In a time where the urgency of climate action has never been clearer, the recent Impact X Sydney Summit served as a platform for collaborative discourse.
Representing DesignInc Sydney in a panel discussion about greening the transport and infrastructure sector, Principal Paul Wallace encapsulated the spirit of the event succinctly: “It’s all connected.”
From energy to land use, every sector must work in concert to achieve Australia’s ambitious sustainability targets. What role do architects and designers play in reaching said targets?
It seemed like government are committed to achieving these sustainability targets—they understand that it actually needs to be done in partnership with industry and that it’s not all going to come from the top down.
Paul Wallace
Principal, DesignInc Sydney
A Unified Vision: Breaking Down Silos
At the core of sustainable development lies integration. The summit’s division into sectors underscored this essential truth—energy powers industry, buildings shape land use, and transport stitches our infrastructure together. Collaboration among sectors, coupled with governmental support, signals a pivotal shift towards a more cohesive approach to sustainability.
“The summit was broken up into five different sectors: energy, manufacturing and industry, buildings, transport and infrastructure, land use and agriculture,” said Paul. “However, those sectors can’t sit in silos—it’s all connected. Energy gets supplied to all forms of industry and what we’re doing with buildings and infrastructure impacts on land use and agriculture.”
“There was a more cohesive conversation between these different sectors now around how we can achieve our emissions reduction targets.”
Legislation and Incentives: The Bottom Line
Government commitment is essential, yet legislative progress often lags behind industry innovation. There is a delicate balance between environmental imperatives and economic realities. Effective legislation must incentivise sustainable practices while addressing affordability concerns. A transparent carbon offsetting scheme promises a pathway towards a fair and just transition to sustainability.
“Industry innovation, at present, is outpacing the rate in which meaningful legislation is passed,” said Paul.
“How do we incentivise people to do the right thing and make it so that people doing the wrong thing are paying some form of cost? Because, in this world, it’s all going to come back to money.”
“One solution? Building a nature-positive plan so that people can purchase their offsets or other environmental benefits, as per legislation. Whatever carbon footprint you’re creating, you need to offset and there needs to be a pathway to do that which is fair, accurately priced and clearly benefits the environment and the people who live here.”
“It seemed like government are really committed to achieving these targets although the path is not yet clear—they understand that it actually needs to be done in partnership with industry and that it’s not all going to come from the top down.”
“For buildings, if you’re going to improve standards around thermal performance, that comes with a cost to some people. We’ve got affordability issues in this cost-of-living crisis—if you’re going to add cost to buildings, then that ends up hurting people financially. There’s got to be a balance. The needs (and desires) of people, the planet and the economy need to be met equally.”
Concrete Evidence: An Intervention with the Design and Construction Industry
All modern construction processes have a carbon footprint. That’s unavoidable. We can’t build a building without some form of carbon footprint. However, we can minimise it as much as possible by doing the right thing says Paul.
“The newest factor is understanding embodied carbon and other environmental impacts associated with the manufacturing of products and construction processes. We need to really understand circular economy principles and bring all of that into play and minimise the amount of embodied carbon emissions. There’s two key ways we can do that.”
“One, stop using fossil fuels throughout the whole supply chain and in buildings. We can’t make those choices as designers, but we can encourage clients to. We can make sure buildings only run on electricity in terms of energy, so no diesel generators and gas for cooking or heating for example. Electrify everything and encourage clients to use green power in their buildings.
“The second big area is concrete. A report* recently said 80% of all emissions in the world in the last eight years can be connected back to just 57 different corporate or state entities globally. Guess what—they’re all either in the fossil fuel business or making cement for concrete.”
More Energy: Embracing Technological Advancements
Technology emerges as a potent ally in our quest for sustainability. From measuring embodied carbon to pioneering green building materials and shaping greener transport, architects are at the forefront of innovation. However, widespread adoption hinges on education and incentivisation. By electrifying buildings and transport networks, and advocating for low-carbon alternatives like greener concrete, architects can lead the charge towards a more sustainable built environment.
