EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION
The past two years have been one of change for Haworth Tompkins. In August 2023, the practice relocated from its previous base in Kentish Town to expanded premises in Clerkenwell, the heart of London’s architecture and design district. The practice now occupies 110 Golden Lane, just north of the Barbican, and has undertaken a major refurbishment to provide a more creative environment for the teams, with enhanced audiovisual facilities, larger meeting rooms and a multi-use central space for exhibitions, lectures, and cultural events.
We have won major new commissions in the UK and across Europe including theatres in Kouvola, Stockholm and Vienna, the Hexagon Studio Theatre in Reading, as well as St George’s Guildhall at King’s Lynn. Further cultural commissions include the De La Warr Pavilion refurbishment, Four Glories refurbishment at Stowe Landscape Gardens, St Botolph’s quarter in Colchester, London Museum Docklands, as well as new buildings at Swindon Science + Innovation Park. We continue to expand our neighbourhood portfolio with commissions including the redevelopment of Earls Court, the masterplan for a new garden community in Tendring & Colchester, the Compton Verney Masterplan, Silvertown estate regeneration, the third phase of Gascoigne West neighbourhood development, York Central masterplan, Holloway Park, Dagenham Green Phase 2, as well as Hackney New Homes.
Several projects continue to make progress on site - A.R.T in Harvard, Wembley North East Lands, the Court Theatre in New Zealand, ECU City Campus in Perth Australia, Theatr Clwyd, our first Passivhaus project Greenhill Centre in Newham, Pier Road in Bexley, The Old Vic Annex, TEG Olympia, Canning Town Old Library & Sentralbadet in Bergen.
The director group has expanded over the six years since Haworth Tompkins became an Employee Ownership Trust, reinforcing its commitment to equity and collaboration as an organisation and a community. At the end of March 2024, marking the culmination of a fiveyear succession plan Graham Haworth and Steve Tompkins stepped down as directors of the practice they founded in 1991. It has always been their intention to create a studio which would continue to grow and expand on its legacy and ethos. The practice is now led by Chris Fellner, Lucy Picardo, Joanna Sutherland and Roger Watts alongside managing director Toby Johnson, who each have over 20 years experience with the studio, are centrally involved in the missions to design regenerative, intelligent and beautiful architecture.
Now over 100 strong, with the combination of deep continuity, a pipeline of exciting commissions and an energised team, Haworth Tompkins is well placed to go from strength to strength.
OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES
Established in 1991, our reputation has grown on the back of thoughtful, intelligent, and well-crafted buildings across a range of sectors - buildings that have delighted their users and won design awards in equal measure. Following our B Corp certification in 2022, we undertook a rigorous three-year process of development and evaluation, during which we audited the way we do business in terms of our Governance, Workers, Communities, Customers, and Environment. As a result, we produced a framework that interweaves BCorp values into our guiding principles.
As an Employee Ownership Trust, we blend empowered decision-making with strong creative leadership. Our values include open communication, financial stability, continuous innovation, social purpose, and regenerative design. We are committed to fairness, amplifying employee voices, maintaining work-life balance, and sharing financial success, all while upholding environmental and social responsibility.
Instead of designing merely to reduce negative impacts, we are learning to conceptualise our projects as beneficial parts of the wider climatic, ecological, and social web of relationships in any given location. This approach requires a more profound understanding of place, community, and ecology, as well as deeper relationships with clients and colleagues that can support organisational change alongside architectural interventions.
Creative Diversity
Financial Stability
Creative Leadership
GOVERNANCE
Sharing the Rewards of Success
Employee Voices
Open Communication
WORKERS COMMUNITY
Fairness & Equal Opportunities
Work-life balance
Regenerative Practice
CUSTOMER ENVIRONMENT
Social Purpose Reputation Innovation
Relationship between Guiding Principles and B Corp impact categories
We seek a balance between empowered, democratic decision making and continued strong creative leadership. We currently have 5 directors and 13 associate directors in our senior leadership team along with 12 associates.
Employee Voices Creative Leadership
Our Employee Ownership Trust was established to allow every studio members’ voice to be heard and taken into account. We have an active Employees’ Forum, proving an opportunity for team members to debate the day to day operations and strategic direction of the studio and make suggestions for improvement.
GOVERNANCE Financial Stability
Our team has matured steadily since its formation in 1991, gradually increasing turnover and profits. A key priority for the future is to ensure that the company continues to be successful financially, as this underpins all our other objectives.
Sharing the Rewards of Success
The Employee Trust is designed so that everyone has a stake in maintaining the productivity and profitability of the studio and a share in its financial success.
WORKERS
Work Life Balance
We want our team to achieve a healthy work life balance throughout their working careers. We seek to be at the forefront of best practice for employee welfare, exploring flexible hours, sabbaticals, study leave and home working, discouraging habitual long hours, 24/7 email availability and weekend work, developing more progressive parental leave policies and accommodating caring responsibilities.
Fairness and Equal Opportunities
We want our team to be a true cross section of the society we design for, both because it makes us better designers and because we aspire to be a model of fairness in all our dealings with our colleagues, our clients, our collaborators and our supply chains.
