Letters from the Chairs

Letter from the 2006 Chair
By James Binkley, FAIA
Chair 2006, AIA Committee on the Environment
COTE has six programs guided by your Advisory Group and supported by more than 30 volunteers to support our journey toward sustainability.

Letter from the 2005 Chair
By Vivian Loftness, FAIA
In 2005, COTE set five major goals towards its mission to “advance, disseminate, and advocate—to the profession, the building industry, the academy, and the public—design practices that integrate built and natural systems for enhancing environmental quality.”

Features

A Stellar Team
Introducing the Top Ten Green Projects 2006 Jury
Under the leadership of Henry Siegel, FAIA, COTE has lined up a very strong jury for the 2006 Top Ten Green Projects program. (Entry deadline: January 31, 2006.) Meet the sustainability leaders who will review this year’s entries in March.

Virginia Tech Wins AIA Presidential Citation at Solar Decathlon
By Kira Gould, Assoc. AIA, and Lance Hosey, AIA
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition challenges university teams to produce “the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered home.” In October 2005, 18 houses from around the world appeared in Washington, D.C., to form a solar village on the National Mall.

Guest Voice—An Open Letter to the Architecture, Planning, And Building Community
Beware: The Carriage Turns into a Pumpkin at 2 Degrees Celsius!
By Edward Mazria, AIA
The building sector is responsible for one-half of all U.S. global warming emissions annually and our emissions are increasing at an alarming rate according to statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. It is time for us to lead in the race to prevent dangerous climate change.

COTE Top Ten Green Projects 2005: In The Architect's Words
By Jared Silliker
In this issue of COTEnotes, we profile the five 2005 Top Ten Green Projects Award recipients, giving voice to the architects and clients about the projects’ big ideas, turning points, and challenges.

COTE Pioneers of Green Receive USGBC Leadership Awards
By Nadia Elrohsky, AIA
The Annual Leadership Awards are presented to individuals and organizations “that signify vision, leadership and commitment to the evolution of green building design and construction.” It comprises six categories: community, education, LEED, organizational excellence, research and advocacy, and each category recognizes both an organization and an individual.

ENERGY STAR®  Building Design Profile
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR® program is a sponsor of the AIA COTE Top Green Projects Award program. In each issue of COTEnotes, the EPA provides a case study about a project that has used one of the EPA tools, such as Target Finder or Portfolio Manager, earning eligibility to display “Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR” graphic on the building plans. In this issue, we profile the Poudre School District Operations Building in Ft. Collins, Colo. A  leader in energy performance, Poudre has reaped sizable financial savings by adopting efficiency measures.

Advocacy Update: Grassroots—Capitol Hill Day with AIA Government Advocacy
By J. Thomas Wolfe, Esq., Senior Director, AIA Federal Affairs
On returning from the holidays, the thoughts of AIA Government Advocacy turned immediately to the February Grassroots Conference, and especially the Capitol Hill day visits that come with it. When visiting members of Congress, AIA members were requested to raise one of four issues. The results were quite good.

Guest Voices—Former Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris: Architects and Elected Officials Should be Partnering to Shape Green Communities
An interview with former Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris in December about the architects’ role in a changing paradigm in community building. Harris is a scientist trained in marine biology and urban ecosystems, who says he entered politics because he was concerned that his city of Honolulu, and the world, was “going in an unsustainable direction.”

Economics and Sustainable Design: AIA COTE Panelists Help Tell the Story
Economic-related issues are the biggest stumbling block in generating traction for green building design. A survey of those attending the Corporate Realty, Design & Management’s How To Sell Sustainability To Your Client workshops in several U.S. cities during 2005 showed the areas of frustration for architects and designers.

Nonprofit Spotlight—The Kresge Foundation Encourages Innovations in Green Building
Nonprofit organizations—while planning their next capital project—may find support from the Kresge Foundation if they are interested in environmental sustainability. The foundation’s Green Building Initiative seeks to increase awareness of sustainable or green building practices among nonprofits and encourage them to consider building green.

