Letter from the Chair

Architects and Sustainability: Talking with Clients, Collaborators, and Policymakers
Sustainability is uniting the building industry and stimulating a much-needed discussion amongst many professional groups, communities, and more. > Read the full article

Kira Gould, Assoc. AIA, LEED AP

Features

Fleshing Out Green
Sherry Ahrentzen, PhD, Assoc. AIA, advocates sustaining human systems—social, cultural, economic, physiological by partnering in sustainable place-making in a broad context and developing knowledge resources in a manner that provides for a more evidence-based practice.  
> Read the full article


Examining Rating Systems: A Look at Green Globes
Rating systems are important tools, many architects and allied professionals agree. Faculty and students at UC Berkeley conducted an in-depth examination of the Green Globes system and report their results here.   > Read the full article

Fifty Percent of What?
Existing databases are useful—but hardly perfect—as measuring sticks for meeting some of the 2030 tagets; understanding their limitations is critical.   > Read the full article

Making the Case for Institutional Change
Harvard’s Green Campus Initiative is transforming a huge institution and its habits in dramatic fashion—and it’s a tantalizingly replicable model. Harvard also got an A- on the recently released College Sustainability Report Card.  
> Read the full article



Roadmap for Integration
Part of an AIA series on Integrated Practice, this paper considers the sustainability challenge as it relates to integrated practice tools. “BIM has the potential to be aligned with the recent movement toward a language and practice of sustainability, which relies heavily on an integrated systems approach to drive energy and resource efficiencies.”  
> Read the full article


Sponsor Editorial—Taking Green One Step Further Through Green Construction Practices
JE Dunn Construction Group weighs in with what’s working in greener construction practices.   > Read the full article

Reviews

Tools We Use: Cradle to Cradle Considered
Editors from Environmental Building News evaluate McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry’s Cradle to Cradle™ certification—what it is, how it works, and its role in the market for green products. > Read the full article


Tools We Use: CHPS
We asked Charles Eley to provide an introduction to the CHPS program and report news of its recent expansion. Pauline Souza, AIA, LEED AP, offers an assessment from the practitioner’s perspective. > Read the full article

McMahan Hall at the Chartwell School
  photo courtesy EHDD Architecture


Tools We Use: Costing Green
As part of a new series reviewing studies on costs and benefits of green building practices, Marilyn Farmer, AIA, reviews the David Langdon Costing Green study in short and long forms. > Read the full article


JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Join the COTE Forum listserve, an open discussion about sustainable design issues that matter to architects and their allied professionals. Send an email to lyris@lyris.aia.org and and type “subscribe coteforum” in the subject line. You will receive an auto-reply; you must confirm to join. Your confirmation email will have instructions on how to adjust their preferences and more.

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To be added to the subscription list for COTEnotes, AIA members should send an e-mail to Marsha Garcia; nonmembers should send the request to Kira Gould.

Resources & Links

Check out the green calendar at Environmental Building News. EBN is published by BuildingGreen, an AIA partner, and AIA members get a discount on subscriptions.

The greening movement has been searching for the best way to frame the discussion. This is about asking the right questions, suggests former COTE chair, Don Watson, FAIA: “This is an ongoing conversation. Visit the Species Alliance Web site and view the 10-minute video, a preview of Species Survival. Their focus on living systems comes closer to conveying the vitality of the web of life on earth (biology), more than global climate change (physics) or carbon footprint (chemistry) vocabulary of other current and equally valiant efforts. The film/video reasserts that the role and responsibility of designers is to protect, restore and enhance the living systems of people, place, region, and planet. Architects and environmental designers: The line you draw has global consequence.”

AIA CEO Chris McEntee talks about energy, sustainability, and partnerships in this Alliance to Save Energy interview.

Check out a recent Metropolis story about green roofs, including a map of green roofs around the country and a green roof timeline.

According to Ed Mazria, AIA—the Al Gore of architecture?—the green movement is growing because people are thinking about the future and the future of their children, but also because going green offers a competitive advantage and saves money and can “enhance your image in the community, which means your business can maneuver with more ease and fewer restrictions.” Read the Worldchanging.com interview.

Among the voices at the AIA convention that may push you to think differently, Bill Reed, AIA, is one has been exploring what “beyond green” really means for some time. Click here to check out his thoughts on mental models, language, and questions we ask.