Open Communication
We have never equated strong creative leadership with a rigid hierarchy or uncritical obedience. Rather, the studio is founded on mutual respect, clear communication and good humour. As our team has grown, this has become a more complex project to maintain and has needed us to place these crucial qualities more formally at the heart of the studio’s ethos. We see this task as a shared ‘top down/bottom up’ responsibility for all studio members, at whatever stage of our careers.
ENVIRONMENT
Regenerative Practice
To meet the needs of our society without breaching planetary boundaries, we have committed to the principles of regenerative design as the underpinning foundation of all our work. Our aim is to contribute to the healing of living systems rather than merely mitigate damage.
Innovation
We have built our success on a mindset of creative curiosity and continuous innovation. Under the evolving leadership of a new generation of designers, creative risk taking continues to drive the studio’s thinking and we build in research and development projects in addition to our contracted design work.
CUSTOMER
Reputation
Since 1991 our reputation has grown on the back of thoughtful, intelligent and well-crafted buildings across a range of sectors - buildings that have delighted their user and won design awards in equal measure. The quality of our work continues to drive the calibre of the clients that want to work with us, motivates existing members of our team to invest their time and energy in the studio and attracts talented individuals to join us.
COMMUNITY Creative Diversity
Our success has been driven equally by our ability to develop specialist expertise and by our willingness to diversify by exploring projects in new areas. Each part of our portfolio informs and strengthens the others and we take the opportunity to expand our range of work types.
Social Purpose
Our work is underpinned by a desire to make socially purposeful architecture that contributes to the collective wellbeing of our society and can be judged not only on standards of aesthetics but on ethics. We contribute our time and financial support and have established a highly impactful social added value methodology.
Haworth Tompkins B Impact score at certification
Percentage of total available points acquired for each of the impact categories
Haworth Tompkins (2022) - 136.0
BCorporation Certi cation - 80
Sector Average - 80.7
Haworth Tompkins (2022) - 1360
OVERALL
BCorporation Certi cation - 80
136.0
Sector Average - 807
OVERALL
136.0
CUSTOMER - 80 0%
GOVERNANCE - 476%
CUSTOMER - 80 0%
COMMUNITY - 40 2%
GOVERNANCE - 476%
ENVIRONMENT - 446%
COMMUNITY - 40 2%
WORKERS - 80.1%
ENVIRONMENT - 446%
WORKERS - 80.1%
B CORP IMPACT REPORT
The B Corp certification standard is ingrained in our organisation and informs our ethos, purpose, and business strategy. As part of the B Corp certification we were assessed against five impact areas: Governance, Workers, Community, Environment, and Customers. Once certified in 2022, Haworth Tompkins ranked as the second-highest UK architectural practice with a score of 136, exceeding the 80-point threshold for certification. While we are incredibly proud of this outcome, we appreciate the opportunity to reflect on our achievements and set targets for further improvement.
Certification is valid for three years, and in the years between recertification, all B Corps are asked to write an Annual Impact Report. This report requires us to be transparent and accountable to our stakeholders about our social and environmental impact, showcase best practices, encourage open conversation, and help build the case for responsible business. To report on our social and environmental performance, we will compare our initial B Corp Impact Assessment score from each of the five categories to a self-reported score that takes into account the improvements we have made since certification. While these scores are unverified, they will give us an indication of the changes we have made to our operations that positively impact our stakeholders and outline opportunities for improvement.
To structure this report, we will delve into the five impact categories and our guiding principles to explore the improvements we have made since certification. We will also spotlight projects we have undertaken that we believe encompass the ethos of the B Corp criteria, further demonstrating our commitment to embedding these into our work.
Chris Fellner and Roger Watts are appointed Directors; Joanna Sutherland is appointed to Design Director Haworth Topmkins establishes an Employee Ownership Trust
As co-founders of the Architecture Declare movement, Haworth Tompkins holds its first Practice and Design Goals Away Day to address responses to the planetary emergency
Toby Johnson joins as Managing Director
Haworth Tompkins is founded by Graham Haworth and Steve Tompkins
Head of Sustainability appointed
Haworth Tompkins wins AJ100 Practice of the Year
Lucy Picardo and Joanna Sutherland are appointed as Directors
Founding Directors Graham Haworth and Steve Tompkins step down
Haworth Tompkins signs up to Race to Zero
One of the first coporate supporters of ACAN!
EOT Away Day
GOVERNANCE
GOVERNANCE
Governance evaluates our overall mission, ethics, accountability and transparency through topics such as integration of social and environmental goals in employees’ performance evaluation, impact reporting and transparency, stakeholder engagement and more.
Employee Voice
Our Employee Ownership Trust was established to ensure that every studio members’ voice is heard and taken into account. We have an active Employees’ Forum, whose chair is part of our Board of Trustees, providing an opportunity for a broader range of stakeholders to debate the day-to-day operations and strategic direction of the studio. To inform these discussions, we have developed a robust network of working groups and focus groups that oversee the quality and environmental management of both our practice operations and project delivery, ensuring we have a breadth of voices with broad interests and opinions contributing to discussions.
Open Communication
We have never equated strong leadership with a rigid hierarchy; rather, the studio is founded on mutual respect and clear communication. Since becoming an Employee Ownership Trust, we have sought a balance between empowered, democratic decision-making and continued strong creative leadership. Since certification, we have made the most improvements in this area, largely due to updating our governing documents, which now require us to consider all of our stakeholders in our decision-making. This has solidified our commitment to socially and environmentally conscious business practices.
