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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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, Stantec
Sustaining sponsors: GAF Roofing, Milliken, Andersen Windows, BlueScope Buildings
Green sponsors: EPIC Metals
Allied sponsors: TLC Engineering, Sierra Pacific Windows

  • 1.  the power of co-benefits thinking in design

    Posted 07-28-2021 11:20 AM

    The time to think differently is now. One person with some wisdom about how (and why) is architect (and public health scholar) Adele Houghton. Check out this great Q&A with Adele and Martin Pedersen in Common Edge:


    Houghton: "The co-benefits framework can help the design team and project stakeholders map out the reason each analytic tool is being used, what outcome it's benefiting, and how. From my perspective working in public health, this is a great benefit. It makes it easy for me to show team members how prioritizing a public health endpoint (like reducing outdoor air pollution) connects back to energy modeling, landscape design, and decisions about … operable windows. 


    https://commonedge.org/how-a-small-set-of-strategies-can-benefit-the-greatest-number-of-outcomes/ 



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    Kira Gould
    Principal
    Kira Gould CONNECT
    Oakland CA
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  • 2.  RE: the power of co-benefits thinking in design

    Posted 08-03-2021 10:47 AM
    Wonderful article, especially the graphics. I also recently watched a TED talk by Dr. Sawin, about what she terms "multi-solving". Same concept, different name. This is the thought process and awareness level we need to bridge silos and definitively benefit our complete systems and communities. It's a huge shift from decades of being taught that independence is paramount to realizing that interdependence is true strength and significantly less expensive and more impactful/effective.

    Additionally, I suggest using not only the term co-benefits, but the term co-burdens. In this way we can check our approaches to make sure we are maximizing the first, and minimizing the second. Often we plan an elegant and wonderful solution for our building, or project, and when we "zoom out" (check out our chat on Subject2Change - Sustainability with Eric Corey Freed at https://youtu.be/KtKWfm8BgBw ) we see that we are doing damage to our neighbors or to linked systems.

    Thanks for your work, Kira, and for sharing!

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    Jodi Smits Anderson AIA
    Director Sustainability Programs
    DASNY
    Albany NY
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: the power of co-benefits thinking in design

    Posted 08-09-2021 02:21 PM
    I watched the conversation with Eric Freed with interest. What struck me was the concept of "looking 5 feet beyond the building". In my view, that's called "city planning" or "urban planning" or "environmental planing". Unfortunately, in the years that transpired since I got my degrees, had a career and retired, the professional mindsets morphed into exclusive silos such that there has been very little coordination across the silos. Now, with unpleasant effects of climate change in our face, there is an urgent imperative to create the functional links that have been missing. But, with short-term money being the driver, I'm not particularly confident.

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    Michael Seaman Assoc. AIA
    Arden Arcade CA
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    Original Message