AIA 2030 COMMITMENT

Conceived by the non-profit organization Architecture 2030 in 2005, and adopted by the AIA in 2008, the 2030 Commitment encourages architecture, engineering, and planning firms nationwide to reduce the carbon footprint of the buildings they design and construct. Buildings produce about 39% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually, 28% of which are from building operations. By setting incremental targets for energy use reductions in new construction, the 2030 Commitment strives to eliminate all CO2 emissions from building operations by 2030.

EWINGCOLE’S COMMITTMENT

EwingCole saw the opportunity to actively engage and participate in the challenges that affect our industry. We became a signatory firm in 2009. The commitment requires us to document EwingCole’s energy performance for all projects throughout the year and submit the firm’s annual portfolio to the AIA.

According to the AIA in 2020, firms participating in the 2030 Commitment avoided the release of 34.6 million metric tons of CO2.

The path to carbon-neutral: Graphic by AIA

Fossil fuel consumption reduction

Off-site renewable energy

Fossil fuel consumption

To date, EwingCole has reported 236 projects over six years, and our highest energy use reduction by year was 45%. We have designed six Net Zero Energy buildings, two of which are constructed and LEED ZNE Certified.

AIA 2030 now tracks GHG emissions attributed to embodied carbon as well. These emissions make up 11% of global GHG emissions annually and, based on the time value of carbon, are often more important to reduce in the near term. The type of data reported is based on the Whole Building Lifecycle Assessment (WBLCA).

Our Progress

2021 Portfolio Highlights

– A 15% jump in the number of energy modeled projects from the previous year for a total of 32%. The rollout of early-stage energy modeling tools and increased outreach to our engineering teams for modeling data supported our continuous improvement.

– A 20-point improvement in Lighting Power Density (LPD) for our interiors only projects. Expanded outreach to interior renovation teams and the utilization of early-stage energy modeling tools supported our continuous improvement.

– Expanded Education Opportunities: We held a series of five education sessions highlighting the new reporting dashboard and laying out the timeline and requirements for 2021 reporting. Each presentation was targeted to a specific office or region to allow for focused discussion and review of dashboard data.

Portfolio Performance Trends

Our whole building project performance increased each year for the first four years of reporting but has decreased over the past two years to 35% in 2021.

According to the AIA’s 2030 By the Numbers report for 2021, this puts us behind the national average of 50.3% overall pEUI reduction across reporting firms.

We see several factors influencing this drop, including the number of projects reported, new, large-area projects in high-energy use markets, and potential changes due to the pandemic. This year, we have updated our process to actively address those factors through a detailed review of our progress, updated timelines and targets, and the resource and staff development and education described below.

Identifying these targets is the first step toward attaining the goals of the AIA 2030 Commitment. Our plan to achieve them is multi-faceted and holistic, and key next steps are listed below.

Timelines And Targets

Our updated targets and timelines build from the AIA 2030’s established targets and imply a continued trajectory of improvement from those milestones. They are as follows:

2023 2024 2026

100% of eligible projects report 2030 data

Improve portfolio performance to 50% reduction from baseline.

Perform early energy modeling on 70% of eligible projects

Improve performance to 60% reduction from baseline.

Perform early energy modeling on 100% of eligible projects.

Achieve a 45% reduction in embodied carbon.

Perform WBLCA on 70% of eligible projects

Accountability Methods

We are breaking down our performance reporting process by region and office location, as well as by market sector to have closer access to project teams and a deeper understanding of our performance trends.

Growing leadership: In the fall of 2022, we launched a Commitments Facilitator role to improve awareness, accountability, and performance in each of our office locations. This year-round position with billable time assigned will support and guide project teams in each of our local offices.

Access to data

We have two full annual reports now published through an interactive digital dashboard for firmwide review and internal data analysis. We are currently building a full sustainability database to provide clear access, sorting, and retrieving of data for all our commitments by all members of the firm – from our business development teams to our project designers. As we update the data each year, it allows us to analyze statistics, identify trends and set targets, and provide sustainability data for future efforts.

Integration

Workflow Guides: It is critical to embed high performance in the earliest stages of design development. To this end, our 2023-2024 focus is on updating and drafting new workflow guidance and documentation templates, including:

– Early goals worksheets

– Uniform standards for pre-design analysis

– Updated contract language and agreements

– Integration in documentation checks by QA/QC

2028 2030 2040

Improve performance to 80% reduction from baseline.

Perform POE on 25% of eligible projects.

Perform WBLCA on 100% of eligible projects

Improve performance to 100% reduction from baseline including renewable energy sources.

Perform POE on 50% of eligible projects.

Achieve a 65% reduction in embodied carbon

Achieve 100% reduction in embodied carbon with acceptable offset strategies

These templates will support high performance focused on both operational energy use reduction and on embodied carbon reduction. Embodied carbon reduction strategies for structural design are also being tracked as part of our SE 2050 Commitment.

Early modeling puts data in our hands and helps our teams make good decisions.

– Early Energy Modeling: The AIA’s By the Numbers report for 2021 indicates that energy modeled projects perform 6% better on average than nonmodeled projects.

– Whole Building Lifecycle Assessment (WBLCA) Modeling: WBLCA maps embodied carbon and several other impacts to the materials we use in design.

We will grow our team of modeling experts and project leads in 2023-2024 in support of having 1) at least 70% of our projects energy modeled by the end of 2024, and 2) at least 70% of our projects WBLCA modeled by the end of 2026.

Market and Region Variations

As a national firm, we recognize that the best solutions will not be the same across every project, market, region. While fundamentals remain the same, climate zones, codes, and policies differ.

While climate zone and code evaluation are common to our design process, the pace of policy impact on our industry is increasing. To deepen our understanding of policy impacts on building performance, we are planning to expand our involvement with local AIA Policy Groups. We are also actively tracking impactful legislation in two of our market areas: Local Law 97 in New York City as well as net zero and electrification policy updates in California.