Committee on the Environment

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ALBION DISTRICT LIBRARY BY PERKINS + WILL IS A 2018 COTE TOP TEN RECIPIENT. IMAGE: DOUBLESPACE PHOTOGRAPHY

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The Committee on the Environment (COTE®) is an AIA Knowledge Community working for architects, allied professionals, and the public to achieve climate action and climate justice through design. We believe that design excellence is the foundation of a healthy, sustainable, and equitable future. Our work promotes design strategies that empower all AIA members to realize the best social and environmental outcomes with the clients and the communities they serve.

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Architecture's big implications and possibilities

By Kira L. Gould Hon. AIA posted 03-21-2019 11:56 AM

  

Victor Olgyay, AIA, LEED AP, says that he has focused his career on “making buildings part of the climate solution.” He’s a principal at Rocky Mountain Institute, and now he’s bringing his perspective to the AIA Committee on the Environment. He is a new Advisory Group member this year.


“I’ve always been more interested in the implications of architecture than the aesthetics per se,” he says. “I dwell on the E.F. Schumacher side of things.” (The late German economist’s 1973 book, Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered, has been hailed as hugely significant; for sustainability thinkers, it is a classic.)


Olgyay and the Buildings Practice of Rocky Mountain Institute have been leading an initiative to responsibly and cost effectively decarbonize the built environment by 2050. This includes encouraging deep energy retrofits, providing existing buildings, districts, cities, and portfolios a path to zero energy and carbon,and scaling impact by blending thought leadership with pilot projects and providing replicable proof points to industry. Olgyay has a wide range of experiences in architectural design and planning, and brings specializations in bioclimatic building and daylighting design to his work.


Olgyay says that engaging in COTE seemed appropriate and important at this time. “I think COTE has a great brand and great people. There is an opportunity for influence,” he says. “A big part of the answer to the carbon question is to advance the retrofit of buildings as much as possible and green the grid. These are good for business solutions that contribute to decarbonization. COTE and its AG can work to push these areas in a meaningful way.”


Rocky Mountain Institute has been active in retrofitting buildings for many years. “We did a lot of proof of concept projects to show how we could scale up,” Olgyay says. “Now we are developing the business case and value propositions for buildings to interactively integrate with the grid, working with NREL, DOE, and others. We are working on portfolios and district-level projects. Many of these include vast amounts of square footage and they have large-scale impacts that involve replicability, utility grid implications, and local job markets.” A recent article that Olgyay co-authored for Renewable Matter, “Grid-Interactive Buildings: Good for Business and the Environment” highlights the business benefits of grid-interactive buildings.


On the advocacy side, Olgyay is in conversations with his U.S. Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) to encourage tax code amendments that would include more incentives for retrofits. “The market can spur the adoption of high performance buildings, but to meet our carbon targets for buildings on time we also need supportive public policy” said Olgyay,  “I am excited to work with the COTE advocacy team to promote effective, bipartisian legislative solutions.”

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