Dear COTE Colleagues:
COTE Goes to Washington! The COTE Advisory Group (AG) met last month at AIA headquarters to set the priorities for this year and to take our message to Congress. Just prior to our meeting, the AIA Board and AIA Senior Leadership announced their intent to focus the Institute on climate action, resilience and sustainability. As Robert Ivy stated to the assembled AIA Board members and Committee leaders, “now is the time for bold action.”
Members of the COTE AG took the charge and met with members in both the Senate and the House, Democrats and Republicans. We urged Congressional leaders (see more detail in the Advocacy Update in this issue) to take action on climate change and to invest in sustainable, energy efficient and resilient buildings as part of the national infrastructure bill. We discussed the importance of the building sector in addressing climate change and requested their support in tax incentive programs for energy efficiency in both existing and new commercial and residential buildings. Carl Elefante’s article in this month’s newsletter highlights the importance of upgrading our existing building stock across the country. As part of this year’s agenda, COTE will continue to focus on advocacy efforts at the national, regional and local levels.
Our priorities for the year include the launch of the Top Ten Toolkit to members and partner organizations across the country, This effort has already begun with presentations by COTE members Tate Walker, Corey Squire, and Helena Zambrano in San Francisco, San Antonio, Dallas, and Philadelphia. On April 10, AIAU will also be hosting a live webinar on the Toolkit. We invite all members to join us at A’19 -- the AIA Conference on Architecture -- in Las Vegas for COTE Top Ten Toolkit sessions and the COTE Open Forum to learn more. (A full list of COTE and COTE-related sessions and events is in this issue.)
COTE will also be working with AIA to create a Framework for Design Excellence based on the Top Ten criteria. Our goal is to offer a broad framework to define sustainability and design excellence for all AIA members and our profession. This framework will provide a comprehensive and integrated resource for practice, research, education, awards programs, database, advocacy and outreach. This consistent framework will enable the full range of professional activities to be coordinated and connected towards the critical goal of reaching net zero carbon and designing a healthy, sustainable and regenerative future.
April 22 will be the 49th anniversary of Earth Day and COTE will honor the 2019 winners of the COTE Top Ten Green Buildings in the country as well as honor the winners of the COTE Top Ten Student Competition. As we reflect on this anniversary of Earth Day, we honor the legacy and impact of COTE’s leadership over the last 29 years and urge all 92,000 members of the AIA to join us in action to address climate change, reverse global warming, and secure a human future on this planet.
Sincerely,
Marsha Maytum, FAIA
