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Architects as Translators, not Evangelists: Sustainability in the Texas Hill Country

By Ellen Mitchell, AIA posted 2 days ago
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Located deep in the heart of Texas where prairies begin to give way to rugged limestone cliffs and clear rivers cut through dry land, the Texas Hill Country is easy to romanticize. But practicing architecture here means respecting limits – water is not guaranteed and heat is not theoretical. Often, the gap between what a client wants and what a project can afford can be as expansive as the wide-open sky. When sustainability leaders like me talk about opportunities in the built environment, we often start with things like EUI targets, decarbonization strategies and building performance metrics. But in the Texas Hill Country, sustainability doesn’t show up ...
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COTE Book Series: Upcoming & Past Reviews & Talks (including recording links)

By Kira Gould, Hon. AIA posted 11 days ago
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COTE Books: A Series of Reviews & Talks we typically review & host talks about 3-4 books per year virtual events are hosted by local or state COTE groups interested in being a host or suggesting a book? email Kira Gould at kiragould@kiragould.com 24 February 2026 / 12-1pm ET - upcoming Climate Adaptation for Architects: A Design Toolkit (Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2025) links to join: AIA members / non AIA members Author: Allison Anderson, FAIA Reviewer: Megan Recher Campos, AIA, in COTE news Jan/Feb 2026: post Host: AIA North Carolina COTE + AIA Triangle ...
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Q1 Cote Network Reminder

By Sean Costello, AIA posted 23 days ago
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COTE Chapter Leaders, Happy Friday! This is a friendly reminder that our Q1 AIA COTE Network Call is scheduled for Tuesday, February 3rd at 2:00 PM ET . We’re looking forward to connecting and hearing updates from your chapter! Action Required: Please update your chapter’s slide in the shared Google Slides deck with the following: Highlights from 2025 : Key accomplishments, initiatives, or events. Goals for 2026 : What your chapter is planning or aiming to achieve. Google slide Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1OB5zhFl2_fo5MdPLadWR6M1nUB919RqO/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117172739344110297076&rtpof=true&sd=true ...
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Missed It Live? Watch the 2025 AIA COTE Top Ten Showcase On-Demand!

By bruce boul posted 24 days ago
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If you weren’t able to join us live, we’ve got you covered. Yesterday’s AIA COTE Top Ten 2025 Showcase brought together project teams from across the country to share the thinking, rigor, and outcomes behind last year’s Top Ten Award–winning projects—each demonstrating what’s possible when sustainability, equity, and performance are treated as foundational design drivers, not add-ons. Hosted by HMC Architects on behalf of the AIA COTE Communications Committee, the webinar offered a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how these projects respond to climate action, community needs, and real-world constraints—while still delivering inspiring architecture. ...
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Voices of Advocacy: Chris Hellstern

By Lisa Richmond, Hon. AIA posted 29 days ago
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An interview with Chris Hellstern, AIA, about Washington’s Buy Clean Buy Fair, the importance of alliances, and why architects make great advocates. Lisa Richmond and Joyce Raybuck A Career Built Around Sustainability “I’ve been working in sustainability for about 20 years. I’m a licensed architect, but my role at Miller Hull is primarily as our Living Building Challenge and Sustainability Director, which lets me touch many projects. To make broader change, I also serve on AIA CCADE, AIA COTE , AIA Washington and other committees, with a strong policy focus on embodied carbon.” Washington’s Policy ...
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AIA Statement on U.S. withdrawal from UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

By Lisa Ferretto, AIA posted 01-12-2026
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AIA responds to U.S. withdrawal from United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Statement below from www.aia.org/statement-us-withdrawal-unfccc Linked in post ___ " WASHINGTON, D.C. - January 9, 2026 The United States withdrawal from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), and several other treaties is deeply troubling, and leaves communities around the world more vulnerable to the real impacts of climate change and unsustainable development. The global response will continue without us-as it ...
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Fresh Perspectives: Meet Your Incoming COTE Leadership

By Katie Nordenson posted 12-11-2025
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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 ...
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[Webinar] AIA COTE Top Ten 2025 Showcase: Celebrating Sustainable Design Excellence

By Lindsey Falasca, AIA posted 12-08-2025
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Join us for an inspiring showcase of the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) Top Ten 2025 Award Winners . The COTE Top Ten is the industry’s premier recognition program for sustainable design excellence. This pecha kucha-style webinar will highlight the winning projects from 2025, exploring how architects are pushing boundaries to create buildings that are not only beautiful and functional but also resilient and deeply responsive to their communities and the environment. What: Webinar to learn more about each of the 2025 award winners When: Tuesday, January 27, 2pm ET How: Register here! (Get a sneak preview of the projects here) ...
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Letter from the Chair: Where do we go from here? The critical quest to widen the circle.

