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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Who we are

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.

Enjoy our latest on COTE news (and follow us on X and LinkedIn). 

To learn about the Framework for Design Excellence (formerly the COTE Top Ten Measures), click here.

Check out COTE's history and timeline. 

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

AIA President to COTE: “Don’t ask what will happen. Be what happens.”

By Linna JANE Frederick FAIA posted 01-21-2020 10:26 AM

  

Those are the words of historian and activist Rebecca Solnit. She was writing about another activist---young Greta Thunberg of Sweden—the teenage girl who has focused the world’s eyes on climate change. 


Member Activism: 

The Committee on the Environment has led the AIA’s sustainability efforts for 30 years and continues to charge ahead to lead what is happening. Thank you for your dedication, expertise, and action. 

 

Environmental Stewardship Commitment from AIA: 

In 2018, Carl Elefante took the pivotal step in naming climate change a priority – and pressed the full weight of AIA leadership into action. Bill Bates and the 2019 board built on that foundation – guiding us through the first phase of the new climate initiative. Thanks to their leadership and our members’ commitment, 2020 will be a year of action. 

The first big action for 2020 was focusing the operating plan and budget on our climate initiatives. Staff and volunteers are working together in our advocacy, outreach, and knowledge portfolios to create The Climate Action Plan which we will introduce at Grassroots in February.  

We are funding research on the return on investment (ROI) on carbon reduction in buildings. This will help us tell the story on why our clients should build net zero buildings. And speaking of telling the story – we will be running TV and social media ads from March through the November election educating the public about the fact that buildings contribute 40% of the carbon emissions. Our research shows that very few of the public knows this. 

Since it is hard to reduce what is not measured, we are in the process of modifying the DDx platform to collect data on embodied carbon. We are currently considering a minor enhancement in the DDx to allow users with embodied carbon information to report it in the current reporting cycle (closing 3/31/2020). We have the resources budgeted to develop a more robust embodied carbon reporting measure for the next reporting period. 

 

Advocacy:  

We are developing a 2020 Architect’s Platform which will feature climate action. We will share it with all the national candidates and highlight it at both the Democratic National Convention and the Republican National Convention. 

Since ‘all politics are local’ we are working with the U.S. Conference of Mayors to spread our climate action message. We are the top line sponsor at their annual summer meeting in Austin and will be on the main stage telling our story. And since the climate crisis is a global problem that we are working with international groups such as the United Nations and our architecture partners in Germany, Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries. 

AIA is thrilled to announce the success of our advocacy efforts on the Zero Code. AIA recently learned that we were successful in our efforts to adopt the Zero Code Renewable Energy Appendix at the International Codes Council (ICC). Facing an uphill battle, AIA and Architecture 2030 continued the fight to bring this model code adoption to fruition at the ICC level.  

On the legislative front, AIA was successful in procuring an extension (and retroactive treatment) of the 179D tax deduction to incentivize energy efficient design. The two spending packages recently approved by Congress include policies that support the design of resilient buildings as well as extend three energy efficient tax incentives between 2017 and 2020: the Energy Efficient Commercial Buildings Deduction (179D), the New Energy Efficient Home Credit (45L), and the Nonbusiness Energy Property Credit (25C). The AIA has been a longtime advocate for extending the tax incentives and has encouraged Congress to make them permanent as well as increase the 179D deductible amount from $1.80 per square foot to $3.00.  


COTE is the leader in promoting the 2030 Commitment, but I implore us to do better. In 2018, only 252 firms reported data to the 2030 Commitment’s Design Data Exchange (DDx). That is one percent of the architecture firms in the United States. Many might believe that it is too complicated or only for large firms. Not true! 10% of the firms reporting are under 10 people and are achieving an average predicted energy use (pEUI) reduction of 60%. 37% of the firms reporting are over 100 people with the average pEUI reduction of 46%. 

As leaders in climate action, I challenge all COTE members to get their firms to participate and report their data in the 2030 Commitment. You can sign up here. The 2030 Commitment is not for the 1%, it is for everyone. 

Just imagine the more beautiful, resilient, and sustainable future that we, the biggest design organization in the world will create when we tackle the biggest design problem in the world. By working together, we can do our part to create a world that is worthy of our children and grandchildren’s dreams. 

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