By Jesse Walton, AIA, and Daniel Overbey, AIA
As we work toward the AIA 2030 Commitment’s goal of net-zero emissions, we encourage our community of +1400 signatory firms to submit their project data to the AIA Design Data Exchange (DDx) by March 31, 2025. Reporting your firm’s predicted Energy Use Intensity (pEUI), fuel sources, renewables, and embodied carbon data is essential for tracking our collective progress.
While we have seen remarkable growth on multiple fronts—such as increases in embodied carbon reporting and an increasing proportion of projects featuring on-site renewables, our collective pEUI reductions have plateaued at 50%. As our focus expands to include Operational Carbon Intensity (OCI) and Embodied Carbon Intensity (ECI), a shared responsibility to measure and reduce our impact remains at the fore.
If your firm has not done so before, consider reporting pEUI along with fuel sources to enable the DDx to calculate your OCI (most energy modeling programs can readily export fuel source data).
New for this reporting cycle, the DDx features ECHO project alignment on embodied carbon reporting and an Embodied Carbon-Only project page is available for firms dedicated to Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment (WBLCA). This allows the DDx to include projects with scopes that may not have an OCI.
As Edward Mazria said in his recent “Countdown to 2030” article “As we face an uncertain environmental future, the role of architects, planners, and designers has never been more critical.”
Please report by March 31, 2025! Questions? Contact 2030Commitment@aia.org