AIA Asks for Carbon Neutral Action Plans

This sounds like a smart program for AIA members, Energy Engineers, Facility Managers and Plant Managers to implement today! Thanks to AIA for reaching out to its membership. This type of action plan should reach a wide audience of commercial and residential building owners and managers. For businesses it may be a good first step to assign a team to the task. Empower this group to analyze current energy usage and then develop the multi-year action plans for owners, managers and employees to follow with the carbon neutral goal always in mind. Read below and start your action plan!
AIA Announces Results of First Year of Projected Energy Use Data from Firms Participating in 2030 Commitment Program
For immediate release:
New Orleans – May 12, 2011 –In 2009 the American Institute of Architects (AIA) introduced the 2030 Commitment Program, a voluntary initiative for AIA member firms and other entities in the built environment that asks these organizations to make a pledge, develop multi-year action plans, and implement steps that can advance AIA's goal of carbon neutral buildings by the year 2030.  At the end of the 2010 calendar year, firms were asked to submit an assessment of their 2010 design work using a toolreleased by the AIA last year.

"The findings are a good first step to see where we are as an industry in reaching the ultimate goal of achieving carbon neutrality in buildings by 2030.  It is encouraging to see the number of participating firms in this program and the large amount of real estate that their projects account for," said AIA EVP/Chief Executive Officer, Robert Ivy, FAIA.  "That said it is also a wake-up call for the profession that we need to be more steadfast in the prediction of energy usage in design projects, as well as collecting actual post-occupancy performance data."

A new report, Measuring Industry Progress towards AIA 2030 Carbon Reduction Goal, includes data from 56 firms accounting for nearly 385 million gross square feet (GSF) nationwide.  The key findings include:

• Firms reported a combined average 35.1% predicted energy use intensity (PEUI) reduction from the national average EUI.
• The largest PEUI reduction reported by a firm is 70.6%
• The smallest PEUI reduction reported by a firm is 11.6%
• The combined firms design portfolio that is meeting the current goal of a 60% reduction in carbon emissions reduction from the national average is 12.1%
• The largest percentage of GSF of active projects meeting goal reported by one firm is 69.8%
• The smallest percentage of GSF of active projects meeting goal reported by one firm is 0% (reported by multiple firms)
• GSF of projects currently being energy modeled is 58%
• The percentage of projects that will collect actual data is 38%

The full report also contains participating firm demographics, energy reduction initiatives undertaken by firms and anecdotal accounts of the challenges and lessons learned through participating in the 2030 Commitment Program.
About The American Institute of Architects
For over 150 years, members of the American Institute of Architects have worked with each other and their communities to create more valuable, healthy, secure, and sustainable buildings and cityscapes. Members adhere to a code of ethics and professional conduct to ensure the highest standards in professional practice. Embracing their responsibility to serve society, AIA members engage civic and government leaders and the public in helping find needed solutions to pressing issues facing our communities, institutions, nation and world. Visit http://www.aia.org/.

This blog post was approved by http://www.igreenbuild.com/, a New Venture Communications web property.

AIA Introduces Tool to Help Architecture Firms Track Predicted Energy Use in Building Projects

As part of the voluntary 2030 commitment program where architecture firms and other entities in the built environment pledge to develop multi-year action plans and implement steps that can advance the American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) goal of carbon neutral buildings by the year 2030, the AIA has unveiled a new tool that generates a report on predicted energy use and project modeling.

“This tool is a valuable resource for architecture firms and will be used on their entire portfolio, not just for projects seeking green building certification,” said AIA President, George H. Miller, FAIA. “The tool was specifically developed to be simple to use and to be used by firms of all sizes on a variety of building types, large and small.”

The Excel-based reporting tool will only require the user to enter project use type (from a drop down menu), gross square footage, (GSF), yes/no questions: Is project Interior only? Is project modeled? and predicted energy use intensity (PEUI).

Based on that information, for modeled projects the tool will automatically calculate the national average site EUI for that project type and the project’s percent reduction from the national average EUI toward meeting the firm’s 2030 goal for the current year (currently 60%). For non-modeled projects, users will enter in the design standard or code and similarly the sheet will calculate the project’s contribution toward the firm’s 2030 commitment.

The excel tool will generate three easy to decipher graphs that aggregate the individually listed active projects within the Excel sheet. These three graphs represent the report that firms will forward to the AIA. The three charts will show a snapshot of the firm portfolio including: the percentage of GSF of active projects meeting the current reduction goal, the percentage of GSF being modeled and percentage of GSF for which the firm will gather actual energy performance.

Firms are asked to track all active design projects for the reporting year, not just ones that are seeking green building certification and the reports developed through the tool are meant to provide a year-to-year look of a firm’s work. Firms of all sizes and building type expertise will use the same tool and report in the same manner.

