ACCOUNTABILITY 03

As a firm, we have four driving commitments that frame our accountability and keep us focused on the core principles of sustainability:

– AIA 2030 Commitment

– AIA A&D Materials Pledge

– SE 2050 Commitment

– MEP 2040 Commitment

The saying goes, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.’’ These four commitments provide the core areas of content we have have committed to measuring, and are the key accountability pillars of our SAP.

Each commitment differs in timeline, in the detail of defined goals and deliverables, and in progress and response pathways to achieving those goals. This chapter summarizes each commitment at a high level, where we are and how our goals are tracking, and our next steps.

The AIA 2030 Commitment sets our sights on zero net energy performance for all our buildings by the year 2030. It requires us to document EwingCole’s energy performance for all projects throughout the year. Tracking this data allows us to be honest with ourselves as a firm and set goals for continuous improvement.

The SE 2050 Commitment directly engages our structural engineers to understand, reduce, and ultimately eliminate embodied carbon in building structures by 2050. The commitment requires embodied carbon tracking for projects, and data sharing to build the SE 2050 project database.

The AIA A&D Materials Pledge defines sustainable materials as those that positively impact health and equity for individuals, communities, the climate, and ecosystems, all within a circular economy. This pledge sets up our approach to selecting materials with a positive impact, and we have developed internal tracking tools to support these efforts.

The MEP 2040 Commitment provides us the opportunity to support the MEP equipment manufacturing industry in its pursuit of Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) development, to implement best practices for refrigerants that balance embodied and operational carbon emissions, and to collaborate on project processes that support of these goals.