ASSOCIATE
Haworth Tompkins restructured to reflect integrated B Corp principles
Stakeholder Engagement
In both 2022 and 2024, we hosted our EOT away day, which aimed to define a shared vision for the practice, educate employees on the running of the business and discuss strategies to improve the efficiency of the practice. As part of this, we conducted a mixture of regenerative workshops, group discussions and feedback forums creating a platform for open, constructive dialogue across all employment groups.
Where to improve?
• Broadening our education outreach (e.g. university teaching) as well as environmental advocacy (e.g.. work with environmental non-profits), specifically at Director level, recognising that these activities connect us with wider constituencies and strengthen the social and creative core of the studio
• Include social and environmental performance in the job description of all roles within the practice, as a result will be included in annual performance reviews.
• In terms of financial transparency, we will evaluate the appropriateness of publicly reporting our financial statements
SUSTAINABILITY & REGENERATIVE DESIGN
ICT & CAD
PROJECT EVALUATION
HUMAN RESOURCES
STUDIO ENVIRONMENT
Employee Ownership Forum
PR & MARKETING
TECHNICAL DELIVERY
SOCIAL VALUE
PROJECT PROCEDURES
Working Group Structure
BIM
WORKERS
WORKERS
3% increase
The Workers Impact Area evaluates our contribution to our employees’ financial, physical, professional, and social well-being. Our initial score of 64.1 is almost double the average for our sector and company size range, setting a high benchmark for our industry.
Work-Life Balance
As a company, we have the responsibility of ensuring our staff have a happy and healthy work-life balance. Through our flexible working arrangements, sabbaticals, above-statutory holiday entitlement, and enhanced parental leave policies, everyone has the opportunity to cultivate a life outside work without adversely affecting their career advancement. This is reflected in both our high staff retention rate and the results from our annual measuring success survey, which demonstrates that our staff consistently feel the studio is a great place to work and that they feel appreciated for the work they do.
During the reporting period, we introduced an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), a confidential employee benefit that provides support and guidance with any personal or professional problems affecting our staff’s health and wellbeing. We have also increased our number of trained mental health first aiders to six members of staff, who are there to provide knowledge, guidance, and support for those seeking help.
While we do discourage overtime, it is recognised that when working towards pressing deadlines, periods of overtime may be required. In such instances, we have introduced a Time Off in Lieu (TOIL) scheme to claim these hours back.
“Given the escalating costs of traditional education, apprenticeship models present a viable and inclusive alternative, addressing barriers to entry and fostering diversity within the profession. This integrated approach to work and study not only accelerates my professional development but also equips me with the necessary tools to navigate the complexities of the architectural industry.”
Aneesha - Level 7 Apprentice
Professional Support & Mentoring
We seek to mentor, develop, and nurture members of staff through positive developmental relationships across the studio. Our staff can access mentoring and guidance through various avenues, such as our in-house mentoring program and Part I, II, and III Focus Groups. Since certification, to assist the professional development of our staff, we have increased our paid study days from 4 days to 10 days for members of staff studying for their Part III, and 6 days for Part Is and IIs.
Results from our 2023 staff survey demonstrate that two-thirds of our staff agree that our mentoring program is beneficial to both their personal and professional development. While this is a positive figure, there is work to be done to identify where this process can be improved, ensuring all members of staff experience the benefits of the system. In addition, we have refined our annual appraisal process to ensure performance feedback is more targeted and we are actively exploring the implementation of a 360-degree review process, where input is collected from a group of employees about each other’s performance.
Creative Diversity
We have robust and progressive EDI and Social Responsibility policies that shape our recruitment, opportunity, and outreach processes and procedures. We are committed to diversity at all levels of the practice, believing that diversity attracts diversity, and we aim to ensure that the profession reflects the society we serve. We monitor our progress through annual diversity and satisfaction surveys.
Social mobility is a major issue in architecture, especially given the high fees and length of training. To ease these barriers, we have welcomed two apprentices at Levels 6 and 7, aiming to create a more inclusive and diverse route into the profession.
2023 Marseille Study Trip
Since certification, our EDI focus and working groups have been working to improve policies and procedures through initiatives like the Social Mobility Think Tank, Public Health and Universal Design, Gender in Architecture, and Addressing Race Inequality. As part of our social value commitments, we have provided a month’s training to two individuals who are involved in the Access to Architecture and Blueprint for All initiatives.
Sharing the Rewards of Success
The EOT is designed so that everyone has a stake in maintaining the productivity and profitability of the studio and shares in its financial success. Salary levels are set so that every member of the employee team will continue to share proportionally in whatever financial success we achieve, including a tax-free bonus pot equivalent to at least 15% of our pre-tax profits that is shared throughout the studio each year. As an accredited London Living Wage employer, we offer a competitive salary in line with experience, benchmarking our salary bands against the RIBA pay scales and sitting at the upper end in all bands for London-based practices of a similar scale.
99% 94%
feel appreciated for the work they do
feel they can contribute towards improving the way we do things
Where to improve?