The tool can be used for any type of building project and was developed through a collaboration between members of the AIA Committee on the Environment, the AIA Large Firm Roundtable, AIA Chicago Chapter Working Group and numerous individuals from AIA member firms.

AIA and USGBC Announce Plans For Collaboration

The The American Institute of Architects and the U.S. Green Building Council recently announced plans for collaboration between the two organizations. The following a a joint letter released by the two organizations detailing the relationship.

Last year, the boards of The American Institute of Architects and the U.S. Green Building Council established a Joint Task Force to explore how our organizations could work more closely together to advance our respective missions and give stronger voice to our shared values. The desire to use our interdependence as a catalyst for stronger collaboration was the platform from which a strategic framework for this effort was developed.

We offer a special note of gratitude for the leadership of the Joint Task Force co-chairs Gail Vittori, Immediate Past Board Chair, U.S. Green Building Council, and Clark Manus, FAIA, 2010 AIA First Vice President / 2011 President, The American Institute of Architects, who helped us identify opportunities where collaboration would yield the greatest benefit in advancing the mission of a more sustainable built environment.

In January, our senior staffs met to define a three-year action plan that includes: Collaboration around Haiti Relief: Both organizations and our members have significant expertise to offer Haiti as it begins to rebuild. Our ongoing collaboration will help inform how to proceed and how, together, we can best respond to future disasters.

Unified Sustainability Advocacy Agenda: In each of the next three years, we will develop a joint advocacy and communications plan that can be championed in conjunction with the President’s State of the Union address, including development of “issue briefs” as well as ongoing joint action on other topics of common concern, such as green affordable housing, green schools, and green healthcare facilities.

Coordinated Educational Activity: The action plan addresses the need to expand the market’s capacity to implement sustainable design practices. As such, we are moving quickly toward “reciprocal credit” for educational sessions that support each group’s credentials, the creation of a joint speakers registry, providing links to each other’s education web pages related to sustainable design, creating a common calendar, and jointly utilizing AIA’s upcoming 2010 convention in Miami as well as USGBC’s 2010 Greenbuild in Chicago as educational platforms.

As a note of progress on this effort, we are pleased to share that 107 LU/HSW/SD hours from 64
courses on sustainable design being offered at the AIA Convention in Miami are approved for
credit towards maintaining the LEED Green Associate and LEED AP specialty credentials.

Coordinated Research Opportunities: Identifying and jointly soliciting funding for research of
interest that supports our common agenda is another key action area.

Underpinning all of the specifics of the action plan is recognition of the importance of open and
ongoing communications in support of this collaborative initiative. And, to that end, we anticipate
making brief appearances at each other’s Board meetings and holding an annual joint
leadership meeting to report on our progress and discuss other strategic opportunities. These
more formal initiatives will be augmented by ongoing work between our staffs on each of the
action items.

Also, we will look for ways to highlight our collaboration with external audiences through joint
announcements and statements in newsletters, on web sites, and in other visible ways.

Both organizations are significantly strengthened through this focused collaboration and we
believe that working together advances both of our missions. We’re very excited about this new
initiative, and look forward to sharing with you the fruits of our positive engagement.

AIA Billing Index Shows Slight Increase in Demand

According to the American Institute of Architects, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) moved slightly higher in February. The index for last month was 44.8, compared to 42.5 in January. The February index indicates a continued decline in demand for design services. Any reading above 50 indicates an increase in billings.

The ABI is widely viewed as a leading economic indicator of construction activity. The ABI tyoically reflects an approximate nine to 12 month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending.

"We continue to hear that funding dedicated for construction projects in the stimulus package has not yet been awarded, resulting in a bottleneck of potential projects that could help jump-start the economy," said Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA, chief economist at the American Institute of Architects, which compiles the ABI. "That, coupled with a persistently rigid credit market for private sector projects, is a key reason why the design and construction industry continue to suffer at near historic levels in terms of job losses." The AIA conducts a monthly survey of architectural firms to build the index.

Key February 2010 ABI highlights:

Regional averages: Midwest (49.4), Northeast (44.1), West (43.6), South (40.7)

Sector index breakdown: multi-family residential (47.3), institutional (44.2), mixed practice (43.3), commercial / industrial (43.2)

About the Architecture Billings Index

The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) is a diffusion index derived from the monthly Work-on-the-Boards survey, conducted by the AIA Economics & Market Research Group. The ABI serves as a leading economic indicator that leads nonresidential construction activity by approximately 9-12 months. The indexes are developed from the monthly Work-on-the-Boards survey panel where participants are asked whether their billings increased, decreased, or stayed the same in the month that just ended. According to the proportion of respondents choosing each option, a score is generated, which represents an index value for each month.