Employees have bid farewell to Semple Street, which had been Cundall’s Edinburgh office for the past ten years. The new office provides a workspace designed to support Cundall’s values of collaboration and excellence, together with a strong emphasis on employee wellbeing.

The office’s location, at the heart of Edinburgh’s city, makes it easily accessible for clients to visit and encourages sustainable travel due to its close proximity to transport links.

Commenting on the new office, John McLoughlin, partner at Cundall, said: “We are very excited to move into our new Edinburgh office. From the outset, we consulted with employees on their priorities and then created a collaborative and inclusive space with sustainable design principles at the centre.

“As sustainable design is core to our ethos, it was important that we led by example and pushed the boundaries of what was achievable in our office move. Inclusivity was also key to the design process; our ambition was to create a space where everyone felt welcome, and all needs were catered for.”

Cundall’s sustainability specialists developed a circular economy strategy and conducted whole-life carbon assessments at both the early design stage and post-completion. This approach maximised circular potential while significantly reducing whole-life carbon impact. Where possible, we prioritised material retention and sourced approximately 60% of materials and furniture from reclaimed sources.

As a result, the new Edinburgh office boasts exceptionally low embodied carbon, measuring 34 kgCO₂e/m² (GIA) at design stage, making it the lowest Category B fit-out project Cundall has delivered. Through our design considerations, we achieved a 41% reduction in upfront embodied carbon compared a design without sustainability features, along with an 87% reduction against the recently released UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard target for 2025 office fit-outs.

“Our approach to sustainable design was to start with lowering the embodied carbon of the office move as much as possible, and we have truly pushed the boundaries in doing that,” commented Alex Mar Morales, senior sustainability engineer. “While creating Rabobank London’s Circular Economy Strategy Statement, we identified an opportunity for our office to reuse some of their furniture which was no longer suitable for their purposes. This significantly reduced the embodied carbon of our office design and diverted furniture away from disposal.

“Our office move allowed us to discover new ways to reduce our environmental impact through design, while also preparing for future flexibility and adaptability to evolving workplace needs. We look forward to sharing these key learnings with our clients.”

In addition, Cundall’s sustainability team assessed which materials could be reused from the existing office which included the repurposing of glass partitions and reuse of existing furniture, floor tiles and kitchen equipment. New materials procured for the office were carefully scrutinised to ensure they were low-carbon and complied with the firm’s health and wellbeing materials guidelines, including low levels of Volatile Organic Compounds.

Cundall also took this opportunity to showcase several products from its own materials library.

Space Architects was appointed for the office design and shared Cundall’s ambition to create the most low-carbon office space possible.