OTWO Magazine July 2020 | Page 45

us not forget that holistic planning is key to success, as it sets out a shared vision for the development of Gibraltar in the local and global context. During the design phase, Ocean Heights can be established as a ‘living laboratory’ for a research project in order to apply the aforementioned, provide collaborative innovation guidance, monitor energy and water usage and technology performance, monitor satisfaction level of the residents and allow for sharing learnings with the local industry, Government and the wider global community. Ensuring that experts in relevant fields, including town planning, landscaping, architecture and sustainability form part of a core project team from the outset of any project is crucial to facilitate a comprehensive approach and allow for knowledge-sharing in respective fields in order to solve the often-complex issues connected to the design, construction and operation of sustainable buildings. It is at the project appraisal stage that such matters should be incorporated into a project in order to allow a building’s environmental performance to become an objective that can be balanced against other project’s objectives, yet in reality this happens very rarely and common practice tends to be to address sustainability at later stages when many of the opportunities to make a difference are reduced to some extent or another, or no longer available without incurring significant costs and delays to the project. To find out more about the SDGs and how they can be incorporated at early stages of construction projects, or learn about the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of a building (existing or new build) and for assistance in producing Sustainability Assessments (SA), LCAs and other specialist reports visit www. planning.vision, call 20065888 or email [email protected] and speak to one of our specialists today. Why wait until it is too late? Reduce, Reuse & Recycle Underlining focus upon locally sourced, renewable materials, upcycling, retrofitting, the use of art and technology and changing perception around waste via innovation. OTWO 12 / JULY 2020 43