• Initiate a 6 month trial period of reduced working hours
• Monitoring and closing the gender pay gap and are actively seeking to do the same for ethnicity and sexuality
• Continue to monitor inflation rates so we can match compensation with the cost of living
• We recognise the benefit of a well-rounded staff cohort, therefore look to identify knowledge gaps for non-career specific life-skills and in response, plan lunchtime learning sessions
• Increase training specifically related to cross-job functions beyond regular responsibilities (e.g. public speaking training, management training for non-managers)
• Increase staff participation in external professional development
98% 79% feel the studio is a great place to work feel that they are able to balance work and personal life
40hr/wk
35 or 36hr/wk
of the 50no. architecture practices surveyed work less than 40hr/wk
40hr/wk
of the 78% of practices working less than 40hr/wk have contracted hours of 37.5hr/wk
of the AJ100 practices work less than 40 hr/wk
Benchmarking study of other architectural practices
CASE STUDY 37.5 hour week
In a number of Employee Forums, we have discussed our core value of ‘work-life balance’ and how the practice can improve on our ambition to be at the forefront of best practices for employee welfare.
In response, the Architects’ Employment Group has carried out a benchmarking study of other UK architecture practices, including a number of AJ100 practices, to collect information about contracted working hours. The results of this study indicate that currently, Haworth Tompkins is in the minority of practices whose staff are contracted to work a 40-hour workweek / 8-hour workday as standard.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that reduced working hours increase productivity, in addition to documenting the poor quality of work, affected health, and low productivity associated with longer hours. A study undertaken in 2015 found that reduced working hours had a positive effect on restorative sleep, stress, memory difficulties, negative emotion, fatigue, and exhaustion both during the week and on weekends, as well as reducing work intrusion on private life. Similarly, shorter work weeks give employees a greater sense of appreciation from the company, which can help with staff management and retention. In comparison to countries like Denmark, the UK works on average 4 hours more per week and is 23.5% less productive.
In keeping with the goals of the company, we have committed to trialling reduced contracted hours to 37.5 hours per week (7.5-hour workday), which would bring us in line with comparable London practices. A preliminary 6-month trial period will be implemented to explore if the benefits demonstrated by these studies can be replicated at Haworth Tompkins while simultaneously continuing to explore additional measures to boost productivity, particularly through knowledge and resource sharing within the practice.
COMMUNITY
COMMUNITY
The Community Impact Area evaluates our positive impact on the external communities in which we operate, covering topics like diversity, economic impact, civic engagement, and supply chain impact. To provide structure to this impact area, we have defined community into three groups, that being our staff, the wider architecture field as well as the communities in which our work is situated.
Fairness and Equal Opportunities
We want our team to be a true cross-section of the society we design for and aspire to be a model of fairness in all our dealings with our colleagues, clients, collaborators, and supply chains, which in turn makes us better designers. To achieve this, we seek to become more informed about difference and discrimination and more rigorous in our development of recruitment, employment, promotion, pay, and dignity-at-work policies.
We undertake an annual Staff Diversity and Satisfaction Survey to monitor the current makeup of our organization, with a view to supporting equality, diversity, and inclusion in our approach to recruitment, staff retention, development, promotion, and leadership. The studio continues to be under-represented in minority ethnic groups (24%) compared with the London average (46%). However, at Part I and Part II levels, ethnic diversity is well represented (54% and 33.5%, respectively) and is reflective of the percentage of students identifying as a minority ethnic group who complete the qualifications (37% and 29%, respectively), according to the RIBA Education Statistics 2020/21 report.
Since certification, we are on target to achieve an equal gender split in the office. The studio comprises a relatively consistent gender split across all employment groups, excluding the directors, where there is a slight male majority (60%). Additionally, 2% of our staff identify as non-binary. Following the implementation of an annual gender pay gap review, we have almost halved the gender pay gap in the last year (+17% to +9%). We will continue to support the career progression of our female colleagues to more senior levels and will regularly review employee remuneration to ensure a truly equitable split.
Social Mobility
Our studio has a notable overrepresentation of individuals from private education backgrounds, over three times the UK average, which highlights that the profession continues to be exclusive. In an effort to redistribute architectural opportunities, we continue to support and promote the work of the Social Mobility Foundation and other external mentoring programs, specifically targeting people from underprivileged backgrounds. Since certification, we have expanded our measurement of diversity to include greater consideration of socioeconomic status criteria, including educational funding (e.g., student loans) and working during university term time.
Regarding inclusive work environments, as mentioned earlier in this report, we have implemented a number of voluntary employee resources, such as EDI groups like HT Race, HT PRIDE, and Social Mobility focus groups. Similarly, we have relocated to facilities that have sufficient accommodations to meet accessibility requirements for individuals with physical disabilities, including step-free access. Our WCs are completely gender-neutral, creating an inclusive environment for all gender identities.
Haworth Tompkins Office
Architectural Community
The RIBA has recognised us as one of nine Practice Role Models, each illustrating different characteristics of a role model organisation. We were selected based on our openness to collaboration and constructive criticism, our ability to attract and motivate talent through our social purpose, our prioritisation of diversity, and our development of a socially inclusive workplace. We recognise that we are by no means perfect and often get things wrong, but perhaps a role model practice is one that is sufficiently self-aware.
