Pictured from left to right: Beth Brant, Timothy Lock, and Lisa Richmond.
The Committee on the Environment (COTE) is thrilled to welcome three new Leadership Group members, each of whom will be an incredible addition to the team. Let’s learn a bit about who they are, what makes them passionate about design excellence, and resources and projects they love.
Beth Brant, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, LFA, is a Principal and Director of Sustainability at DSGN Associates, where she leads the firm’s commitment to regenerative design and the adaptive reuse of existing buildings. With over two decades of experience, Beth has built a career around transforming underutilized structures into resilient, high-performing places that honor their history while reducing environmental impact.
A recognized advocate for sustainable design, she has guided project teams through numerous LEED certifications and developed firmwide strategies that embed green building principles into every phase of design and construction. Through her work and advocacy, Beth continues to advance a more sustainable and equitable built environment—one that connects people, place, and purpose through thoughtful design.
WHY COTE?
“I’m thrilled to be part of the COTE Leadership Group and to further collaborate with my peers who are doing such incredible work across the country. I am particularly interested in advocating for and exploring how historic preservation and high-performance design can work together, creating a future where resilience, reuse, and sustainability are inseparable parts of architecture. Through my role on the COTE Leadership Group, I hope to advance strategies that make adaptive reuse and resilient design a natural, standard practice for our profession.”
RECOMMENDED DESIGN RESOURCES:
"Two resources that I often go to are the CARE Tool and the Zero Waste Design Guidelines. The CARE Tool helps teams compare the total carbon impacts of renovating an existing building versus constructing a new one, supporting smarter decisions around embodied carbon and building reuse. Complementing that, the Zero Waste Design Guidelines provide a clear framework for planning how waste will be managed based on project type and location, empowering architects and owners to design for higher efficiency and lower environmental impact. Together, these resources help project teams make more informed, climate-forward choices throughout the building lifecycle."
SPOTLIGHT PROJECT:
The Vickery Park Branch Library in Dallas, TX achieved LEED Gold, is 100% Carbon Neutral, and centers on community, equity, and creating a highly adaptable space.
Timothy Lock, AIA, is an architect, educator, and advocate leader in ecological design whose work advances a more resourceful and resilient built environment. As Management Partner at OPAL, he leads the firm’s largest and most technically demanding institutional projects, while guiding its overarching approach to climate action and building ecology. He is the author of The Dimensions of Building Ecology, OPAL’s proprietary design framework, which measures human impact across five key areas: emissions, materials, water, ecosystems, and human health.
Timothy’s work reflects a belief that architecture must be both ecologically grounded and socially transformational. His work includes many award-winning projects which integrate advanced energy performance with deep and broad ecological requirements.
WHY COTE?
“I am excited to continue years of volunteer service within AIA, first at the local level on the state of Maine Board of Directors and COTE Chair, then within the Strategic Council as chair of the Climate study group, and now with COTE LG. COTE has long been a beacon for many practices that feel urgency in addressing the climate crisis our shelters contribute to, and can therefore be part of a solution for. This has been the thrust of my career, and I look forward to continuing to help contributing to our healthy human ecology in this role”
RECOMMENDED DESIGN RESOURCES:
“This may seem like a left-field choice for a climate guy, but I would have to say The Collected Writings of Robert Smithson; Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber; and, for a purely architectural book, The Story of Upfront Carbon by Lloyd Alter.”
SPOTLIGHT PROJECT:
The COTE Top Ten award-wining Davis Center for Human Ecology at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, ME sets a new benchmark for future-oriented ecological academic buildings in far northern climates.
Lisa Richmond, Hon. AIA, is the founder of Climate Strategy Works LLC and a Senior Fellow with Architecture 2030. As a strategy and planning consultant, she works with NGOs and firms designing a sustainable future, supporting strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, climate justice and ESG work. As an advocate, writer and researcher, she advances critical principles of sufficiency, building reuse, and culture-informed climate action in global climate policy.
Lisa has committed her career to system-level change towards sustainable, equitable and livable communities. As Executive Director of the American Institute of Architects Seattle for 15 years, Lisa helped lead the association's national agenda on climate change mitigation and adaptation. She co-authored the AIA's national Climate Action Plan, launched national education programs including AIA+2030 and Materials Matter, and supported climate advocacy and education in AIA chapters across the US.
WHY COTE?
“There are two variables that contribute to the building sector's carbon emissions: how well we build and how much we build. No matter how much we improve efficiency and adopt low-carbon materials, we will continue to hit a ceiling unless we also right-size demand.”
RECOMMENDED DESIGN RESOURCE:
“I am a huge fan of Lloyd Alter's Substack, Carbon Upfront! Alter has been a champion of sufficiency and embodied carbon reduction for a long time, and his posts give thoughtful analyses of current data and trends. He focuses on systems as well as projects, which has encouraged me to look at urban form very differently.”
SPOTLIGHT PROJECT:
“Serving on the inaugural task force for the UNEP Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction’s new Sufficiency Hub has opened up new opportunities for me to advocate for sufficiency-first approach to design and development. There are many policy and practice strategies that address demand for resources like energy, materials, land and water from buildings and infrastructure while still ensuring a good quality of life for all people within planetary limits.”
Please join us in welcoming these new members and thanking them for their continued commitment to sustainability leadership!
Author bio: Katie Nordenson is the Communications Manager for BWBR, a firm specializing in complex, owner-occupied facilities in the healthcare, education, and science + technology markets for over 100 years. She has been part of the COTE communications team since 2024.