduce embodied carbon in the design and construction.

These measured goals are essential to BNIM’s design process and delivering results and sustainable change to clients, communities, and our environment.

Progress is reported out each year with our report “Subject To Change.” This annual public report helps us stay on our roadmap and gives us a clear framework to measure progress.

Advocacy takes many forms. BNIM works across industries to advocate for the systemic policy changes. Each project, BNIM thinks critically about the systems that guide design and construction to make it more efficient, healthy, and sustainable. What can be improved? What isn’t working well? Who does this affect? And how? This inherent nature has translated into policy, industry, and design change and new standards.

BNIM’s leaders have participated and taken leadership roles with groups like Climate Action KC and American Institute of Architects national and local chapters to advocate for more sustainable design. BNIM has worked to pass new, more efficient energy codes in Kansas City, Missouri, among other initiatives.