Our 2024 positive impact report
We can’t believe it has been a year since Buttress was certified as a B Corp.
It has certainly been a busy year, taking what we’ve learned so far and embedding that into our business and culture.
We are proud to launch our first BImpact report as a reflection on our first year, celebrating where we are and where we are going. We’d like to share our journey, and bring you with us. Think of it as part update, part talking point, and part call to action.
Becoming a B Corp
Becoming a B Corp is the start, not the end of our commitment to take ongoing and meaningful steps towards creating a more sustainable future for our practice, our projects, and the communities we serve.
From the outset we recognised that our journey to becoming a B Corp should build on what we were already doing. Buttress has always been a people focused business. We look after our colleagues and treat everyone as stakeholders in our business. Many of our own initiatives were already very well aligned with being a B Corp.
As a practice, we believe in the power of architecture, whether it’s building new or conserving our heritage, to change people’s lives for the better. It’s the idea of making the best of our culture and human creativity, ensuring that it is available to future generations in a way that is tangible, legible, and can have a positive impact.
B Corp was a way that we could bring all of these activities together. We researched and talked to other like-minded businesses and realised that our clients needed us to clearly demonstrate our Environmental, Social and Governance credentials. We liked that B Corps was a measure of trust and authenticity, holding us to account and helping us continuously improve.
We launched our B Corp journey about a year before certification and harnessed the enthusiasm of our colleagues who provided us with lots of ideas for where we could focus our impact. Our entire practice has helped to make this happen, and every individual will continue to play an important role in our long-term sustainability commitment.
Certification was one of the most rigorous and detailed processes we’ve ever been involved with and one that has really challenged us to think about the evolution of the practice. It’s hard work, deep rooted and hugely valuable in equal measure.
Governance
B Corp certification provides us with a framework which we’ve organised our business around, it’s given us a focus for improving our environmental performance, social impact and the way we manage our business. Each B Corp pillar has a hub, a group of people with the right skills to contribute to its development. The members are taken from across the studio to ensure a diversity of opinion and an attitude that the ‘best idea wins’.
People
The most important part of our business is our people. Our Buttress culture is open, inclusive and friendly. We celebrate success and work through challenges together. We look out for each other’s health and wellbeing whilst supporting career development through formal and informal learning, including coaching and mentoring by trained colleagues. We are committed to creating a working environment that is open and nurturing.
Community
We are conscious of the ability we have as architects to create a positive impact and do good through the integrity of our actions: our actions on the environment, community and social issues, through our teams and our customers. We recognise that delivering effective social value needs to be born out of an internal culture that fosters the same values. Our culture and values run through not only the relationships we have with one another, but also in creating authentic relationships with the people we work with. We work as a team.
Environment
We think sustainability needs to be part of our everyday and not ‘something else’ to have the biggest effect. We recognise the unique position we have to advocate for reduced carbon and the circular economy, sustainable sourcing, and improved biodiversity on the projects we design. We also aim to continuously reduce the direct impact of our company’s operation. We measure and report our environmental impact annually through PlanetMark. Maximising the positive environmental impact of our operations is a process of gradual improvement.
Customers
Working across the whole of the UK, we know that 58% of our work is with purpose driven clients. They are typically non-profit organizations, charities, government organisations etc. This means we have a significant responsibility to develop successful outcomes for our customers. Whether working with us as a client, community, team member or peer we believe we are at our best when we approach design as a collective, collaborative process.
Our B Impact score
We are proud of the focus and commitment of the team to move to B Corp. Our Impact score of 81.4 became our immediate starting point. Every year we want to make positive improvements to our business that build on our already strong start.
celebrating our positive impacts
Greenhaus completes
The largest Passivhaus affordable housing scheme in the North West completes in Salford.
Meet us at Not Quite Light Festival
We'll be hosting the 'City Designers, Builders and Adapters' workshop at the Not Quite Light Festival in Salford on Saturday 16 March from 10am to 2pm.
Work starts on-site for housing for the homeless in Salford
Work has started on a site at Eccles New Road, Salford, to build eight new move-on homes for the homeless.
Project voices: Brunswick
We are people, designing spaces for people. Our latest project voices are from Brunswick Village in Manchester.
Matthew Burl
Matthew is an architect and director at Buttress who has led the successful design and delivery of new build and refurbishment projects across a range of cultural, academic and community-led sectors, both regionally and internationally.
He also coordinates the practice's sustainability activities and has led Buttress' B Corp journey helping the company achieve certification at the end of 2022.
Grace Avery
Grace manages and oversees daily operations in our Manchester and Leeds studios.
Marcus Rogers
Marcus is an architectural technologist who supports the technical design of a number of complex developments within our residential team.