Ridge co-hosted with Solus a NextGen panel event for Article 25, the UK’s leading architectural NGO, bringing together architects, contractors, material specialists, and manufacturers to interrogate one of the built environment's most pressing - and most misunderstood - challenges.
Fiona du Fresne, Associate Architecture Partner at Ridge was joined by Matteo Bonotto, Design Manager at Agilité; Luke Bajic, Specialist Product Consultant at Solus Ceramics; Lauren Totzke, Director at Totzke Limited; Branca Pegado, Associate Architect at Article 25.
In an increasingly interconnected world, every design decision carries weight far beyond the project site. When architects and built environment professionals specify materials, systems, and partners, we shape not only buildings but the global supply chains behind them.
The conversation that unfolded over the course of the evening was a frank one. Sustainability, the panellists agreed, is too often reduced to a box-ticking exercise. The harder work – and the more honest work – lies in navigating the tensions, trade-offs, and human realities that certifications alone cannot capture.
Sustainability, the panellists agreed, is too often reduced to a box-ticking exercise. The harder work – and the more honest work – lies in navigating the tensions, trade-offs, and human realities that certifications alone cannot capture.
Transparency over perfection
From a contractor’s perspective, the panel was clear: compromise is not the enemy of responsible sourcing. Sustainability targets that are set late, treated as optional, or siloed away from procurement and programme decisions inevitably lead to weakened outcomes. Matteo’s message was clear – integrate sustainability from the earliest design stages and manage the inevitable tensions openly, with shared accountability across the whole project team.
Rethinking the role of certification
Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and responsible sourcing certifications have an important role to play, but the panel cautioned against treating them as the sole measure of a material’s ethicality. Luke emphasised a key point in the discussion: 80% of a building’s footprint comes from just 20% of its materials. While high volume materials must be rigorously assessed to meet reporting targets this should not exclude smaller, artisanal makers who do not have the resources to provide the certifications. The absence of an EPD, the panel noted, does not make a product irresponsible.
80% of a building’s footprint comes from just 20% of its materials.
Sustainability as a human question
A thought-provoking contribution of the evening concerned not what materials are made of, but who makes them and under what conditions. For handcrafted, natural materials sourced from developing communities, the relevant metrics may have less to do with embodied carbon and more to do with fair wages, gender equity, and long-term community investment. Lauren described embedding education funding directly into her product pricing – a large rug, for instance, can fund a secondary school child’s education for an entire year through Project Mala, a long-running initiative linked to rug-making communities.
For handcrafted, natural materials sourced from developing communities, the relevant metrics may have less to do with embodied carbon and more to do with fair wages, gender equity, and long-term community investment.
Learning from the field
Branca brought her insights from humanitarian and international projects that reinforced responsible sourcing as context-specific. In regions with limited infrastructure or climate vulnerability, responsible practice means designing for maintenance, building with locally available materials, and training local workforces – not exporting solutions. Respecting vernacular architecture must also be balanced with protecting life; traditional methods are not always appropriate in areas prone to extreme weather. The most successful outcomes, it was argued, are those where communities take ownership of what has been built and adapt it over time.
The long view
The event closed with a challenge the industry rarely poses to itself: if a building looks sustainable on paper but is torn down in a decade, has anything really been achieved? True sustainability, the panel argued, is about adaptability, reuse, and long-term performance – not certifications acquired and forgotten.
Responsible sourcing, the evening made clear, is not a standard to be reached but a continuous, collective process – one that demands honesty, humility, and long-term thinking from every professional in the supply chain.
We are pleased to announce Fiona du Fresne, Associate Partner in Architecture, has been appointed to the Article 25 NextGen board. Ridge continues to champion sustainable practice and meaningful collaboration across the built environment.
