BUILDING SUSTAINABILITY KRYSTYNA RAWICZ’S COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY EXTENDS RIGHT ACROSS HER PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL LIFE.
K
RA Visionary Project Partners
She gives as an example ongoing work that
works mainly with commercial
KRA is doing for Nissan, which began with just
clients, focusing on building
such a conversation and has led to a
surveying and project management. Founding
programme of work including retrofitting
Director Krystyna Rawicz and her colleagues
Nissan’s Park West headquarters with rooftop
have also long been interested in sustainability,
solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, installing
and launched sister company KRA Renewables
electric
in 2017 to offer solutions to existing and new
implementing water-saving measures. The
clients looking to start their own sustainability
building is now generating 40% of its electricity
journey.
needs, thus making significant savings. This is
Unusual beginnings
a powerful incentive for firms that might be
After completing a degree in modern history
Finding the right solution
unsure about the initial, often significant,
and economics, a desire to work with people led
Because the right solution is different for every
investment involved.
Krystyna
vehicle
(EV)
chargers,
and
building, Krystyna and her colleagues take an
to
Birmingham
City
Housing
Department as a graduate trainee building
individual approach, which draws on core
Sustainability in house
surveyor. In Birmingham she worked across
surveying skills: “We ask what makes sense
KRA also applies this message closer to home,
different departments from finance to health
with this building, with the fabric, with the roof.
from working with the management company
and safety, while studying part-time for a
It’s based on those relationships of trust with
that runs their own head office to improve the
degree in building surveying. She stayed in
clients who value your professional advice,
industrial estate by adding solar PV, increased
Birmingham for a number of years before
which every surveyor will recognise. You’re able
planting on verges, and even beehives, to
moving to Ireland in 1994 as Head of the
to bring a rounded, coherent picture to the client
supporting environmental charities. Krystyna
Building Surveying Department at Hamilton
who may have thought about doing something,
has also completed a Certificate in Business
Osborne King (now Savills), before leaving in
but doesn’t know how”.
Sustainability with the University of Cambridge
2000 to set up KRA. In her spare time, Krystyna
It’s about starting a conversation, she says:
Institute for Sustainability Management, and
spends time with her four children and two
“If we’re doing a building survey, we might mention
the company is working to get LEED Green
grandchildren, reads, grows vegetables, walks
that there are things that would make the building
Associate Accreditation. Ultimately, these
the dog and has recently taken up beekeeping.
more energy efficient, and if they’re interested in
skills will be crucial to surveying in the future:
pursuing this, we can advise them further”.
“As senior property professionals, clients come
Krystyna’s personal passion on this issue is very
to us for advice that is slightly outside our core
evident: “We are using up the Earth's resources
SURVEYOR PROFILE
areas. It's our obligation to know the answers
on an unsustainable level. I have to do what I can.
or to be able to find the answers and advise the
I’ve installed solar PV on my house. I grow my
Ann-Marie Hardiman Managing Editor, Think Media
client properly. We encourage all of our
own veg. We can’t all live in sackcloth, but we can
employees to upskill in sustainability. It's not a
try and make conscious decisions and be as
‘nice to have’ – you have to upskill”.
sustainable as possible”.
SURVEYORS JOURNAL Volume 10, Issue 2, Summer 2020
33
