From left: Bergmeyer President Mike Davis, FAIA; Building Codes Assistance Project President Maureen Guttman, AIA; AIA 2018 President Carl Elefante, FAIA; Velux Group Vice President, Stakeholder Communications & Sustainability, Ingrid Reumert; Chief Technology Officer Jan Ryderstam
By Mike Davis, FAIA
AIA promotes AIA 2030 Commitment on a world stage, says US policymakers must do more
At the Alliance to Save Energy’s 2018 EE Global Forum in Copenhagen, AIA President Carl Elefante, FAIA, called on architects, industries governments to do more to achieve a carbon neutral built environment by the 2050 deadline.
Elefante moderated a panel discussion where architects and industry leaders examined how we can better support carbon-reduction goals. The conversation focused on designing high-performance buildings, retrofitting the existing building stock, promoting renewable energy, reducing embodied carbon, and utilizing AIA’s 2030 Commitment program.
“The United States and Europe have made significant strides when it comes to designing high-performance buildings, but we face real challenges in retrofitting the existing building stock,” said Elefante. “Overcoming this is critical to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. The time is now for our governments to implement effective programs, policies incentives that will allow manufacturers, designers and specifiers to make progress towards a sustainable future.”
AIA COTE urges FEMA to retain climate change language in plan
Acting in response to Member concern that the basis for policy-making at FEMA was becoming politicized, 640 member-firms signed a letter to the Administrators of the Federal Emergency Management Administration urging them to retain the term “climate change” in FEMA’s strategic planning. Stating that the elimination of words that define “a real and present danger to the future health of people on this planet will do nothing to further the Agency’s mission to mitigate the effects of disasters”, the letter was delivered by AIA Government Relations in early August. AIA COTE intends to use this document as evidence of the AIA’s deep and abiding support for FEMA in our advocacy efforts to retain federal funding for pre-disaster mitigation and post-disaster recovery funding.