Survey to Chapter

The AIA Dallas Committee on the Environment (COTE) is interested in hearing from our fellow chapter members. Please take a few moments and give us some feedback. Thanks for your time!

COTE Special Commendation

The Committee on the Environment (COTE) of AIA Dallas has created a Special Commendation to recognize municipalities in North Texas that have shown exceptional vision, flexibility and cooperativeness in working with the design community on sustainable projects. Please let us know If you have worked with city staff or elected officials that have gone out of their way to understand and help achieve the goals of environmental responsibility and high-performance buildings.

Award Name: COTE Special Commendation

Goal: To convey the message that truly sustainable design requires crossing the traditional boundaries between public officials, business owners and design professionals. To reward public officials for taking chances on behalf of the environment and the design community. To increase the visibility of the AIA generally and COTE in particular to the public and municipal governments.

Eligibility: The mayor and staff of any city within the NCTCOG boundaries.

Submissions: Send a brief description of the project, the challenge faced, and how the staff involved enabled a level of sustainability that might otherwise not have been possible to dfwgreenarchitecture@gmail.com.

Review: COTE will review recommendations and verify information as necessary with the nominee and city.

The Greenest Building

We routinely see buildings that could be renovated or retrofitted torn down. Those buildings often have historic value that goes beyond a price-per-square-foot. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has just published an extensive study that compares the avoided impacts of renovation versus new construction across several climate and building types:

The Greenest Building: Quantifying the Environmental Value of Building Reuse

In almost every scenario, renovation is the best option.

Common Threads

It's probably not news to many of you, but I just came across the Patagonia Common Threads program. The pledge could not be simpler but the implications are profound:

I'd like to become a partner in the Common Threads Initiative to reduce excess consumption and give the planet's vital systems a rest from pollution, resource depletion and greenhouse gases.

Patagonia agrees to build useful things that last, to repair what breaks and recycle what comes to the end of its useful life.

I agree to buy only what I need (and will last), repair what breaks, reuse (share) what I no longer need and recycle everything else.

They show an understanding of the fundamentals of conservation and stewardship that goes far beyond the typical corporate greenwashing and should serve as an example for any corporate citizen. They have even partnered with eBay to help resell their used products. I'm not sure how Yvon Chouinard's efforts are regarded in the business world, but they certainly rank highly with me.

 - Sam