As Earth Month comes to an end, we recognize the year-round work of our Sustainable Engineering Studio (SES) and welcome the arrival of Pournamasi Rath as Regional Sustainability Lead in our New York studio.
SES is an interdisciplinary engineering studio creating and implementing solutions for a sustainable future. Working as an agile in-house consultancy, the studio empowers our clients to navigate the complexities of achieving meaningful reductions in carbon emissions.
From helping to develop the world’s first Net Zero Carbon Building Standard to sharing expertise at COP29, members of our SES team are deeply engaged in research and advocacy to accelerate the transformation of the built environment toward a post-carbon future. To learn more about the future of sustainability at SOM, we caught up with a few of our practice leaders and regional leads. Read on to see what they had to say.
ON OUR ROLE IN SUSTAINABILITY
Architects play a crucial and foundational role.
Architects play a crucial and foundational role in sustainable practices and developments. Positioned at the core of the entire process, we uniquely integrate sustainability into design, a process increasingly essential as climate change and environmental challenges intensify in the future.
ON EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
In the coming years, there is an opportunity for the architect to facilitate a more holistic, regenerative design.
The focus is often on reducing impact and CO2 emissions. However, in the coming years, there is an opportunity for the architect to facilitate a more holistic regenerative design—generating closed-loop systems that mimic natural processes with regard to materials, circularity, water, energy use, and ecology with multiple stakeholders. Thus, instead of doing less harm, architecture restores and enhances natural and human systems, promoting wellbeing and resilience.
ON WHAT’S NEXT
The industry is moving toward a fully closed circular economy.
In the California market, with its ambitious sustainability vision and strong foundation in emerging technologies, I believe the industry is moving toward a fully closed, circular economy, where construction and operational waste are eliminated. As regenerative materials and advanced recycling technologies continue to expand, supported by economic benefits, each building can evolve into a self-sustaining part of a holistic circular ecosystem.
ON OUR IMPACTFUL ACHIEVEMENTS
It represents a bold step toward regenerative, climate-resilient design.
I’m especially proud of our work on The New York Climate Exchange Climate Solutions Center on Governors Island. This ambitious project is targeting multiple certifications—including Living Building Challenge, WEDG, and TRUE—and is designed to be net positive energy, producing more energy than it consumes.
ON WHAT EXCITES US
Our research and collaborations with institutions excites me the most.
Our research and collaborations with institutions excites me the most—whether its cutting-edge approaches to energy storage such as Energy Vault or carbon-neutral materials such as the Bio-Block, this enables us to gaze into the future of our sector and unlock opportunities.
ON THE FUTURE
I look forward to reinforcing Sustainable Engineering Studio’s participation in accelerating transformational market change.
I am thrilled to join the SOM taskforce in bringing to fruition our commitment: to achieve net-zero operational carbon by 2030 and net-zero, whole-life carbon by 2040 across all projects. Leveraging SOM’s position as a global industry leader, I look forward to reinforcing Sustainable Engineering Studio’s participation in accelerating transformational market change toward a zero-carbon built environment, in New York and beyond.
