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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Starting a local COTE or sustainability group and need some guidance? Check out the AIA COTE Network Resources here.

A big thank you to our 2024 sponsors: 
Founding sponsors: Building Green
Premier sponsors: Sherwin-Williams
Sustaining sponsors: GAF Roofing, Milliken, Andersen Windows,
BlueScope Buildings
Green sponsors: EPIC Metals
Allied sponsors: TLC Engineering, Sierra Pacific Windows

New COTE Leadership: Kjell Anderson

By Kira L. Gould Hon. AIA posted 02-15-2021 06:35 PM

  

New COTE Leadership: Kjell Anderson 

By Hayley Wilson 

Kjell AndersonAIA, LEED Fellow, is a Principal and the Director of Sustainable Design at LMN Architects in Seattle with 20 years of sustainable design experience, leadership, and activism. He is the author of Design Energy Simulation for Architects (Routledge, 2014), the first book on architect-led energy simulation, and previously served on the AIA National Energy Leadership Group and the AIA National Energy Education Working Group. In 2019, Anderson was a co-signer to AIA Resolution 19-11: Resolution for Urgent and Sustained Climate Action, an experience that inspired him to apply to be part of the AIA COTE Advisory Group this year. 

“For the first time, we’re asking architects to design differently,” Anderson says of Resolution 19-11. He observes that over the last decade, with the AIA’s 2030 commitment, the release of LEED v.4, and the advent of software like Tally, information has become more accessible and usable to architects. That changed how we practice and track carbon and energy performance data, but it didn’t radically change how we design. He views the passage of Resolution 19-11 as a significant turning point in that regard, signaling that the AIA is becoming more serious about addressing climate change and willing to ask the average member to do the same. “I think the next few years are going to be extremely critical. We have an opportunity to set a policy framework that will either solve the problem or kick the can down the road to future generations.”  

Anderson believes that increasing architects’ engagement in the development of climate policies and building codes will be vital to our ability to be good stewards of the built environment. He has seen first-hand the positive impact architects can have on policy as the architect representative on the Washington State Building Code Council. “We’ve got to the point now where legislators [in Washington state] call architects more often regarding energy efficiency, and recognize the value we bring to code and design – it’s been a transformation in our state, one that the AIA played a part in leading,” he explains. “We need to make sure that the federal policies recognize the role of architects” and seek out the knowledge and expertise of our industry as new climate policies and building codes are developed. 

Anderson also hopes to expand the professions view of carbon in the built environment, something he believes will be possible through increased interdisciplinary collaboration. “We know a lot about embodied carbon in the envelope and structure of the building; we know a lot about energy and operation carbon. There is a lot of other carbon associated with buildings and designs that we don’t track. Since we work across disciplines to lead the design of the built environment, can we begin to understand an overall embodied carbon framework that allows us to assess what we’re doing and help our clients make better carbon-based decisions?” 

“Architects’ value is in envisioning the future,” Anderson adds. “We can change people’s minds and get them on board with new ideas.” 

Hayley Wilson is a marketing and communications strategist based in Portland, Oregon, where she is a Senior Marketing Coordinator at Hacker Architects. With a background in book publishing, she is extra passionate about visual and narrative storytelling, and is deeply invested in the work of crafting and sharing her teams’ design stories. 

 

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