By Ellen Mitchell, AIA posted 12-08-2025
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2025 was a tough year for sustainability. Federal incentives were repealed, renewable energy projects stalled, and even our language around environmental issues came under increased scrutiny. The sense of momentum we had been building over the last decade suddenly slowed, and many in the profession were left asking: Where do we go from here? As the national landscape grew more uncertain, a familiar refrain grew louder: we must now focus our efforts on a more local level. The advice is simple enough - talk to your neighbors, engage your community, step outside your bubble – but I’ve come to realize that this is much more complex than it sounds. It ...
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Together for a Living Future

By Kira Gould, Hon. AIA posted 12-03-2025
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Together for a Living Future By Kira Gould, Hon. AIA As you consider the learning and gathering opportunities in the year ahead, I’m here to remind you about Living Future . This year, it is in Seattle -- the Pacific Northwest was the first home to the organization and its leading-edge certification program, the Living Building Challenge (which turns 20 later this year -- two decades of pushing boundaries and lifting standards! ). Most of you know me as a COTE community member, but I am also a member of Living Future. As such, I’m eager to share a bit about why I will be at Living Future 26 in April in Seattle. For starters, I’m ...
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COTE Book Review: What We Can Do Right Now: Allison Anderson’s Climate Adaptation for Architects: A Design Toolkit

By Kira Gould, Hon. AIA posted 12-03-2025
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Please join us for the COTE book talk about this book – with the author, Allison Anderson, FAIAI, and the reviewer, Megan Recher Campos, AIA – on 24 February 2026, from 12-1pm Eastern Time. The virtual event is being hosted by the AIA North Carolina COTE with AIA Triangle COTE. Register here . COTE Book Review What We Can Do Right Now Allison Anderson’s Climate Adaptation for Architects: A Design Toolkit by Megan Recher Campos, AIA The increasing number of natural disasters worldwide makes investing in adaptation and resilience critical to the future of the design profession and the built environment. Sometimes it can be overwhelming ...
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Share your Circular Economy Example Case Study

By Kjell Anderson, FAIA posted 12-03-2025
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HI everyone - As you know, the circular economy space doesn’t have a long list of published case studies, so practitioners are not able to cite examples. We’d love to hear about your example! Some of us have created a brief survey, perhaps 5 minutes per project if you have the information handy. Most of the questions are not required to finish the survey, so feel free to skip them if it’s keeping you from submitting one of your projects. What case studies are relevant? This survey focuses on projects that engage in any kind of product salvage, reuse, or both. What will we use this for? This may be used for many things, from asking people to participate ...
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Q4 COTE Network Reminder

By Sean Costello, AIA posted 11-07-2025
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Dear COTE Chapter Leaders, Happy Friday! This is a friendly reminder that our Q4 AIA COTE Network Call is scheduled for Tuesday, November 18th at 2:00 PM ET . We’re looking forward to connecting and hearing updates from your chapter! Action Required: Please update your chapter’s slide in the shared Google Slides deck with the following: Highlights from 2025 : Key accomplishments, initiatives, or events. Goals for 2026 : What your chapter is planning or aiming to achieve. Google slide Link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1OB5zhFl2_fo5MdPLadWR6M1nUB919RqO/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=117172739344110297076&rtpof=true&sd=true ...
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November 2025 AIA Corporate Partners COTE Newsletter Article: ROCKWOOL

