We have a few open spots on the AIA Virginia Committee on the Environment Steering Committee and would love for you to join us. Coordination meetings are held virtually on the 3rd Tuesday of each month. Contact info@aiava.org or dogden@aiava.org for more information.
The Committee on the Environment (COTE) is an AIA Virginia 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.
Visit The Committee on the Environment page here to learn more!
The AIA Virginia Committee on the Environment (COTE) has been awarded a Knowledge Community Grant to present the 2030 Challenge series this summer to the members of AIA Virginia.
To help advance the AIA’s overall climate goals, Virginia COTE seeks to elevate understanding of the AIA 2030 Commitment, among architects and designers, and provide an actionable framework towards meeting the challenge goal of carbon-neutral building by 2030.
Watch your inbox and www.aiava.org for upcoming details on these lunchtime viewings and discussions. All sessions will be offered at no charge to AIA Virginia members and be 1.25 to 1.5 elective LUs (pending.)
In a continuation of COTE’s Embodied Carbon 101 series, Virginia’s Historic Resources Committee presents “Embodied Carbon and Adaptive Use.”
Existing buildings represent significant investments in energy and resources, so it stands to reason that one of the best ways of reducing embodied carbon is to adapt and reuse them. Discover strategies for maximizing the potential of the already embodied carbon in existing building stock.
Virginia’s Committee on the Environment (COTE) is pleased to announce the launch of Embodied Carbon 101. The 12-part series is free and takes place weekly on Tuesdays from noon–1:30 p.m. Each segment of the series features pre-recorded content followed by discussion and Q&A period with a subject matter expert.
Embodied Carbon 101 is designed to help designers understand embodied carbon and immediately apply that knowledge to projects to reduce emissions and get to zero carbon.
Unlike operational carbon, which can be reduced during a building’s lifetime, embodied carbon is “locked in” as soon as a building is completed. Over 12 courses, you’ll learn how to measure, manage, and implement practical solutions from expert practitioners including architects and sustainable building product manufacturers. Buildings contribute about 40% of the world’s carbon emissions, and embodied carbon is a big slice of the pie. Let’s all do our part to get to zero together.
Learn how to integrate sustainability work into your firm’s standard practices and procedures.
In order to make true progress toward carbon reduction, carbon-thoughtful design must be part of the AEC industry’s standards and culture, instead of approached on a project-by-project basis. Hear from sustainability leaders representing a range of practices, including architecture, engineering and consulting, construction, and design/build firms who share the vision and infrastructure of their own firms’ sustainability and embodied carbon practice, and elaborate on how they arrived at a place where sustainable design and construction is built into their firms’ cultures. These leaders identify barriers to adopting carbon-thoughtful design and strategies for breaking down those barriers, including leveraging existing cultural and industry structures (for example: the AIA 2030 Commitment) and strengthening the connections between the existing values of firm leadership (for example: operational energy reduction; for example: materials and occupant health) and carbon reduction.
Presented by Virginia COTE with support from AIA Virginia’s Knowledge Community Grant program and the following sponsors:
Learn how to speak with clients and collaborators about embodied carbon to demonstrate the value of and pathways to reducing its impacts.
Addressing embodied carbon in one’s practice requires strategy, communication, and collaboration. This course addresses how AEC practitioners can speak with clients and collaborators about embodied carbon to demonstrate the value of reducing embodied carbon and to provide pathways to reduce its impacts in projects and the environment. Learners will hear from sustainability professionals whose practices represent traditional architectural firms, large engineering and consulting firms, and small design/build practices who share approaches to reducing embodied carbon in cooperation with clients, including: managing client choices by selecting and presenting low embodied carbon materials and designs; marketing and external communications; making the economic case for use of low embodied carbon materials and designs; drawing parallels between embodied carbon and materials and occupant health; and developing mutual goals and values with clients and project teams from the early stages of a project.
Presented by Virginia COTE with support from AIA Virginia’s Knowledge Community Grant program and the following sponsors:
Learn to evaluate and leverage certifications and commitments for the greatest impact.
Take a closer look at how embodied carbon is incorporated—or will be incorporated—into sustainability programs for the industry and how carbon-thoughtful design is streamlined or incentivized through these programs. The course begins with a look at the established AIA 2030 Commitment, its success in addressing operational energy, and its next iteration, which will include embodied carbon. The AIA 2030 Commitment discussion is followed by an introduction to the SE 2050 Commitment, which is an embodied carbon-focused commitment born out of the Structural Engineering Institute, to be launched in November 2020.
After looking at example commitments, the course introduces the International Living Future Institute’s Zero Carbon Certification, a relatively new certification that looks holistically at operational energy and embodied carbon. And, following Zero Carbon, the Passive House certification is introduced, suggesting ways that practitioners can account for embodied carbon while pursuing this performance-focused certification. Through discussing four major industry sustainability programs, this course will help practitioners to distinguish where embodied carbon is built into certifications and commitments, and where embodied carbon considerations might need to be engineered into design and certification processes for holistic carbon reduction. AEC practitioners will receive the knowledge to evaluate and leverage certifications and commitments for the greatest impact.
Presented by Virginia COTE with support from AIA Virginia’s Knowledge Community Grant program and the following sponsors:
Examine various aspects of certification programs including their incorporation of embodied carbon considerations.
Our built environment is not as sustainable, healthy, safe, equitable or inclusive as it needs to be. As design professionals we have the ability to address the global climate crisis and influence health and well-being. Health is a growing concern for homebuyers, designers, and builders alike. Building professionals are not health professionals, but we have more influence on people’s health than we may realize. We also have tools to help influence building systems and components which impact not only health, but embodied carbon and operation carbon outputs. The course includes comparisons of Indoor airPLUS, Enterprise Green Communities, LEED for Homes, Passive House, Living Building Challenge, WELL Building Standard, Fitwel, and the Active Design Guidelines. The course explores the benefits and drawbacks to using certification programs, looks at the influence they’ve had on code, and discusses their impact on our built environment—including the ways that embodied carbon considerations do or don’t factor into each program.
Presented by Virginia COTE with support from AIA Virginia’s Knowledge Community Grant program and the following sponsors:
