Teddington-based architectural practice WR-AP won the Innovation Award at the 2022 Lord Mayor’s Dragon Awards for a project with The Kingston Academy to mentor and coach 16 pupils through a live design process, showing how businesses can make a difference to young people by giving them a voice on local regeneration matters. Early on in the practice’s life, WR-AP’s founders Sean Weston and Max Rengifo knew they wanted the business to have a social impact. We spoke to them to find out more about their responsible business initiatives.

They are a publicly-driven practice: they work on lots of local authority and public projects, enjoying community engagement and speaking to the public, understanding how through their work, they can make a difference.

But they also knew they needed to consider social impact to stay competitive. When WR-AP is bidding for work, they are always asked what social and environmental credentials they have, and what social good they will bring to a project. This is especially true for public sector contracts, which WR-AP does a lot of.

Caring for their people 

Having happy employees is important at WR-AP. As a new business, the founders knew they could embed a working culture that cares for people – they go against the usual long hours that people can experience in the architecture world. They do not put pressure on employees to work in this way and Sean has found that people really enjoy that balance. They also offer healthcare, flexible working and volunteering time, and Sean believes that these responsible business initiatives help them to keep people in the business. Employees at WR-AP are young in their careers and they are very proud that since they started up in 2018, none of their employees have left to join other practices! “We must be doing something right” says Sean.

Changing to help the environment

As a result of working with Heart of the City, WR-AP now uses fully green energy, recycled paper and have made some small changes that have a big impact on their carbon footprint. They have changed things like their usual coffee and soap to refillable ones from the local refill shop on the high street in Teddington – a win-win on reducing their environmental impact and supporting a small business!

The coffee swap has been less straightforward. WR-AP now uses reusable aluminium pods for their Nespresso machine, which has seen coffee consumption reduce a little as it takes longer to make a coffee now. It’s more work, but a longer break, and Sean says most people have come to terms with the change.

But it’s not just the workplace they are changing, it’s their client work too. They have made a green guide for domestic clients and offer house audits to help clients reduce the impact their home projects have on the environment.

Staying involved in the community

The community is central to lots of WR-AP’s work, so they are already supporting local people by involving them in projects that will improve their lives, and by including hours of community support in bids. All employees also have volunteering time they can use together and individually. Sean is a trustee at a local educational trust, and once a year the entire team does a volunteering day together. Last year they were at Ham Lands nature reserve for some large-scale gardening and upkeep – a great way to get together, support the community and improve team wellbeing. This year the volunteering day is employee-led, with a vote on what to do imminent.

Winning the Dragon Award

The team at WR-AP are really proud to have won the innovation award at the 2022 Lord Mayor’s Dragon Awards, for work involving young people in a local regeneration project. They gave 16 young people (many of them from disadvantaged backgrounds) lots of real work experience that they would not have otherwise had access to, and by winning, WR-AP hopes they will inspire other small businesses.

Sean said “We’re immensely proud to have won this award as it shines a light on SMEs having a social impact in their communities. When WR-AP was set up we wanted to make an impact and contribution in the community where the practice is based. This award gives us the validation that this founding principle was the correct one and we’re looking forward to making a greater social impact by rolling out the initiative to benefit young adults on other regeneration projects.”