Dear COTE members,
It’s been a busy year already. On February 12, I testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee, advocating for education and support to further our energy efficiency goals and a zero-carbon future through the reduction of fossil fuel dependency. You can see the written testimony and see a video of the verbal brief here (2:06:30).
Earlier in the month, the Advisory Group met in Washington DC to build our strategy and refine our priorities for 2020, our 30th anniversary year. We were joined by AIA senior staff members from the Honors & Awards, Strategic Communications & Content, Sustainable Knowledge & Practice, and Advocacy & Relationships teams, who shared some major efforts underway to realize the Institute’s commitment to focus all of the AIA’s staff and resources on environmental stewardship.
The COTE Advisory Group recommitted to COTE’s signature programs, including outreach, education, advocacy, the COTE Top Ten Awards, the student competition, the continued development of the Framework for Design Excellence and Toolkit resources, and Institute awards alignment. We also recognize that with the current prioritization and focus on Climate Action and environmental stewardship at the AIA, this is a great time to clarify COTE’s mission, vision and goals. We’ve been thinking about what’s next, including carbon research and making it easy for practitioners to implement the AIA Climate Action Plan (CAP).
The annual Grassroots meeting of local component leaders and officers was this month, too: Stay tuned for more information about the 2021-2025 AIA Strategic Plan, the AIA CAP, and AIA brand resources to help architects advocate on behalf of our profession, all of which were previewed at this New Orleans gathering.
Julie Hiromoto
AIA 2020 COTE Chair