“We are building some great new public transport, which promotes use of that as much as possible, which is really important for the kind of future that we’re trying to move towards. But things like private car use, use of trucks, aviation; there’s not enough happening there in terms of charging infrastructure and understanding what technology we’re going to be using; hydrogen, electric. Discussions and information about how it will help make people transition.”
“We’re generating almost a third of the electricity we use from renewable sources**, but most of that comes from private homes and private business. There is still a huge amount of fossil fuels getting used all of the time, which is sad to see because we just don’t need to. We’re uniquely placed here with our climate and natural assets to be able to transition to 100% renewables now.”
“It just needs to happen. I don’t understand the politics and the economics that may be holding that back, and I don’t have visibility of it myself, but those things need to just get unlocked and change. If businesses are going to make money out of doing these things, Australians want to see a net benefit to both our natural environment and the people who live here.”
Sustainability is balancing different and conflicting needs—environmental, social and economic—in pursuit of harmony. Looking after the planet and its people, and understanding that we are connected to all things. Each other, the planet, natural systems, and man-made systems like economies and cities.
Paul Wallace
Principal, DesignInc Sydney
“Form shouldn’t just follow function—it should delight”
We mustn’t lose sight of what transport and infrastructure systems are actually for. We need infrastructure to integrate seamlessly with buildings and the natural environment, which in turn can help make great places.
Places people want to use and like using. Places that enable vibrant lifestyles. Places that are functional. But at the end of the day, places that are enjoyable.
“They (transport and infrastructure systems) are about connecting people with the things that they need in one way or another. It’s providing a service to people. We have to make sure that all of the transport and infrastructure that we build does give a positive benefit to people. And that’s not just in terms of functionality, I’m talking about the quality of the built environment. This is where architects have a huge part to play.
“Quite often, infrastructure and transport projects are very much engineering-led. And that’s not to say there’s anything wrong with that—frankly, without engineering, the world as we know it wouldn’t exist. The point I’d like to make is it needs to be balanced with an assessment of the qualitative outcomes of the built environment.”
Paul gave an example at the conference: Circular Quay.
“That’s Sydney’s front door. It’s where our built environment in the city connects to the natural world and the foreshore, the harbour and eventually, the ocean. We have built an elevated railway line with a freeway on top of it that totally disconnects our city from that harbour foreshore because it was driven by an engineering outcome, perhaps, rather than consideration of people and placemaking outcomes. We’ve got to make sure things like that don’t happen again. Key projects like that need people guiding it from an urban design perspective, looking at the impacts on the environment and people in terms of not just aesthetics and function, but also social and community impacts.”
Charting a Course Towards Sustainability
Australia stands at a crossroads, poised to lead the charge towards a sustainable future. With a chance to host COP31, Australia can galvanise global efforts and underscore our commitment to change. However, true transformation begins at home. By embracing innovation, advocating for legislative reform, and prioritising resilience and liveability, architects can shape a future where people and planet can thrive in harmony.
“Sustainability is balancing different and conflicting needs—environmental, social and economic—in pursuit of harmony. Looking after the planet and its people, and understanding that we are connected to all things. Each other, the planet, natural systems, and man-made systems like economies and cities.”
About Paul Wallace, Principal at DesignInc Sydney
Design architect Paul Wallace enjoys the challenge of working across multiple sectors and getting out of his comfort zone with complex, large-scale projects. During his 25 year career, he has gained in-depth expertise in transport and infrastructure, education, residential, hospitality and commercial work. With a passion for design excellence paired with solid understanding of construction technology, Paul crafts buildings that demonstrate his nuanced feel for spatial and atmospheric considerations, materiality and detail. Highly organised and resilient, Paul leads design and consultant teams with effective communication and good humour. He balances client objectives, cost, site and time constraints to achieve the best possible result.
Paul is an avid champion of sustainability at DesignInc, developing the Sydney Studio’s Environmentally Sustainable Design (ESD) Framework while ensuring its principles remain front-of-mind to our daily practice. Featuring heavily in achieving DesignInc’s dual certification by Climate Active, Paul continues to drive our sustainability agenda by embedding technology, systems and processes geared towards creating a positive legacy through design.
Attributions
* The Carbon Majors Launch Report, April 2024
** Renewables Energy Data, Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
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