Sustainability has always been an important part of DIALOG’s design process. There are dozens of LEED® accredited professionals across the practice, and we’ve delivered more than 100 LEED® certified buildings for our clients. We also design for a number of other green building and sustainability standards, have engineered our own tools to measure and report on the sustainability of our projects, and signed the AIA 2030 Commitment to deliver carbon neutral buildings.

There’s more to sustainability at DIALOG than just the design side of the equation, however. We have taken several important steps to reduce our operational carbon footprint as well. The first was supporting Community Forests International. DIALOG has been working with this organization since 2011 and has been able to protect nearly 1,200 acres of forest in the New Brunswick portion of the Acadian Forest Region. That translates into more than 38,000 tons of carbon offset over the past decade. That year also marked the start of our work to create a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory for the practice.

The next thing we have done is launch initiatives in our five studios to reduce GHG emissions, including things such as installing sophisticated occupancy sensors for lighting, switching to LED lighting, offering DIALOGers discounted transit passes, providing improved end-of-trip facilities to promote bicycle commuting, switching to double-sided printing, moving to electronic invoicing where possible, and purchasing high-recycled-content paper.

We weren’t content to stop there, however. We want to do all we could to improve each DIALOG studio, operating in the most environmentally responsible and sustainable manner possible, as well as being compliant with the GHG Protocol. That’s why we chose to get Climate Smart Certified.

Climate Smart is an international program that helps companies create their own GHG inventory based on workplace operations, devise a plan to reduce GHG emissions through a series of meaningful changes, and then track and report on their effectiveness at meeting reduction targets year over year. Being a Climate Smart Certified Business underscores our commitment to sustainability across all areas of the practice.

The efforts we’re already making to reduce our carbon footprint, in conjunction with our Climate Smart Certification, demonstrate DIALOG’s commitment to sustainability. Implementing our carbon reduction plan later this year will be a proactive step towards reducing our operational carbon footprint, and will strengthen our commitment to carbon reduction across all aspects of the practice.