In 2022, we were awarded AJ100’s Practice of the Year for a second time, recognised for our “comprehensive approach to practice management and excellence” as well as creating an authentic environment “where people prosper and thrive.” We were recognised again in 2024 as an AJ100 Champion for our leadership in sustainability as well as our commercial strength.
Advocacy
We co-founded the Architects Declare movement to address the twin planetary emergencies of climate breakdown and biodiversity collapse, calling for a paradigm shift in built environment design. Since certification, we continue to play an active role in the organisation, with two of our Associate Directors serving as members of the AD steering group, which aims to support signatory practices, engage with stakeholders, and encourage cross-sector dialogue across the built environment. Numerous staff are involved in initiatives such as ACAN, a climate activist organisation; Edit, a feminist design collective; and Civic Soup, an interdisciplinary collective of designers who explore the public realm through cooperative thought and action. As of 2024, we are one of the first corporate supporters of ACAN, ensuring they can continue to deliver campaigns and publications addressing the twin crises of climate and ecological breakdown.
Since certification, we have contributed to a number of publications that provide guidance on regenerative design principles, including Architects Declare’s Practice Guide and the Regenerative Design Primer. As part of our involvement in the Culture & Entertainment sector group, we have contributed to the development of the new Net Zero Carbon Building Standard by providing benchmark data, as well as feedback and comments on draft iterations. This has allowed us to both share our knowledge with the wider architectural community and integrate feedback into our practice.
Haworth Tompkins International Projects
Haworth Tompkins UK Projects
Kingston Thames
Richmond Upon Thames
Hounslow
Ealing
Hillingdon
Harrow Brent
“This week was a very impactful and insightful week for me and every day I learned something new. I will cherish the knowledge and skills I gained, and forever thank you for inviting me”
“I will be forever grateful for the advice I received in the crit as it not only built my confidence in my model-making abilities, but I left Haworth Tompkins feeling re-assured in my choice to become an architect, despite the difficulties I may face.”
2023
“We had very positive feedback from the students, their experience was very enjoyable, character building and valuable lessons were learnt. They also let us know that they now feel more confident in their future decisions moving forward”
“I wanted to say thank you for giving me the opportunity to take part in the work experience at Haworth Tompkins. I really enjoyed my week there, being in an architecture studio was a real treat for me as I was able to learn new skills that’ll help me in my journey in architecture.”
Stephanie - Summer Placement
Chloe - Summer Placement 2023
Erina - Summer Placement 2024
Healthland School for the Deaf - Summer 2024
volunteering hours invested in the community in 2023/24 359 hrs
£14, 300
of social value in 2023/24
Social Purpose
From the outset, our work is underpinned by a desire to create socially purposeful architecture that contributes to the collective well-being of our society. We contribute both our time and financial support to a number of charities, schools, and socially directed bodies and have established a highly impactful social value methodology as part of our scope of services.
We have implemented a volunteering policy that allows staff to use 8 paid hours of volunteering per year, encouraging mentoring and volunteering outside of work. Additionally, we have committed to spending 1% of our profit supporting charities and contribute monthly to organisations including Blueprint for All, the RIBA Student Support Fund, Arts Emergency, and the Architecture Foundation.
We have offered 38 weeks’ worth of work experience opportunities to local students to introduce them to the architecture profession. As part of our social value commitments, we provide mentoring and training to underrepresented groups, supporting small businesses, students, and school-age children. This includes business skills training, student workshops, and work experience placements.
Where to improve?
• Exploring ways to diversify leadership, in respect to underrepresented gender identity, ethnicity and LGBTQ+ groups, specifically targeting the associate level
• Establish policies or programmes to promote diversity in the supply chain with a focus on supporting businesses that are majority-owned by women or underrepresented groups
• Introduce a policy that prioritises local suppliers and benchmark the quantity of local purchasing, outlining a list of preferred local suppliers
• Uptake in volunteering needs addressed as it is not being utilised to full effect (only 30% of staff are utilising these hours). We will look to identify and promote opportunities within the practice, relating specifically to our project locations
“It was a great opportunity to pass on my passion for architecture to younger generations, and to give them an insight into the design world”
Xintong - Work experience support
“It is so pleasing to see children being so excited to see their deaf role models working in Architecture and Infrastructure. The fact that we can do it shows them that they can do it too. They are our future generation, and they feel more confident in their own ability to be able to do their dream job”
Chris - Talks in schools for the deaf
“An opportunity to directly support a young person to make an informed decision on whether they should study architecture at university. As a mentor you will often be the first architectural professional they have spoken to and your advice, via email or in person, on studying and working life as an Architect will be very influential”
Alex - Social Mobility Foundation Mentor
to Us - Social Purpose
The Den
Hackney New Homes
“Expression of a collective wish to break the cycle of thoughtless development and regeneration in which residents and existing communities are often totally bypassed”
CASE STUDY FISH ISLAND
We hold social values at the centre of our design ethos and strive to create a democratic, non-intimidating architectural language that is welcoming to everyone. A major brownfield project to the south of Hackney Wick has transformed a site of disused single-storey distribution warehouses into a collection of mid-rise, mixed-tenure dwellings (25% of which are affordable), commercial space, and new public streets and spaces.
Community preservation
The vision for the site was to create a permeable piece of the city that draws on the area’s heritage as a site of industry and artistic production. This includes combining homes and affordable studio spaces to support London’s creative community. Our approach centred on how the culture of the area could be retained and reimagined for a new development while simultaneously providing better-quality housing and strengthening the existing network of live-work communities.
