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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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Creating a Sustainability Action Plan: a new guide to making it work for your firm

By Kira L. Gould Hon. AIA posted 04-20-2021 08:28 PM

  

Creating a Sustainability Action Plan 

a new guide to making it work for your firm 

by Kira Gould 

The AIA 2030 Working Group has recently released a new guide, “Creating a Sustainability Action Plan that works.” This guide is meant for firms of all sizes who are starting or revamping their Sustainability Action Plans (and for those that did not know they needed one). The guide highlights how an SAP can—and should—be a living document that can help firms continuously improve. This is part of a firm’s path to delivering ever greater value to clients and advancing toward sustainability goals.  

This is a comprehensive guide, and it’s something that the group, which is currently co-chaired by Tate Walker, AIA, and Ashley Mulhall, AIA, has been working on for some time. The guide roots the approach to the Plan in change management concepts that are likely to be very helpful for many architects. The guide also includes copious resources and examples.    

Barbra Batshalom, who leads the Sustainable Performance Institute and helps many firms with change management, is also a member of the 2030 Working Group. Batshalom was a driving force behind the creation of the SAP guide. She points out that “the SAP is all about positioning your firm to be the best it can be, including how it is working toward broad climate goals. Those are the firms that will be the most competitive and deliver the most value. That’s what I believe the SAP guide can do for every firm out there, no matter its size or focus.”  

Andrew Cronin, AIA, of KieranTimberlake, is quoted in the guide regarding the impact that the firm’s SAP had internally: “Our Sustainability Action Plan helped define the scope for a new internal working group at KieranTimberlake called Beyond 2030. The group consists of approximately 15 people from different disciplines who focus on several themes to support our AIA 2030 Commitment pursuit. Subgroups formed within the working group help influence our design process, improve building operations in our office, expand internal training and education, advance advocacy and outreach, and support reporting on benchmarking and project data.” 

Gwen Fuertes, AIA, of LMSA, is also quoted in the guide. “There’s no such thing as a right or wrong or ‘perfect’ Sustainability Action Plan,” she says. “The only ‘wrong’ SAP is an SAP that is stagnant. Ours has evolved and transformed into an internal living document, which we have found to be a valuable tool in engaging members in the firm, adding ideas, and continuing our path to transform our practice.” 

 

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