Neil Davidson, Group Vice President at Deltek, on how firms can turn ESG commitments into meaningful results and business opportunities.
The gap between sustainability rhetoric and real-world action is steadily narrowing. As a result, while progress is being made, architecture firms are finding it increasingly difficult to rely on superficial sustainability efforts. Growing pressure from clients, investors and regulators is fuelling demand for enterprise wide environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments.
The scale of the challenge is immense. To limit global warming to below 2°C, as outlined in the Paris Agreement, every building – no matter how old – must be net zero by 2050. To have a chance of achieving this, the International Energy Agency (IEA) calls for all new and retrofitted buildings to be at zero-carbon-ready levels by 2030. It’s a tall order when buildings account for 30% of global energy consumption and 26% of global energy-related emissions.
Despite progress over recent years, our research shows that there is still much work to be done, with 81% of UK architecture firms expressing concern about meeting their ESG and sustainability goals by the planned deadlines.
This execution gap represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Bridging it can yield substantial benefits, and 92%Â of infrastructure investors in the UK say ESG performance is instrumental to achieving a clear long-term value creation strategy.
Reframing ESG as a business opportunity
Amid growing discussions around ESG, it’s clear that embracing sustainability presents multiple business opportunities far beyond regulatory compliance. Forward-thinking architecture firms can diversify revenue streams by developing specialised services that help clients monitor and optimise their environmental footprint. From emissions tracking and energy benchmarking to thermal efficiency analysis, these value-added offerings create genuine recurring revenue while deepening client relationships through ongoing environmental stewardship.
Sustainability focussed practices also gain significant risk mitigation advantages. Through prioritising future-proofed designs that incorporate sustainable materials and techniques, firms help clients avoid costly retrofits as regulations evolve, while delivering structures better equipped to withstand changing environmental conditions. As a result, these buildings typically demonstrate superior durability and adaptability, protecting both client investments and firm reputations.
The economic case is equally compelling. ‘Green’ buildings consistently deliver operational cost savings, reducing operating expenses by up to 19% while increasing asset values through higher occupancy rates and premium pricing. At the same time, environmentally focussed practices position themselves advantageously for dedicated government funding, including grants and incentives designed to further accelerate the journey to net zero.
Finally, firms with a strong focus on sustainability are more attractive to professionals motivated by environmental values, offering opportunities to develop specialised green skills, such as climate action planning. As industry leaders, these firms often champion cost-effective strategies for achieving sustainability goals and actively share best practices with peers encouraging collective progress toward what must be a shared and urgent objective.
The role of technology in driving sustainable transformation
The most successful architecture firms are leveraging digital transformation to embed sustainability throughout their project lifecycle. As technology adoption accelerates—82% of UK firms plan to invest more in emerging technologies in 2025—forward-thinking practices have a unique opportunity to build robust digital foundations that turn sustainability aspirations into measurable real-world outcomes.
Generative AI is one such technology at the forefront of the revolution, with 42% of UK firms already using it to automate repetitive drafting and modelling tasks. When applied directly to sustainability challenges, AI can rapidly generate and evaluate multiple design scenarios based on environmental performance criteria, optimising everything from energy consumption to material usage, all without sacrificing design integrity.
Building Information Modelling, or BIM, provides another powerful tool, enabling architects to accurately predict a structure’s environmental impact long before construction begins. By creating comprehensive digital twins that simulate energy usage, carbon emissions and operational efficiency, firms can help clients make informed decisions that balance environmental goals with practical constraints.
For projects which are already underway, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies deliver unprecedented visibility into real-time environmental performance. These connected systems continuously gather data on energy consumption, air quality, and resource usage, allowing architects to demonstrate the tangible benefits of their sustainable designs. Just like Generative AI and BIM, IoT also identifies opportunities for further optimisation.
To maximise sustainable project delivery, firms need comprehensive reporting frameworks supported by robust enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. These integrated platforms enable practices to track sustainability KPIs throughout the project lifecycle. In doing so, architecture firms ensure that environmental considerations remain central to decision-making, while enabling them to comply with regulatory requirements such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
The transition from ambition to action is one of the defining challenges facing today’s architecture firms. Though it may appear daunting, this shift represents both a moral imperative and business opportunity. By embedding sustainability into core operations firms can move beyond aspiration and deliver measurable impact. As an industry, we must collectively accelerate these changes to shape the sustainable built environment that our future demands.
