MICA is proud to announce our recent certification as a Benefit Corporation. As a practice that takes particular care to how our actions and ethos impact both our teams, building users and the wider environment, this is a key moment for MICA. It has given us the opportunity to reflect on our processes and to look to the future with a tangible way of measuring and ensuring our continued accountability.

Our dedicated team pulled together the evidence required for each section of the assessment, discussing with the wider office and, in parallel, considering where improvements could be made. At the end of the process, in May this year, we emerged with a high score of 103.7; a real achievement and a testament to the inherent ethos within the practice.

The impact assessment covers five key areas and how our business model, policies and processes address each.

Governance

It has always been the way at MICA that the practice, and the places and spaces that we design, impact society and the environment in a positive way. We commit wholeheartedly to this approach, looking to maximise our positive impact on society and minimise our impact on the environment.

“We treat our social and environmental impact as a primary measure of success for our business and prioritise it even in cases where it may not drive profitability”

As key threads that run through all our processes, we...

...take a robust and engaging approach to stakeholder engagement to ensure that all voices are heard

...ensure that we listen; that we are open and that transparency at all levels is encouraged

...set performance targets for managing both the social and environmental impact of our projects and review these to ensure that we stay on track

...have an embedded code of ethics to which each member of staff works within

Workers

MICA pride ourselves on being an equitable company that takes into consideration each valued member of staff’s personal requirements. Fair wages are offered at each level and continued personal development is encouraged and supported.

We are a close-knit team who work together to create a wonderful working environment – a key point that is reflected in our strong staff retention rates. We offer...

...fair and equitable wages at each level in line with the London Living Wage and professional benchmarking

...pension contributions through a company that offer a socially responsible investing option

...financial assistance if required

...health and wellness programmes for all members of staff

...continued professional development through the integration of events, CPDs and courses

...support if individuals want to change their career direction

...enhanced parental leave to promote and ensure equity

...flexible working in a hybrid arrangement to support each team member’s personal requirements and to promote a good work-life balance

Community

Being part of the communities in which our practice is based as well as those in which we work, is hugely important to us. This is reflected in our high score in this field which, while proud of, we will continually work hard to better. Embedded in our approach is a dedication to equity; both within our internal teams but also in how our projects can offer equitable and inclusive spaces for people to enjoy. This is shown through our...

...business model which prioritises positive benefits for stakeholders

...dedication to diversity, equity and inclusion in all aspects of our practice

...local ownership and rich history working in and around our Camden home

...team’s enthusiasm for advocating widely for the adoption of social and environmental policies in the profession

...involvement in charities which look to level the playing field and offer opportunities to all

...use of local suppliers wherever possible, both in our project specifications but also in the day-to-day running of our practice

...approach to ensuring that our supply chain meet our high expectations and have their own embedded social and environmental policies that chime with our own

Environment

MICA have a long and rich history of pushing the boundaries of environmental design, creating buildings that address the issues that we currently face and that look optimistically to the future. This carries through our work at all scales, from large infrastructure focused masterplans to individual buildings which meet the highest levels of sustainability and through to the specification of recycled building components and furniture elements. Our ethos and approach to the environment means that we...

...continuously work to ensure that the buildings and places we design meet the highest environmental standards

...develop strategies for omitting fossil fuels in all of our projects, looking to green energy sources and alternative technologies

...carry out research and studies on aspects such as urban greening, to improve our knowledge base and ensure that we are in a position to provide the best possible solutions

...have comprehensive environmental management policies for our office and virtual offices

...track our carbon footprint annually, carrying out an environmental impact assessment to determine our current position and look for ways to make improvements

Customers

At the heart of what MICA do are the people for whom we work to deliver engaging and joyous spaces. These spaces provide an inclusive framework for them to live, learn, experience, develop, enjoy and just be. They are our customers, and we do all that we can to offer them the highest possible quality of service and end product. We consider ourselves to be excellent listeners, a skill which allows us to make continuous improvements from one project to another. We work hard to...

...be long-term stewards for our customers, providing them with enduring buildings and spaces

...produce low energy, high quality buildings with excellent natural light and optimal internal environments that are accessible to all abilities

...ensure high levels of quality management in all that we do

...consider our customers every step of the way, from listening to their initial thoughts on a project, supporting them throughout the design and construction phases and, once a project is completed, determining satisfaction through engaging post-occupancy evaluation and lessons learned workshops

...learn from previous projects, using the knowledge gained from one to make ongoing improvements

MICA's B Corp journey

We had been tracking the possibility of becoming a B Corp for several months, having made our commitment to the Architects Declare: a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency back in 2019 and trying to establish concrete metrics to our actions to support the activities that we do as a practice in enacting our in-house Regenerative Design solutions matrix, and the RIBA Sustainable Outcomes Guide. The B Corp framework offered us a holistic way to evaluate our actions in-office and would be the right method to hold us accountable for positive progress across many years.

We’d also seen the scheme gaining recognition across the wider built-environment sector, with some of the developers and project managers whose ethics we admire gaining B Corp status too, and we were eager to solidify our place within that ethical community.

We had some early, useful conversations with friends at other practices who had recently been through the process, which gave us the courage to pass through the B Impact Assessment and see where our baseline score sat. We knew with our overall practice ethos, enhanced parental leave, strong wage offer, carbon footprint tracking since 2010, and established recycling and social value offers, that we were starting from a pretty strong base.

The core team of Victoria, Paul and Jessie shared the tasks of assessing impact, fitting it in between the usual busy architect’s schedule of project work, undertaking our first draft in the spring of 2023 where we were pleased to see that even with “business as usual” we came in well above the 80 point minimum to achieve B Corp status. We were supported by our office manager Maia and accounts Manger Annalisa who dealt with the financial and legal side of compliance. Ensuring that all at MICA were kept informed of progress and had the opportunity to offer feedback in the process, we reported to the office a couple of times throughout the assessment, collecting key data on aspects like percentage of project on brownfield sites, energy performance percentage improvement over building regulations and mixed-use developments.

We submitted our assessment in November 2023 and completed the update of our incorporation documents on Companies House in January 2024. Our B Corp Assessor Daniel, based on the west coast of the United States, was helpful and patient in flagging items that required additional supporting evidence, and guiding us to further guidance available from the B Corp Community, ultimately signing off on our application and passing it for approval in April 2024. In late May, just over a year after we had done our initial assessment, we received confirmation that our application had final sign-off and MICA were officially a B Corp.

What being a B Corp means to MICA

When we started our B Corp journey, we knew part of what it would entail and the benefits that it might bring but the process has highlighted to us just how much of an opportunity this is. An opportunity to grow, to develop and to ensure that how we operate and the work that we do has a truly positive impact. Being part of a global community working hard to ensure that their businesses are pushing forwards, meeting the highest possible standards and having a positive impact on society is really exciting and we will continue to strive to make improvements.