CHARLOTTE Booth, a chartered environmentalist with more than a decade of consultancy experience, has been appointed as associate director of sustainability and wellbeing at multi-disciplinary architecture and engineering practice, BE Design.
Having grown up on an almost autonomous farm in rural Lincolnshire, Charlotte had a keen interest in protecting the environment from a young age and has since led on energy and sustainability strategies for some of the UK’s largest urban regeneration projects.
“From a young age, I recognised the importance of living sustainably,” said Charlotte.
“On my family’s 250-hectare arable farm, we grew the energy crop miscanthus, ran our vehicles on biofuel, designed wetlands and wildflower meadows to encourage biodiversity and heated the farmhouse via a ground source heat pump, solar thermal and PV panels. You could say that a passion for sustainability and wellbeing is in my blood.
“After completing my degree in Natural Sciences at Durham University – where I specialised in climate change – I went on to study for an MSc in Building Energy and Environmental Performance Modelling at the Welsh School of Architecture.
“This greatly contributed to my understanding as to the impacts of development on the environment and led me to pursue a career in the construction industry.
“I’ve advised affordable housing providers, local councils and private developers on the environmental impacts of their construction projects. I’ve worked closely with teams to project manage multi-million-pound masterplanning and regeneration schemes. Seeing low carbon, sustainable and biophilic-focussed designs come to fruition is incredibly rewarding.
“I’m now looking forward to putting all of this experience into practice at BE Design.”
In her new role, Charlotte will be collaborating closely with the team to provide sustainability management, wellbeing and biophilic design support – through accreditations including the WELL Building Standard – and energy and low carbon strategies to BE Design’s clients.
Charlotte added: “We want to embed sustainability and wellbeing practices into the heart of our designs. There’s an incredible team here, who are committed to creating exceptional places to live and work in, which have minimal environmental impact and which are fit for future generations.
“This passion for sustainability, along with the collaborative and holistic approach to design, is what attracted me to BE Design.
“Climate change is a very real threat, one that isn’t going to go away, so we have to be incorporating sustainable practices into everything we do in terms of building design. Businesses and councils are declaring states of emergency. But now, we have to deliver practical solutions to deliver the net zero carbon aspirations of our clients.”
Charlotte’s role will significantly strengthen the Nottinghamshire-based practice’s offer relating to sustainable and wellbeing and bring an elevated service to its national and international clients.
Director Anna Tsartsari added: “Sustainability isn’t just a buzz word – it’s a practice, an ethos, a commitment to the future of our planet. ‘Designing sustainably for the future’ has been at the core of our business’ approach to design from day one. At BE Design, we very much subscribe to the idea of sustainable placemaking, creating spaces that people want to live and work in. That’s why we’ve also signed up to Architect’s Declare.
“Charlotte will hugely benefit our clients, bringing an incredible amount of sector knowledge to their projects. She has already proven to be a fantastic addition to the team and we’re delighted to have her on board.”
Find out more about BE Design at www.bedesign.co.uk or join the conversation on Twitter @B_E_Design #BESustainablePlacemaking.
