AIA 2030 Commitment
Jeffrey Beall, via Wikimedia Commons
Adopted by: The American Institute of Architects (AIA); the underlying carbon target, the 2030 Challenge, was issued in 2005 by Architecture 2030 · Kind: Voluntary pledge · Scope: Regional (United States, with guidance for international projects)
Created by the American Institute of Architects in response to the 2030 Challenge issued by Architecture 2030 in 2005, this is a free voluntary programme through which architecture firms pursue carbon neutrality in the built environment. It is the only document in this group with a real measurement mechanism: signatory firms must report predicted design data from every active project each year through the Design Data Exchange, by 31 March, against a defined minimum data set including baseline and predicted energy use intensity. More than 1,350 firms have signed, and the resulting data is published annually and by firm.
In 2005 Architecture 2030, an independent United States research non-profit, issued the 2030 Challenge: a set of incremental carbon reduction targets over a 25-year timeline, ending with all new buildings carbon neutral by 2030. The American Institute of Architects created the AIA 2030 Commitment in response, as the framework through which its member firms could pursue and track that target. The institute describes it as an actionable climate strategy providing a set of standards and goals for reaching net zero emissions in the built environment.
What separates it from every other document in this group is that it asks for numbers. Joining is free and voluntary, and requires creating an account on the Design Data Exchange, signing a commitment letter, and producing a Sustainability Action Plan documenting firm-wide sustainability goals. After that, signatories are required to report predicted design data from active projects every year, within a reporting window running January to March and closing on 31 March.
The reporting scope is specific rather than gestural. Reportable projects include anything in conceptual, schematic, design development or construction document phase, architectural projects whose scope includes heating and ventilation or substantial envelope modification, interiors-only projects that include lighting design, construction administration projects where design changes altered the energy model, and international projects under separate guidance. The minimum data set for each project includes location, design phase, use type, building area, energy modelling status, a site energy use intensity baseline, a target or predicted energy use intensity from computer modelling, whether actual energy use data is being collected, lighting power density figures for interiors projects, and the design energy code. Where a firm does not use energy modelling at all, an equivalent reduction percentage is calculated from the design energy code, so that not modelling is not an exemption.
The Design Data Exchange is the portal that holds all of this. It was built to provide a standardised reporting format for measuring progress at both firm and national level, and the United States Department of Energy states on its own site that it collaborates with the institute to develop and maintain it. The institute publishes an annual report on aggregate progress and a public directory of signatory firms with data on their engagement, which means that unlike most pledges in this field, a third party can look up who signed and what they reported.
None of this makes it law, and its honest limits should be stated. It is voluntary, it is free, and the institute's own page states no consequence for a signatory that fails to report. Reporting is of predicted performance from design models, not measured performance from occupied buildings, though the data set asks whether a firm is collecting actual energy use data. More than 1,350 firms have signed. That number, and the reports behind it, are evidence of participation and of a functioning measurement habit across a large part of a national profession. They are not evidence that any particular building reached the target, and this record does not present them as such.
Key provisions · 12 provisions
Programme description
AIA describes the 2030 Commitment as an actionable climate strategy providing a set of standards and goals for reaching net zero emissions in the built environment.
net-zero · strategy · definition
Programme description
AIA states that reducing carbon emissions is not enough and that commitment to net zero emissions by 2030 is required, since the built environment creates 40 per cent of the world's emissions and architects, engineers and owners play a key role.
rationale · emissions · urgency
Origin
Architecture 2030 issued the 2030 Challenge in 2005, comprising incremental carbon reduction goals over a 25-year timeline, and AIA created the 2030 Commitment in response to give firms a framework for tracking progress towards net zero.
origin · 2030-challenge · framework
Joining
Joining requires creating an account on the Design Data Exchange and signing a commitment letter, inputting and reporting project data during the annual window, and creating a Sustainability Action Plan documenting firm-wide sustainability goals.
process · commitment-letter · action-plan
Reporting obligation
Signatories are required to report predicted design data from active projects each year, with a reporting window from January through March and a portfolio submission deadline of 31 March.
reporting · deadline · mandatory
Reporting obligation
Reportable projects include those in conceptual, schematic, design development or construction document phases, architectural projects involving HVAC or substantial envelope modification, interiors-only projects with lighting design, construction administration projects where design changes altered the energy model or code documentation, and international projects under special guidance.
scope · project-types
Reporting obligation
Minimum reported data covers project identifier and location, design phase, use type, building area, energy modelling status, a site Energy Use Intensity baseline, a target or predicted Energy Use Intensity from computer modelling, whether actual energy use data is being collected, lighting power density baseline and target for interiors-only projects, and the design energy code.
metrics · eui · data-standard
Reporting obligation
Where a project does not use energy modelling, an equivalent reduction percentage is calculated from the design energy code rather than the project being exempt from reporting.
fallback · energy-code · methodology
Design Data Exchange
The Design Data Exchange is AIA's online portal for reporting and research, created to provide a standardised reporting format for measuring progress at both firm and national level, and maintained in collaboration with the US Department of Energy.
infrastructure · benchmarking · doe
Publication
AIA publishes an annual By the Numbers report and a public directory of signatory firms with data on their engagement.
transparency · public-directory
Stated benefits
AIA states that joining lets a firm validate design approaches for energy savings, create a firm culture that values sustainable design, and benchmark its progress and impact to help recruit staff or win projects.
benefits · firm-culture · business-case
Reported scale
AIA reports more than 1,350 signatory firms, with a small inconsistency on the same page where the meta description says more than 1,300.
scale · self-reported · inconsistency