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

  • 1.  evolving design awards: the Common App

    Posted 11-08-2019 01:08 PM
    I have been asked a few times about efforts to evolve design awards, which is something that COTE has championed for years. In recent months, COTE leaders, including Anne Schopf and Corey Squire, have developed the Common App to help bring the measures (the AIA Framework for Design Excellence) into any design awards program, and streamline (and standardize) entry processes. This COTE initiative that is currently being beta tested by a few Knowledge Communities. 

    Here are some resources about the state of this effort:

    an overview of the effort ---

    Moving toward design awards that support climate action
    by Anne Schopf, FAIA, and Corey Squire, AIA
    from the COTE newsletter, August 2019
    https://network.aia.org/blogs/anne-schopf/2019/08/26/awards-alignment-the-common-app-a-tool-for-design?utm_source=RealMagnet&utm_medium=email&utm_term=38715258--c7e601fb-fd68-4044-a8a5-7e6b3da9be8b&utm_content=Committee%20on%20the%20Environment%20(COTE)--2019%20COTE%20newsletter%20-%20August&utm_campaign=Awards,%20Equity,%20and%20Alignment%20for%20Climate%20Change

    attached:
    a COTE memo about the Common App
    a PDF (static) of the Common App

    We will continue to update AIA members as this initiative develops. Already, numerous chapters have expressed interest or have begun to evolve their design awards programs to utilize this framework. 

    ------------------------------
    Kira Gould
    Principal
    Kira Gould CONNECT
    Oakland CA
    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)



  • 2.  RE: evolving design awards: the Common App

    Posted 11-20-2019 10:07 AM
    Thank you! This is very helpful as we plan our next Design Awards program.

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    Jeannette Schram
    Executive Director
    AIA Maine
    Portland ME
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  • 3.  RE: evolving design awards: the Common App

    Posted 11-25-2019 10:41 AM
    Thank you, Kira!  AIA Western Massachusetts will use these materials as we consider how to change our award programs.  

    Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham
    Senior Campus Planner
    University of Massachusetts Amherst
    Amherst, MA

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    Ludmilla Pavlova-Gillham AIA
    Senior Campus Planner
    University of Massachusetts
    Amherst MA
    ------------------------------