Sustainable Design

Climate change and biodiversity loss are the most serious issues of our time. Buildings and construction play a major part, accounting for nearly 40% of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions whilst also having a significant impact on our natural habitats.

The Team at MLA believes that design must be considered as part of the process that influences the sustainability of the building and should be driven by the entire project team. A truly sustainable building can only be achieved through a fully inclusive and collaborative approach.

We therefore define ‘sustainability’ holistically. It is about creating projects and relationships that last, that work, that meet our clients’ requirements, that are financially viable, that protect the environment and that bring benefits to the local community.

To turn this philosophy into reality, we continually develop a bank of knowledge and expertise in sustainability across all members of our team. We furthermore adopt a partnership approach with our clients because sometimes we find potential and actual conflicts within sustainability goals. This means that when we find conflicts, we work hard with our clients to reconcile them, according to their values and objectives as well as ours.

We are members of Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA) and fully support their aspirations, to promote the design of communities, environments, projects, systems, services, materials and products which enhance the quality of life and are not harmful to living species and planetary ecology.

Most recently MLA have worked with SCTS, COPFS and Atalian to design over 140 Electric Vehicle charging points at 50 sites across Scotland. Also MLA have gained planning consent for several Photovoltaic projects within excess of 1000 PV Panels to date across four sites.