Blogs

At EskewDumezRipple, we have been committed to sustainability in architecture and design for decades, and that commitment is woven into our practice today. We were the first firm in Louisiana to become a member of the U.S. Green Building Council in 2002, and we signed the AIA 2030 Commitment in 2009. Our focus on more intentional materials selection, however, is a newer area of study. Because South Louisiana’s petrochemical corridor is right in the backyard of our New Orleans studio, the health and equity impacts of material production hits close to home. So, a couple years ago, staff members began exploring materials selection more seriously. They ...

This 3rd of 3 articles celebrates two COTE® Top winning projects and includes an extensive list of AIA and external resources to help firms integrate circular materials practices into their workflows and generally learn more. Thanks to all who contributed stories. MASS Moca Building 6 2024 COTE ® Top Winner | Architect: Bruner/Cott Architects | Location: North Adams, Massachusetts Link to full project page > Photo © Michael Moran The removal of floors and walls is approached as an operation of architectural cut-and-fill. As material was removed through these sculptural edits, a careful ...

Embedding circular materials article 2 of 3: This piece aims to equip architects with strategies and questions to increase circular materials usage in their projects. A uthors: Melanie De Cola, AIA Director of Climate Action Pledge Programs, LEED Green Associate; Brad Guy, AIA , of Material Reuse LLC ; and Rodolfo Perez, Ph.D. of IWBI, with special thanks to Shawn Wood of USGBC for his input on all things LEED v5. | All photos courtesy of Brad Guy. Firm strategies Creating an action plan: The first step is to develop an action plan. ISO ( ISO 59004 ) encodes six key principles for the establishment of ...

Rivermark: A Retrofit That Reframed Performance and Place By Karim Muri, Vice President, Marketing Services and Strategy Development at Kingspan Insulated Panels North America In cities across the country, many existing structures were designed before today’s expectations for thermal efficiency; occupant comfort and carbon-conscious design became central to the way architects approach the building envelope. At the same time, these buildings often occupy prominent sites where appearance matters just as much as performance. Located along the banks of the Charles River, Rivermark in Cambridge, Massachusetts, had a highly visible address ...

Article 1 authors: Melanie De Cola, AIA Director of Climate Action Pledge Programs, LEED Green Associate; Brad Guy, AIA , of Material Reuse LLC ; and Rodolfo Perez, Ph.D. of IWBI | All photos curtesy of Brad Guy. AIA’s Architecture & Design Materials Pledge is the result of years of convers ation between m emb e rs , manufacturer s , and mindfulMaterials , and remai n s root ed in the Common M aterials Framework (CMF) . The CMF w as co-created t o suppo rt all those interested in holis tically better materials , how to ...

The following is a list of Building product manufacturers and consultants who have signed onto and aligned with the AIA Architecture & Design Materials Pledge. Company Name Year signed on Allsteel 2021 Andalusia Design 2024 ARMATHERM Thermal Bridging Solutions 2022 Bentley Mills 2022 Carnegie Fabrics 2021 Corian - Hallmark Building Services Distributor 2023 dasso USA 2019 Ecological Environments, LLC 2023 Emser Tile 2024 ezoBord 2020 FERO Corporation 2021 Fiber Global 2024 Garden on the Wall 2025 GMX, Inc. 2024 HP ...

AIA Materials Pledge community, We've officially wrapped up our second official year of Materials Pledge reporting with vast increases in number of firms projects, and total GSF reported. Additionally, earlier this month, several AIA Materials Pledge staff and Working Group attended AIA25 in Boston to talk about materials reporting, Sustainability and Materials Action Plans, connecting both AIA climate pledge programs, and more! Hear more on the sessions and presentations given: Material Matters: Integrating Materials Into Sustainability Action Plans This session brought together small, medium, and large firm representatives to share their experiences ...

Both AIA members and non-members can join the Materials Pledge Peer-to-Peer Knowledge Community to connect with other Materials Pledge signatories and receive Materials Pledge newsletters and updates. Members should log in to their existing accounts via the AIA national website ; non-members can set theirs up here on AIA's Community Hub homepage . Then from the AIA Community Hub Dashboard, click Join a KC or Member Group . and select Materials Pledge Peer-to-Peer Network and any other Knowledge Community or member group ( see below ). We ask that members not create a duplicate record to complete this process. Our Member Support ...

Join 2030 & Materials signatories at AIA25 AIA 2030 & Materials Pledge Open Forum What does the AIA 2030 Commitment and Materials Pledge mean for your firm's practice? At our first-ever joint AIA Climate Action Signatory Open Forum, you'll connect with fellow signatories and other peers, hear from AIA leaders, learn about the high-level RY24 data trends, and attend roundtable discussions on embodied carbon, reporting strategies, firm culture, software tools, and other topics. Whether you're a 10-year signatory or just starting out, you'll have the chance to leverage the AIA 2030 Commitment and Materials Pledge signatory networks and connect ...

Welcome to 2025, Materials Community! We are excited to be co-chairing the Materials Pledge Working Group as we dive headfirst into the second year of reporting, open from February 1st through May 31st. We learned a lot from the inaugural reporting cycle last year (thank you to the 92 firms submitting inaugural data!), most importantly, the deep level of interest and engagement from this community. We've been able to address some of the feedback provided in this current reporting cycle, including: Separate survey for firm questions versus project and product questions, Clarification to questions and response options, elimination of redundancies, ...

Maria Papiez, AIA, NCARB | EwingCole | 2024-25 Materials Pledge Working Group co-chair Maria’s professional portfolio includes science & technology, healthcare, university, and corporate workplace project design. She is currently serving as Co-Chair of the national AIA Materials Pledge Working Group, is an active participant in the AIA Large Firm Roundtable (LFRT) and the Sustainable Design Leaders (SDL) network, and previously taught design studios as an adjunct Professor of Practice in the School of Architecture at NC State University. She is the 2020 recipient of the Gail Lindsey Award from AIA Triangle for her contributions to the culture of sustainable ...

✔ = Reporting Signatory Firm Name Signatory Year Reported in 2023 Reported in 2024 Reported in 2025 39° North Architects 2022 A3C 2021 AB arquitectura 2024 Access Architecture 2020 Alan Glassberg, LLC 2021 ALSC Architects 2022 Amacher & Associates 2022 Amenta Emma Architects 2025 ✔ Ankrom Moisan 2018 ✔ ✔ ✔ ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge 2023 ✔ Arcadis (Formerly CallisonRTKL Inc.) 2020 ✔ ✔ ✔ archimania 2023 ...

At the top of this month, the AIA Conference on Architecture and Design convened over 13,000 attendees in Washington, D.C. for the first time since 2012. Architects and designers and everyone in between flocked Conference sessions on materials health, sustainability & resilience, the role of specifications and manufacturers, and the Expo Floor boasted over 500 companies, many bearing the green buttons “Ask me about sustainability” a nd “Ask me about materials.” Since it was launched in 2018, the AIA A&D Materials Pledge and its Working Group has been hard at work developing the program’s structure and reporting metrics. The program was ...

The architecture and design industry is increasingly understanding the crucial role materials have in both human and planetary health. To turn aspiration into action, t he A&D Materials Pledge program is excited to announce its official reporting framework, releas ed in-person last month at the AIA Conference on Architecture and Design by our Materials Pledge Working Group. L aunched in 2018 and formally adopted by the AIA in 2020 , t he Materials Pledge community now includes 26 5 + signator y firms . The goal of the Materials Pledge reporting framework is to help push the industry toward a ...