For ARCHITECT's September issue, we talked with Seattle-based architect Kjell Anderson, FAIA, about sustainable design. Here, Anderson—the director of sustainability for LMN Architects—shares his insight.
What does your role entail?
At LMN Architects, I work in close collaboration with our clients and project teams to set advanced goals and then deliver high-performance sustainable buildings, such as the recently completed Founders Hall at the University of Washington and the Hines Seattle Headquarters in downtown Seattle. LMN also has a green team that focuses on research and developing various initiatives that are helping lead the industry, like the exploration of what comprehensive carbon neutrality means for the building environment in LMN’s Path To Zero Carbon series. The firm also supports me in a role on the Washington State Building Code Council, where I help create the new energy codes that are the most important driver of energy efficiency in our state.
How has the definition of sustainability evolved throughout your career?
Sustainability is still very broad but has evolved from a somewhat squishy term to now include deep reservoirs of research that support actions across many issues. No one can possibly master them all, but architects should understand the most important actions from each one, so we don’t miss the opportunity to help our clients make informed decisions that support their larger goals. Summarizing each of these fields is the point of LMN's Path To Zero Carbon series.
What role do architects and designers play in ensuring a sustainable future?
We are trusted advisors for those who own, operate, and construct buildings. We work across many disciplines and speak many languages to coordinate goals and strategies to meet those goals. Our greatest gift—collectively—is the ability to envision a future that does not yet exist, [making us] an important and public voice in the massive transformation of energy systems. For example, energy efficiency is still the least costly, most important energy transition strategy for the built environment; with our coordination, massing, and envelope expertise, we are leaders in the efficiency effort. We are also pragmatic stewards of the built environment, respected by elected officials to help craft policy across all decarbonization facets.
What’s your firm’s approach to sustainability?
We listen to our clients and then research and explore how they can find the most value in sustainability that aligns with their mission, setting custom goals and aspirations. We also have a list of efforts we do on all projects: early energy modeling, embodied carbon modeling, a client sustainability workshop, materials and health training and research, and more as part of our typical process, meaning employees across LMN regularly apply these sustainability strategies. We often go well beyond these to craft buildings that are future-ready.
What’s your firm’s biggest obstacle when it comes to sustainability projects?
First cost is most often a challenge, even when a positive cash flow is realized in a short time frame. With the Inflation Reduction Act, there is a potential to recoup money, but some of our clients see securing the money as a risk, so they are not counting on it. The timeframe of project decision-making can also be a challenge: Making an early decision may be nearly cost-neutral but carry some risk. Making the same decision months later often increases first costs more. This is why we engage in energy modeling and embodied carbon discussions early in each project.
What’s an innovation or design solution that you are particularly proud of?
We have many projects at the leading edge, including Founders Hall, which opened almost a year ago. Surrounded by an ensemble of business school buildings, Founders Hall is the first mass timber structure on the University of Washington’s campus. With a 92% reduction in operational carbon emissions from energy use—the best on campus—it serves as a model of sustainable design for the school. Right now, we are distilling the lessons we’ve learned into a public-facing, fail-forward series called the Path To Zero Carbon. We are working with many industry leaders to show what it takes to truly create a carbon-neutral building. Almost none of the zero-carbon claims in headlines are true because they omit important scope—they may be net-zero carbon for annualized operational energy use, but even Google is unable to make its buildings 24/7 zero-carbon in terms of energy use. So the series is a way to research and provide guidance to ourselves and others on what would need to be done to make a realistic zero-carbon building.
What’s a project by another group or individual that you think is pushing the boundaries of sustainable design?
Many tool developers in our industry are making it easier to understand carbon decisions for architects. Free [services] such as EPIC by architecture firm EHDD and Architecture 2030’s CARE Tool can assess combinations of early design strategies for new and existing buildings, integrating some advanced carbon projections. EC3 is great at helping designers find and compare low-carbon materials and can help contractors make low-carbon procurement choices. There are also many, many subscription carbon-related tools.
What research are you following right now?
The Carbon Leadership Forum has lots of great research groups: MEP 2040, SE 2050, and OwnersCAN. ASHRAE recently released Standard 228, which provides a rigorous starter definition of limited-scope zero carbon buildings. I mentioned earlier that there are numerous fields of study that are becoming very deep; each of these efforts is distilling the learnings from research into ways to apply them to projects directly as covered in the Path To Zero Carbon series.
What’s the most pressing issue in sustainability right now?
Climate change impacts are causing havoc with nearly everything: agriculture, oceans and fisheries, ecosystems, heat waves and flooding in our cities and towns, so-called natural disasters, and extinctions. We need to rapidly transition away from burning fossil fuels to improve each of these. Electric vehicles, all-electric buildings, a circular economy with low-carbon materials, and abundant renewable energy are the solutions for our field. They tend to emit much less pollution than fossil fuels, meaning this transition has massive health and environmental justice benefits.
If you had to recommend one book or text on sustainability/sustainable design, what would it be and why?
Design is complicated, unique to each project, and sustainability is too broad to provide a comprehensive set of recommendations. For distilled, comprehensive ideas I’d recommend AIA’s Framework for Design Excellence, as it covers many of the topics fairly concisely and provides design-related suggestions. For all of the reasons why action is needed now, The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg is worth reading.
How do we teach the next generation of designers and architects about sustainability?
The profession is rapidly adapting as the world transitions to renewable energy, all-electric buildings, low-carbon materials, and electric vehicles. While some professionals keep up with the latest tools and techniques, graduates can help their companies incorporate carbon tools and concepts into their workflows, such as analyses of embodied carbon, daylighting, and energy. This all needs to be grounded, though, in an integrated process that includes students’ great design thinking that responds to carbon analysis. Informing great design with iterative analysis successfully continues to be a challenge that can be addressed in schools.
An abbreviated version of this article first appeared in the September 2023 issue of ARCHITECT.