News

You Are Invited—
Architecture of Sustainability Conference and Competition May 2006




The Architecture of Sustainability
May 4–7, 2006
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Conservation Training Center
Shepherdstown, WV





AIA and BuildingGreen Sign Agreement Providing Sustainable Design Research and Information to Members
To help meet the growing green design information needs of its 77,000 members, the AIA recently signed an agreement with publisher BuildingGreen, Inc. The agreement allows for quick, cost-effective access to BuildingGreen’s well-regarded sustainable design information for AIA members through the BuildingGreen Suite of online tools.

The agreement provides AIA members with an immediate 30 percent discount on new and renewing individual subscriptions to BuildingGreen Suite, which includes in-depth articles, case studies, news, and product information. The agreement also outlines a number of ongoing joint initiatives that further the AIA’s goals of promoting high-performance design and reducing the energy consumption of buildings, including access for members to articles from BuildingGreen’s award-winning newsletter, Environmental Building News, through AIA Knowledge Community publications, AIArchitect, and on the AIA Web site.

BuildingGreen has been a longtime COTE partner and key team member on the COTE Top Ten Green Projects program.

Visit these sites for more information:
AIA Website article: More 'Green' for Less Green
Building Green Web site article: AIA, BuildingGreen Ink Deal


Reprint: Environmental Building News

In each issue of COTEnotes, we reprint an article from Environmental Building News, which is published by BuildingGreen (www.buildinggreen.com). This company is committed to providing accurate, unbiased, and timely information designed to help building-industry professionals and policymakers improve the environmental performance, and reduce the adverse impacts, of buildings. BuildingGreen offers print and electronic resources to help people design and build construction projects from a whole-systems perspective and take an integrated design approach that minimizes ecological impact and maximizes economic performance. BuildingGreen has been a longtime COTE partner and key team member on the COTE Top Ten Green Projects program.

We chose this editorial (see link below) about New Orleans because of the increasing attention that plans for the area are getting, as the nation struggles to process the difficult lessons of learning how human settlement, consumption, and natural forces must be reconciled.

A Bold Plan for New Orleans
In an in-depth editorial, BuildingGreen president and EBN executive editor Alex Wilson lays out a bold plan for how to approach the reconstruction of New Orleans in a way that protects the environment while respecting the city's culture and the well-being of its residents. 


Update

World Congress on Sustainable Building
Tokyo, September 27–29, 2005

Past COTE Chair Dan Williams, FAIA, represented the AIA at the World Congress on Sustainable Building in September and brought home this report.

For more detailed information on the World Congress proceedings, see the full report.

Local COTE Spotlight

Local COTE Spotlight: Ohio
By Alan J. Warner, AIA, LEED AP
Chair, AIA Ohio COTE

In January 2005, 10 architects from across the state established the AIA Ohio COTE. As awareness of our activities and in all things green expands in Ohio, we have now grown to nearly 20 with representatives from all seven components in the state. AIA Ohio COTE is dedicated to coordinating people, ideas, and technology for high-performance design in Ohio.

Resources

Upcoming Sustainable Design Events
Check out the list of sustainable-design events through August 2006.

Have You Read. . .?
Links to recent articles and Web sites of interest:

Earth Day Network: Ecological Footrpint Quiz 
Scientific American: More Profit with Less Carbon
ASHRAE Journal: DesktopTools for Sustainable Design
Better Bricks: A Conversation with Christine Ervin
U.S. Department of Energy: Buiding Energy Software Tools Directory

Curious about what’s going on at AIA national? It’s easy to stay apprised. At www.aia.org, go to the members section and find an archive of  AIA Institute Updates on the left.
What would you like to see in future issues of COTEnotes? Drop an email to Advisory Group member Kira Gould or to COTE’s AIA Project Manager, Marsha Garcia.