CHRISTMAS Letter from your local architecture correspondent...

As Christmas and the New Year approach, we find ourselves one year out of 10 into our RIBA Climate Challenge 2030.

Our local council, Somerset West and Taunton, has pledged to make its own premises carbon neutral by 2030 as part of the climate emergency.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has its own programme of four steps to increase, year-on-year, the performance of new buildings to reach carbon zero by 2030.

But the real action rests not with these institutes but with us, the consumer. This includes homeowners of terraced houses in town centres as much as those planning a new build.

So while the governments get on with their plans, now is the time for action. Not what are they doing about this, but what can I do?

Here is my Christmas wish list, what’s on yours?

  • an air source heat pump to replace my boiler
  • double glazing in my timber sliding sash windows
  • a client who says to me I don’t want my building to be out of date in 10 years please make it carbon neutral
  • to replace my car with an electric or hybrid
  • to keep checking which country my food comes from and if it was flown here

My real message is, four of these items could also be on most people’s environment wish list.

If we want to achieve a carbon neutral country then we all need to take the steps, not expect someone else to solve the problem for us.

Happy Christmas and a Carbon Zero New Year.

MARK RABY
Taunton Green Parents

  • Mark Raby is director at Jonathan Rhind Architects, chairman of RIBA Somerset and a member of Taunton Green Parents, as well as a father of two small girls who deserve a better world.