Break Barriers to Climate Action

Emilie Hagen, Director at Atelier Ten, will speak at the AIA Austin Design Excellence Conference with Lake|Flato’s Daniel Stine on August 24th. The session “Break Barriers to Climate Action in Architectural Practice” will discuss how to enhance efforts for climate action and go beyond net zero. The buildings industry has used the concept of “net zero” for some time, and it’s a useful construct. But to safeguard the future, we need to do much more. We need to reduced carbon emissions from buildings beyond today’s standard practice, which includes strong operational and embodied carbon targets.

The built environment is witnessing cascading impacts of climate change for every person, project, and client. The architecture industry must transform firm culture in response to present and future changing conditions. The new resource, the AIA Climate Action Business Playbook, helps build an architectural practice that embraces climate change mitigation and adaptation. Individuals and firms can identify roadblocks that might have slowed previous efforts to change; and immediately apply recommendations and best practices to enhance current policies and efforts around climate action within their practice. AIA 2030 Commitment will catalyze change, and an evolving understanding of Absolute Net Zero will serve as a roadmap. This session will inspire attendees to adopt more sustainable practice models, and to integrate strong operational and embodied carbon targets for buildings into their standard practice.

Register for the event here.