In a part of the city undergoing neighbourhood-wide densification, addressing concerns about displacement and gentrification was a key consideration. An event titled ‘Beyond the Red Line’ was organised, bringing together communities and architects from all development plots to discuss how these sites might interact with one another beyond the confines of their own planning zones. Local stakeholders had the opportunity to voice their thoughts and concerns while contributing meaningfully to discussions about the future of their area.
Grassroot voices
All these spatial and social measures aim to support the foundations of a place and harness the potential of urban redevelopment as a means for positive change. Extensive analysis was undertaken to understand the social fabric of the area. Key takeaways included the density of artists and creatives (610 studios, each occupied by up to 5 artists), making the area one of the most densely populated collections of artist studios in Europe. This ultimately changed the way the London Legacy Development Corporation perceived the area, giving a voice to the community surrounding the site.
Diverse programme
A lot more emphasis has been placed on workspaces rather than retail and hospitality for the commercial spaces, in keeping with the current use of the area and avoiding the usual pitfalls of creating generic spaces with no specific enduser in mind. Sixty-three flexible ground-floor commercial units are managed by the social enterprise and arts charity The Trampery, creating a network of studios and social spaces with a focus on fashion design and production. This makes it the largest new complex for creative practitioners in London.
Connection and safety
The area had become stuck in a hinterland between what was previously a highly industrialised zone and the mixed-use area it was becoming. Through our intervention, we have increased the permeability of the public realm and, in doing so, strengthened connections to surrounding sites, reducing the sense of detachment. This has had the dual impact of opening up 200 meters of previously inaccessible canal frontages to the public, improving access through the site to surrounding areas, and reducing the isolation of the site from a safety perspective, particularly after dark.
Pembroke College
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
The Environment Impact Area evaluates the company’s overall environmental stewardship, including how the company identifies and manages general environmental impacts, its management of air and climate issues, water sustainability and impacts on land and life. We can differentiate between our impact as a practice and the projects we design.
Regenerative Practice
We are facing a climate emergency of unprecedented seriousness. To meet the needs of our society without breaching planetary boundaries, we have committed to the principles of regenerative design as the foundational basis of all our work. As one of the founding members of Architects Declare and an early adopter of the RIBA 2030 Challenge and Race to Zero, we are at the forefront of regenerative practice, which recognises that the construction of buildings, cities and infrastructure is part of a larger, constantly regenerating, and selfsustaining system of planetary processes. Our aim is to contribute to the healing of these living systems rather than merely mitigate damage.
Innovation
We have built our success on a mindset of creative curiosity and continuous innovation, whether in environmental design, building typologies, working methods, or building systems. Under the evolving leadership of a new generation of designers, creative risk-taking continues to drive the studio’s thinking. We incorporate research and development projects wherever feasible, in addition to our contracted design work.
Haworth Tompkins Carbon Footprint 23/24 (tonnes CO2e)
ENVIRONMENT PRACTICE 50t 0.5t
23/24 CO2e cost of operating
Climate Commitments
23/24 CO2e/per employee
Our initial certification score was more than double the average for our sector and size range. Since certification, we have committed to the Race to Zero challenge via the SME Climate Hub, aiming to halve our GHG emissions by 2030 compared to the 2019 baseline, offsetting the remaining emissions annually through efficient measures. As part of this pledge, we have committed to reporting our progress and actions publicly, which we have been doing since 2019 through our annual carbon footprint report. Since certification, we have strengthened our data collection and are in the process of auditing our carbon reporting methodology in line with the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064.
As part of our commitment to Race to Zero, we offset 100% of our carbon emissions by investing in Gold Standard Projects in Mozambique and Scottish rewilding schemes, such as the Trees for Life initiative. Similarly, we have implemented a cycle-to-work scheme that incentivises bike use to reduce staff commuting emissions and improve employee health and wellbeing.
Circularity and Indoor Air Quality
As part of our move to Golden Lane, we have transferred to a provider that supplies 100% REGO-backed renewable electricity, which can be reported as zero carbon. ‘Waste’ from our move was collected and processed to ensure 100% of the material was either reused, recycled, or converted into energy via waste-to-energy. All our existing shelving has been repurposed and old desks turned into extra storage, while recycled raised floor tiles and timber were brought in for ‘new’ elements of our fit-out. Additionally, we have introduced office environmental sensors that monitor indoor climatic conditions, such as temperature, humidity, VOCs, CO2, and radon levels, to inform our daily energy strategy and promote staff wellbeing and productivity.
Where to improve?
• Expand on our Hybrid Working Policy to include recommendations for environmentally preferred products and practices in virtual offices as well as providing a list of environmentally-preferred vendors for office supplies
• As opposed to setting GHG emissions relative to previous performance, going forward we will set specific science based targets
• Set intensity and reduction targets for energy usage per employee
• While we monitor waste production, in the next period we will set specific reductions targets
• Manage water usage by setting science-based targets necessary to achieve sustainable usage levels
ENVIRONMENT PROJECTS
START Toolkit
To monitor our sustainability and regenerative progress, we have developed a methodology that integrates social and environmental performance into decision-making. Devised as a series of survey questionnaires for each RIBA stage, the START Toolkit aims to serve as a project performance check at each design milestone and as a progress reporting tool at the practice level. The Toolkit focuses on three main design areas, which are then further detailed into several topics aligned with the key UN Sustainable Development Goals and the chapters listed in the Architects Declare Practice Guide.
