Several actions must be taken to all aspects of the AA’s operation to have a meaningful reduction in carbon emissions. This website provides interactive sliders for different emissions from each part of the AA, allowing users to speculate on the broader impacts of their local actions. We invite you to explore different approaches and save your settings by copying the url.

We have preset four possible scenarios:

Scenario 1 looks at the impact of bottom-up changes only. It implements changes primarily through how staff and students travel and consume resources. It includes individual travel and material consumption in its scope and incorporates sustainable alternatives, including a potential 30% difference in carbon emissions by selecting more sustainable air craft types and routes. It does not consider any physical changes to the AA buildings or campus.

Scenario 2 looks at the impact of top-down changes. It implements changes to buildings in terms of retrofitting, on-site energy production and the impact of using low carbon heat sources. In this scenario, there is no change to how staff and students travel and consume resources.

Scenario 3, in contrast to Scenario 1, omits individual travel and material consumption from the survey. In doing so, it poses a critical question about the scope of AALC and other similar carbon emission surveys. International travel by students is a significant part of the AA's travel emissions; however, from analysing other similar studies, individual travel and material consumption are not always included in the institution's carbon footprint. Being an international school, the AA will not be able to omit these emissions entirely, and it is a question for discussion as to whether these emissions should be part of the AALC footprint or if it belongs to individuals. AALC welcomes views and comments on this.

Scenario 4 shows the increase in carbon sequestration from doubling the size of Hooke Park. Whilst tree planting and restoring other natural carbon sinks is of vital importance, reducing emissions at their source is far more effective at limiting overall temperature rise and staving off the worst effects of climate change. Trees take a long time to sequester carbon and it is not guaranteed that they will live to maturity, especially considering extreme weather events such as wildfires. Even if young trees were to eventually sequester an amount of CO<sub>2</sub> equal to that emitted by the AA, this will not have an immediate effect in reducing emissions, nor be guaranteed to keep the carbon out of the atmosphere. For these reasons, we show Hooke Park sequestration alongside the AA's emissions but do not subtract one from the other.

Architectural AssociationLow Carbon Project

Architectural Association
Low Carbon Project