01 / INTRODUCTION
May 10, 2023
Ms. Lakisha Woods, CAE EVP/Chief Executive Officer The American Institute of Architects 1735 New York Ave., NW Washington, DC 20006-5292 Re:
AIA 2030 Challenge – Renewed Commitment
Dear Lakisha, Since signing the 2030 commitment in 2015, RATIO has grown to a nearly 200 person firm located in Indianapolis, Champaign, Raleigh, Chicago, Denver, and Milwaukee, and is hereby renewing our commitment to the AIA 2030 challenge. Despite some setbacks and challenges that have come from the COVID-19 pandemic, we continue to push ourselves toward the goal of carbon neutrality. As architects and designers, we understand the need to exercise leadership in creating the built environment. We believe we must change our practices to embrace a regenerative ideology and encourage our clients and the entire design and construction industry to join with us to change the course of our planet’s future. RATIO Architects is committed to taking the following steps to continue our firm’s path toward carbon neutrality: - Create a new, multi-year plan that outlines how we will change our practice to reach EUI reduction targets set by the 2030 challenge. - Create relationships and partnerships with firms, organizations, and clients that support the advancement of sustainability in the design and construction industry. - Find opportunities to improve our baseline standards and specifications to include sustainable design. - Refine our workflow to better manage reporting for the Design Data Exchange (DDx). - Use existing regenerative design frameworks as a guide for our design decisions to shift our thinking toward more advanced design strategies. - Seek opportunities in all projects to create sustainability success stories and share those stories within our firm and to our peers and communities. We support the critical need for more strenuous design standards that will lead our firm toward carbon neutrality by 2030. We further commit our firm’s assistance to the AIA and others in the ongoing development of regenerative design strategies to advance our industry.
Sincerely,
William A. Browne, Jr., FAIA, LEED AP Principal / CEO Principal/President and RATIO’s Sustainability Research Group
RATIO Architects, Inc. Indianapolis, IN
101 South Pennsylvania Street
Champaign, IL
Raleigh, NC
Indianapolis, Indiana
Chicago, IL
Denver, CO
46204-3684
Milwaukee, WI
317.633.4040 www.RATIOdesign.com
