Taking a (Carbon) Neutral Stance

On a sunny and unseasonably warm Friday afternoon in early fall, employees from Perkins Eastman’s Pittsburgh studio set their laptops aside, ventured south of the city, and picked up shovels. The group of seven, identified in the photo below, had volunteered to dedicate the rest of their workday to a singular focus: planting native tree species in the Buena Vista Heights Conservation Area, a tract of land managed by the Allegheny Land Trust in Elizabeth Township, PA.

Employees from Perkins Eastman’s Pittsburgh studio preparing to plant trees at Buena Vista Heights Conservation Area in Elizabeth Township, PA. From left: Ellis Vogt, Jane Hallinan, Mercedes Earnest, Megan Robinette, Scott Fitzgerald, Megan Shrout, and Jennica Deely. Photo Copyright Perkins Eastman.

Long given to giving back, Perkins Eastman employees have volunteered and advocated for myriad community and environmental efforts many times over throughout the firm’s 43-year history. But on this day the purpose was neutral—in terms of carbon, that is. Perkins Eastman last year achieved carbon neutrality for the first time in its firm-wide operations—a major milestone on the journey to net zero emissions. The Buena Vista Heights Conservation Area is one project within Perkins Eastman’s 2023 carbon-offset portfolio: By planting a variety of native tree species such as white oak, sugar maple, spice bush, and black cherry, Pittsburgh staff were an integral part of the firm’s strategy to connect its employees to their role in reducing carbon and, ultimately, achieving operational carbon neutrality at the firm-wide level.

Volunteers heading into the Conservation Area to find the perfect spot to plant their trees. Copyright Perkins Eastman.

Reaching carbon neutrality in firm-wide operations: Scopes 1 and 2

“Focusing first on neutralizing the firm’s operations is strategic,” says Heather Jauregui, Perkins Eastman’s director of sustainability. “The connection between our design work and how we operate is crucial.” According to the World Green Building Council, 90 percent of a company’s operating expenses typically go toward human resources. “To have the greatest impact on operating expenses, our focus starts with our people, which then translates to our work—the buildings and places we design,” she says.

The firm hired Verdis Group in 2022 to help verify our operations’ carbon impact data. This third-party organization confirmed that the total carbon we emit from our operations each year comes to 12,621 metric tons. To remove this amount of CO2 from the atmosphere, we would need to plant enough trees to cover the equivalent of more than four Central Parks in New York City! To support Perkins Eastman’s corporate sustainability efforts, each office is responsible for annually tracking and reporting the sustainability of their operations to demonstrate how they are meeting or exceeding the criteria outlined in the Sustainability Operations Manual, a document we developed in 2016.

Perkins Eastman’s Operational Carbon 2023

Perkins Eastman’s comprehensive carbon footprint for 2023. Copyright Perkins Eastman.

Equipped with this tracking information, we’ve begun to identify areas where we could reduce the carbon output of our operations in Scope 1: direct emissions from sources that are controlled or owned by us; this is a minor portion of our footprint due to the nature of our service-based business because we don’t manufacture or ship materials. We’re also addressing our indirect Scope 2 emissions associated with the purchase of electricity, heat, or cooling for our office spaces.

Scope 1 & 2 Emissions

The definitions of Scope 1 and Scope 2 Emissions. Copyright Perkins Eastman.

We decided to purchase carbon offsets for the areas where it’s not possible to reduce emissions at this stage, which, as verified by Verdis Group, amount to 1,209 metric tons of CO2.

“We are voluntarily doing this,” says Koray Aysin, Perkins Eastman’s leader of corporate sustainability. “For the most part in the United States,” he says, “carbon offsetting is currently considered optional.” There are no federal mandates requiring companies to purchase carbon offsets, although the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) recently adopted rules requiring publicly traded companies to disclose climate-related information, including potential carbon offsetting activities.

Because the market is still optional, there’s a lot of variation in the quality of the offset projects. “Not all carbon offsets are created equal,” Jauregui explains. “You have to pay attention to the permanence of the offset. For instance, you could purchase offsets from a reforestation project, but then a wildfire happens, or a new owner comes in and clear-cuts the forest, and there goes all the carbon that you prepared for your offsets.”

Perkins Eastman engaged with Cloverly, a company that manages a platform of carbon-offset projects, in 2022. “Navigating this complex system can be difficult for a lot of organizations who aren’t familiar with purchasing carbon credits,” says Aysin. “This is where working with Cloverly has been incredibly helpful.” Our team has been working with Christie Gamble, the Director of Climate Solutions. “Cloverly’s objective is to help companies to develop the right kind of approach to purchasing carbon credits,” she says. “There are over twenty thousand different carbon-credit projects across the globe, and they represent different types of methodologies.” Companies seeking to neutralize their carbon emissions can purchase a carbon credit, which is a tradable certificate that represents one metric ton of CO2. From projects with direct local impact, like Buena Vista Heights outside of Pittsburgh, to projects that directly apply to the built environment, like CarbonCure, which sequesters carbon in the form of concrete, Aysin, Jauregui, and the Sustainability Team worked with Gamble to select a portfolio, described below, that represent Perkins Eastman’s core values.

Carbon Offset Portfolio for 2023

Destination Net Zero

While Perkins Eastman has reached carbon neutrality through our carbon offsets and reduction strategies, there’s much work to be done to realize total carbon neutrality as a firm.

“As architects, we have a big responsibility,” says Jauregui, speaking to the industry’s role in addressing climate change. “With the built environment comprising around 40 percent of global carbon emissions, the projects we design for our clients are responsible for a sizeable portion of the CO2 in the atmosphere.”

With environmental, social, and governance reporting (ESG) becoming mandatory for many companies, more and more of our clients are paying close attention to their carbon output, Aysin says. These indirect emissions—Scope 3—are more difficult to account for and require collaboration with clients, consultants, and myriad other people who construct, occupy, and manage the spaces we design.

Scope 3 Emissions

The definition of Scope 3 Emissions. Copyright Perkins Eastman.

Getting to a firm-wide net zero footprint is a long journey. At this juncture, Jauregui says, the key to forward momentum is education and advocacy. Perkins Eastman’s annual State of Sustainability report is a comprehensive and transparent account of the firm’s progress. Here, we share the many internal programs—webinars and new data platforms—that are connecting our employees to the value of carbon neutrality, providing the tools for us to embed that knowledge into our work, and outlining the language for us to advocate for it with our clients.

Local involvement for global impact

Ellis Vogt, green coordinator for Perkins Eastman’s Pittsburgh studio, puts his heart and soul (and back) into the work. Copyright Perkins Eastman.

As the sun sank lower on the horizon at Buena Vista Heights Conservation Area, the last tree—a white oak—was planted with care. Working together, the group carried shovels and empty pots back to the trail entrance, all of us sweaty, hot, and happy. By the end of the day, we had reintroduced more than 60 white oak, sugar maple, black cherry, and spice bush trees into the area. Now that they’re in the ground, the carbon offsets they provided for Perkins Eastman are retired. The process resets every year until we have devised methods to become truly carbon neutral. For the time being, however, these offset purchases and volunteer activities are worth their weight in inspiration and sweat equity.

“I am so proud of my colleagues and Perkins Eastman,” says Ellis Vogt, a green coordinator for the Pittsburgh studio and one of the volunteers at Buena Vista Heights. “It means a lot to participate in these kinds of activities. It opens my eyes to what it takes to be carbon neutral, and it connects us as we work together with a shared purpose.”