The discussion on climate change is not going away, even as President Donald Trump goes after California to force them to follow laxer guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on car emissions. As the fight to do more about climate change continues, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has made some notable moves this past month.
On September 5, it was announced that the AIA Board of Directors approved a landmark resolution that defines immediate and long-term efforts to engage the architectural profession in the fight against climate change. Resolution 19-11: Resolution for Urgent and Sustained Climate Action, was introduced by Betsy del Monte, FAIA, and 50 AIA members at AIA’s Conference on Architecture 2019 in Las Vegas this June, and calls for revisions to AIA public policies and position statements, while advocating for AIA to engage its full membership, clients, lawmakers and communities in a multiyear education, practice and advocacy strategy.
William Bates, FAIA, 2019 AIA president, said, “This is a defining moment for the Institute. We are making this our top priority in order to address the crisis our communities face. Moving the needle on this critical issue—that threatens the future of our planet and humanity—requires our firm commitment to achieving carbon neutral goals in the built environment and our immediate action. It’s imperative that the industry acts today.”
The new initiative calls on AIA to build on its more than 20 years of working to support the design of sustainable and resilient communities by establishing goals to support mitigation and adaptation using the tenets of the COTE Top Ten framework, which is now known as the AIA Design Excellence Framework. Initial efforts will focus on designing for energy, economy and equitable communities, with continued encouragement of firms to participate in the AIA’s 2030 Commitment. Additionally, AIA will also work to develop new programs and resources to support architects in fighting climate change.
Within days of the announcement of the approval of the resolution, AIA published a new report that reveals why architects and engineers will need to redouble their efforts to reach 2030 Commitment goals. The report, “2030 by the Numbers: The 2018 Summary of the AIA 2030 Commitment,” takes a look at the predicted energy use data in buildings from the 252 firms participating in the 2030 Commitment. The new data shows that while architects, engineers and owners are making progress to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings, they are falling short of program targets.
AIA EVP/CEO Robert Ivy, FAIA, said the findings of the new report underscore why it is imperative that AIA makes climate change a number one priority. “Architects are uniquely positioned to have a significant impact on climate action. AIA is committed to rallying the profession so that together we can make progress toward our net zero carbon goals by 2030. It’s critical that the architecture, engineering and construction industries come together to take action on this issue today.”
On Sept. 16, AIA outlined its initial path forward for the organization and profession in a declaration, Where We Stand: Climate Action. This new declaration expands upon the organization’s climate change values statement from 2017, and calls upon architects around the world to support humanity’s collective call to climate action through an unrelenting commitment to sustainable and resilient design. It also provides actionable steps to prioritize and support exponentially decelerating the production of greenhouse gasses and to make progress towards achieving net-zero emissions in the building sector by 2050.
“Climate change requires a holistic approach, addressing the interdependencies among people, buildings, infrastructure, and the environment,” said Bates. “Our training allows us to look for solutions and ways to mitigate climate change comprehensively and creatively, which we do every day.”
In this month’s Constructive Insights, Alan Scott goes into a further discussion on AIA’s climate initiative.