To support project teams, the Sustainability & Regenerative Design Working Group has produced detailed guidance, including reference materials for all Toolkit sections and other sustainability and regenerative design resources. These include our CPD recordings, a materials database, and links to external reports such as the LETI Guides, the RIBA 2030 Sustainable Outcomes Report, and the UKGBC Net Zero Framework.
Embodied Carbon
Our Sustainability and Regenerative Design Working Group is evaluating carbon assessment tools like HBERT and OneClick to formalise carbon analysis and reporting, aiming to expand our whole-life carbon assessments for projects. We have developed a live, in-house low-carbon materials database and are exploring integration with other publicly available libraries. Additionally, we are in the early stages of assessing emerging bio-based materials and have identified projects suitable for an ambitious R&D approach. Since certification, we have undertaken an exercise to benchmark a selection of our theatre projects, allowing us to compare them to set benchmarks and inform our approach going forward. All these aspects will feed into our wider Haworth Tompkins Embodied Carbon Framework, which is currently in development.
Where to improve?
• Increase the use of energy modelling to address the gap in operational EUI monitoring in projects by assigning a computational champion within the office who will oversee and monitor our project environmental analysis
• Increase participation in project sustainability workshops as currently only around a third of projects are utilising these in project development
• While we have begun to track and monitor the efficiency of the stormwater management of our projects as part of our START toolkit, we will look to set project targets that align with regulation benchmarks
• Increase project engagement with the Living Building Challenge certification
TRANSPORT &ACCESSIBILITY
CASE STUDY COLCHESTER
60%
reduction in car ownership targeted over 30 years
11%
Biodiversity Net Gain
Biodiversity and future landscape resilience have underpinned the strategic development of our masterplan for 7,500 new homes and three new neighbourhoods at Tendring and Colchester Borders Garden Community. From the outset, our approach has been to retain and augment existing hedgerows as part of a green active travel corridor, thickening them to form more complete and resilient ecosystems across the site. We are also using the open monocultural farming plots, which have been depleted of their soil value from decades of intensive use, for development.
Colchester is one of the driest areas in the UK yet has a very high water table, making future interventions around natural water systems critical for retaining and enhancing biodiversity. Through a long-term stewardship programme, we aim to improve existing watercourses across the site, which are currently in moderate to poor condition, to offer greater biodiversity in this unique local context. Existing country roads enclosed by hedgerow networks will be transformed into an active travel networks where nature and community coexist, making active travel the primary choice and reducing car dependency.
The community is well-positioned as a source for bio-based materials. It is fertile and arable, with the capacity to grow materials at scale, has plentiful forests that are sustainably managed (bolstered by the Essex Green Infrastructure Strategy), and hosts a number of bio-based companies looking to expand. Consequently, our strategy aims to position Essex as a leader in regenerative urban industry, creating a fully closed bioregional resource ecosystem. Our client Latimer, will act as environmental stewards, promoting and facilitating a local, bio-based economy, and providing residents with a future-proof regenerative industry.
“HaworthTompkins havebeen instrumental in making Industria happen, from early research and concept, to the tenacity and attention to detail to see the project through to construction. We are genuinely excited about how the project is going to transform and lead industrial regeneration for the borough.”
Lily Kwong, Development Manager, Be First
CUSTOMERS
CUSTOMER
Customers assess our value to our direct customers and the consumers of our products or services covering topics like ethical and positive marketing, warranty and quality assurance of products and services, data privacy, data security, and more. While this is the smallest of the B Corp sections, we have worked hard to improve our score since certification.
Reputation
The quality of our work continues to attract clients who share our commitment to creating high-quality architecture that supports the wellbeing of the planet and communities. From the outset, our work is underpinned by a desire to create socially purposeful architecture that contributes to the collective wellbeing of society. We actively seek out commissions and clients that align with these values. For example, following our nomination, our client Be First was awarded AJ100 2024 Client of the Year, affirming the high calibre of the clients we choose to work with.
We are committed to continual improvement, which includes understanding our performance in previous project deliveries. Since certification, we have strengthened our post-completion review process and conducted several client post-occupancy surveys to evaluate the quality of our service, coordination, and delivery. This valuable feedback will inform our strategic operations going forward.
“The new space on Brixton Hill has dynamically changed the accessibility and visibility of the borough’s public archive collections.”
Ultimately, we design for the comfort and wellbeing of the users of our buildings. Highquality construction and low energy demands lead to lower energy bills and maintenance costs for both our clients and building occupants. Since certification, we have broadened our portfolio of low-energy schemes, with two active projects in the design and construction phases engaging with the Passivhaus initiative. Additionally, one of our residential projects is targeting LETI Pioneer status, committing to net zero by 2030.
Where to improve?
