Landscape Journal Autumn 2021: Making COP26 count

Page 65

PR ACTICE

1. Carbon emission considerations for the Leeds City square design competition. © Gillespies LLP

Climate Positive Design – Exploring the Pathfinder Carbon Calculator The Pathfinder app was launched in 2019 – Gillespies has been evaluating its UK application. Kara Heald

Gillespies

As landscape architects, we are increasingly responsible for considering our work’s carbon footprint and climatic impact. This is set in the context of the Landscape Institute’s (LI) 2019 recognition of the climate and biodiversity emergency and subsequent publication of their Climate and Biodiversity Action Plan in May 2020. The Action Plan sets out objectives and actions about how

the LI will respond to the emergency and help equip practitioners to do the same. Two such objectives of the Action Plan, focusing on the carbon impacts of our work, are highly practical and tangible: – Develop and/or signpost towards tools to measure the carbon impacts of different design decisions at a landscape scale. – Work with partner organisations, suppliers and their supply chains to accelerate clearer information on embodied carbon/sequestration potential for hard and soft landscape materials, and provide sustainable specification guidance for practitioners. One such carbon calculation tool which the LI can promote or work with to measure the carbon impacts of design

decisions is Pathfinder (https://app. climatepositivedesign.com/). This is part of Climate Positive Design launched by Pamela Conrad, Principal at CMG Landscape Architecture, in 2019. Pathfinder is North Americabased but can be used for projects around the world. Gillespies began using Pathfinder on our projects in 2021, most recently on our shortlisted competition entry for Leeds City Square. Speaking at the Landscape Architecture Foundation Innovation and Leadership Symposium in 2019 to launch Pathfinder, Pamela Conrad recognised that “as landscape architects and designers of the built environment, we have the tools in our everyday toolkit to sequester carbon, to take it out of the atmosphere.”

LIGHTING IS SUPPLIED BY ENERGY GENERATED FROM SOLAR PANELS

RETENTION OF EXISTING STONE PAVING IN SITU SAVES ON CARBON EMISSIONS

A LARGE DECIDUOUS TREE LIKE QUERCUS ROBUR CAN SEQUESTER 7500 KG OF C02 IN IT’S LIFETIME

SANDSTONE PAVING SOURCED FROM THE UK CAN EMIT 32KG OF C02 PER M2

CONCRETE PAVING, INCLUDING SUB BASE AND REINFORCING, CAN EMIT 171KG OF C02 PER M2

IN A GARDEN BED 5 NO. PLANTS PER M2 CAN SEQUESTER 49KG OF C02 IN THEIR LIFETIME

1 65


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook

Articles inside

Our Biggest Experiment – an interview with climate activist Alice Bell

5min
pages 67-68

Climate Positive Design – Exploring the Pathfinder Carbon Calculator

6min
pages 65-66

Rus in Urbe

4min
pages 63-64

Exploring climate emergency in a national park

4min
pages 61-62

The Pursuit of Landscape Greatness

6min
pages 59-60

Beautiful Bradford

8min
pages 56-58

The Avenues: future proofing Glasgow’s Streets

4min
pages 52-53

Glasgow prepares for COP26

6min
pages 47-48

Working together towards Climate Justice and Climate Equity

8min
pages 44-46

Collaborative research to support water security and sustainable development in Colombia

11min
pages 40-43

Designing for direct action

4min
pages 36-37

Teaching Net Zero

17min
pages 28-34

Plants for a changing landscape

6min
pages 26-27

Working together to help a village grow sustainably

9min
pages 22-25

Class of 2030: learning net zero

10min
pages 16-20

IFLA Climate Action Commitment

2min
page 14

UK Landscape Architects Declare

14min
pages 10-13

What is COP26 and why is it important?

7min
pages 7-9

Making COP26 count

3min
page 6

A fractured planet

1min
page 3
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.