3
OPINION
Following through on AIA 2030
While the symbolic act of signing a voluntary environmental commitment is important, action toward honoring it is more meaningful.
A s the reality of our climate crises becomes more stark, businesses, educational institutions, non-profits, and others who own or are planning new buildings are under increasing pressure to take action. Architectural firms and others who design buildings must be prepared to help them. Voluntary environmental commitments have become popular ways for architectural, design, and engineering firms to signal concern and promise action. However, data shows that only a small percentage of firms that have signed onto voluntary environmental commitments have achieved the stated emissions reductions and mitigation goals. In the spirit of shared commitment, this article describes some of the ways that FXCollaborative is trying to hold itself accountable to its environmental commitments and improve the impact of its work.
Dan Piselli,
AIA, LEED AP, CPHD
The American Institute of Architect’s AIA 2030 Commitment and A&D Materials Pledge are two prominent commitments. Recently, parallel efforts have arisen among structural engineers through the SE 2050 Challenge, system engineers with the MEP 2040 Challenge, and the Lighting Materials Pledge for lighting designers. These and other commitments have enabled many firms to join together to amplify climate urgency and rally around common mitigation targets.
Focusing on the AIA 2030 Commitment, architects understand that 40 percent of energy in the United States is consumed by buildings, and that our work plays a key role in reducing harmful emissions. The commitment’s main goal is to drastically reduce the predicted energy use intensity of new building designs to zero (with an allotment of renewable energy) by 2030. It is widely adopted among architectural firms; according to the AIA it has more
See DAN PISELLI, page 3
THE ZWEIG LETTER SEPTEMBER 19, 2022, ISSUE 1457
Made with FlippingBook Annual report