• Produce a framework to aid the decision making on the clients & their values that we wish to work with (e.g. other B Corp certified contractors)
• While we already monitor our client satisfaction and share this internally, we will look to make this information publicly available
• Define targets for client satisfaction which will be shared internally
• For external purposes, we will look to make our data and privacy policy more transparent and publicly available, including what data is collected, for how long data is preserved and how it is used
• Better integration of data privacy in our company wide risk management processes
• More regular audits of our internal and external data security
• Aim to undertake more post occupancy evaluation (POE) to assess both qualitative and quantitative aspects of our completed projects
“HaworthTompkinshasworked hard tounderstand thecomplex needs of our organisation which has helped unlock the hidden potential of a constrained existing building, adapting it to perfectly suit our needs, and create something both welcoming and beautiful.”
- Rich Spens, Operations Director, King’s Cross Church
“Aside from the benefits of achieving a net zero carbon building for the client, there are also key benefits from future residents which include improved thermal comfort, good air quality, low heating requirements and low energy bills”
CASE STUDY GREENHILL
We are working with Newham Council to redevelop the Greenhill Centre site to provide 81 new homes for local people, all of which are designated as affordable. The overall vision is to positively enhance the site, reaccommodate the gym, and optimise the site for high-quality family residential accommodation. In response to Newham Council’s declaration of a climate emergency, the new homes will be Passivhaus certified.
Form Factor
The blocks were designed to be as compact as possible to achieve a low form factor, avoiding inset balconies and unnecessary steps in the facade. This increases the efficiency of insulation and reduces heat loss from the building. Designing projecting balconies reduced the perimeter of the external envelope by around 20%.
Orientation
Window design and placement were carefully considered during the design development. Specific glazing-to-wall ratios were applied depending on their orientation, which helps minimise heat loss from the northern facade with smaller windows, and provides sufficient solar gain from the south by using larger windows. Southern façades feature a projecting horizontal brick course to block the high-angle sun, while eastern and western façades have both horizontal and vertical shading to address the low-angle sun. The scheme includes triple glazing throughout, and the avoidance of full-height windows helps moderate overheating and allows for an increased openable window area for purge ventilation.
Ventilation
Passivhaus relies on effective ventilation to ensure good indoor air quality. In addition to openable windows, all flats have Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery (MVHR) to provide a constant rate of ventilation. We also maximised the number of dual-aspect homes, resulting in over 90% benefiting from cross or adjacent wall ventilation to help mitigate overheating.
TARGETS SUMMARY
Look to extend the community and environmental representation in our director group
Social and environmental performance to be included in annual reviews
Publicly reporting our financial statements
Closing the gender pay gap
Matching compensation in line with living and inflation costs
Strengthen involvement in local university and environmental nonprofits (eg. ACAN, Architects Declare)
Include social and environmental performance in job descriptions of all roles in the practice
Assess feasibility of publicly transparent financial statements
Diversity study to explore and evaluate strategies
To be discussed in EOT forums & director meetings
Offer training for non-career specific lifeskills CPD team to brainstorm topics & organise lunchtime sessions
Address staff satisfaction specifically relating to the internal mentoring programme
Broaden cross-job skills beyond regular responsibilities
Increase staff participation in external development
Reduced working hours with no reduced efficiency or salary
Diversify leadership specifically targetting the associate level
Promote diversity in the supply chain with a focus on businesses that are a majorityowned by women or under-represented groups
Prioritises local suppliers
Ethical banking
Increase uptake in staff volunteering hours
Greater consideration to sourcing working from home supplies
Reduce energy usage per employee
Reduce company waste production
Increase use of energy modelling
Increase participation in project sustainability workshops (both internal and external)
Increase the use of renewable energy generation (project)
Reduce project water consumption and stormwater management (project)
Increase project engagement with the Living Building Challenge certification
Define our client & subconsultant 'red line'
Benchmark client satisfaction
Increase transparency of client feedback
Robust risk management
Increased security
Undertake more post occupancy evaluation (POE) across different work sectors (housing, retrofit)
Collate staff feedback and identify mechanisms to support successful implementation
Incoporate more of this into the CPD and training programme
Circulate external training opportunities to the staff
6 month trial period to start in September 2024
Develop on policies that attract, retain and support staff from diverse backgrounds
Establish policies or frameworks that promote diversity in supply chain
Draft a policy that benchmark the quality of local purchasing, outlining a list of prefered local suppliers
Review our company's banking services from a social and environmental impact perspective
Will look to identify and promote opportunities within the practice, relating specifically to our project locations
Expand our Hybrid Working to include recommendations for environmentally preferred vendors for office supplies
Set intensity and reduction targets to achieve global goals to address climate change rather than relative to previous years
Set specific reductions targets relative to previous years
Assign a computational champion within the office who will monitor the energy modeling of projects
Assign a sustainability champion for the team to schedule and monitor workshop structure and outcomes
Promote and provide evidence to stakeholders (client, facility manager) that demonstrate the benefits of implementing renewable energy both financial and environmental
Set project targets that align with policy benchmarks and guidance
Promote and provide evidence to stakeholders (client, contractors) that demonstrate the benefits engaging with the certification
Produce a decision-making framework to guide who we wish to work for and collaborate with
Define targets & KPIs for client satifaction
Explore appropriateness of sharing our client satisfaction publicly
Better integration of data privacy in our company wide risk management processes
More regular audits of our internal and external data security
Sustainability and regenerative working group to explore the best methodology for expanding POE activities