By Ellie Falcon posted 11-03-2025
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A systemic approach to retrofits: The benefits of incorporating stone wool How to choose the right approach and materials for retrofits, from AIA partner Rockwool. ROCKWOOL North America Each retrofit project is a unique and complex undertaking with its own history, conditions, and performance challenges. Taking a holistic approach that accounts for not only the project's goals, but also how all building systems will work together over the long term, will ensure it meets and exceeds modern energy efficiency and fire performance standards, and offers durability for decades. And choosing the right materials, like stone wool insulation, is a critical ...
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In Memory of Ganesh Nayak, AIA

By Ellen Mitchell, AIA posted 10-27-2025
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If we’re lucky, we have people who come into our lives in big and small ways that leave deep and lasting imprints on who we are and how we view the world. Ganesh Nayak, AIA was one such person for me. I will be forever grateful for the time we spent together on the COTE Climate Action–Climate Justice working group, which was the force behind Climate Justice in Architecture . To this effort, Ganesh brought a spirit of generosity, a clarity of purpose, and an infectious joy. He could see the big picture, recognizing that good design must not only be sustainable but also equitable and just. Going into this, I thought I knew what terms like justice and equity ...
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Letter from the Chair: November / December 2025

By Robin Puttock, AIA posted 10-21-2025
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The 2025 COTE goals that we drafted back in January are strikingly similar to the goals I have for my students. Collaboration. Transformation. Excellence. It has been my distinct honor and privilege to lead this remarkable group of professionals this year and to amplify the voices at the local level and those in academia. As I look forward to the inspirational and astute leadership of COTE’s incoming chair, Ellen Mitchell, I would like to take a moment and reflect on what we all have achieved this season, which coincidentally, is also a practice that I try to instill in my students. At COTE , our mission is simple: to leverage design to improve life for current ...
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Share Your Stories – COTE Network Spotlight Program

By Lindsey Falasca, AIA posted 10-16-2025
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COTE is excited to launch a new COTE Network Spotlight Program and is seeking compelling examples of programs, initiatives, and advocacy efforts led by local, regional, or state COTE groups that have made a meaningful impact in advancing sustainable design excellence. We want to hear from you! Share your stories HERE . Submissions should highlight tangible results from programs implemented during calendar year 2025 and clearly demonstrate how these efforts align with one or more of the Framework for Design Excellence measures. This initiative aims to elevate and amplify the impactful work of local COTE groups. Submissions will be featured throughout ...
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Local COTE Spotlight: A Decade of Climate Dialogue in Western North Carolina

By Lindsey Falasca, AIA posted 10-13-2025
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Across the country, AIA COTE state and local chapters are driving meaningful climate action through advocacy, public education, and community-centered engagement—advancing local resilience and sustainability. This spotlight series showcases specific initiatives designed to inspire and empower COTE groups nationwide to take action and lead climate solutions in their own communities. — When AIA Western North Carolina (WNC) Committee on the Environment (COTE) launched its first Climate Symposium in 2014, it set out to answer a timely question: How can architects design in harmony with a changing climate ? The event’s tagline, Climate Adaptive Design: ...
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Local COTE Spotlight: Advancing Building Energy Leadership in New Orleans

By Lindsey Falasca, AIA posted 10-13-2025
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Across the country, AIA COTE state and local chapters are driving meaningful climate action through advocacy, public education, and community-centered engagement—advancing local resilience and sustainability. This spotlight series showcases specific initiatives designed to inspire and empower COTE groups nationwide to take action and lead climate solutions in their own communities. — For more than a decade, the City of New Orleans has sought to strengthen its building energy policies, an effort long championed by members of the AIA New Orleans Committee on the Environment (COTE). In 2025, those efforts came to fruition with the passage of the city’s ...
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COTE Book Review: Architectural Epidemiology

By Kira Gould, Hon. AIA posted 10-07-2025
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COTE Book Review: Architectural Epidemiology: Architecture as a Mechanism for Designing a Healthier, More Sustainable and Resilient World by Adele Houghton, FAIA, and Carlos Castillo-Salgado Review by Theresa Mark and Z Smith, FAIA Architects know that buildings can affect the health of those who spend time in them. Of course, good design always adapts to the particulars of each site and the needs of the occupants. But there's a whole field of study that looks at the impact of location, demographics, and policy on health and disease: "epidemiology." What if architects (and building owners and developers) spoke with public health experts ...
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