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The AIA 2030 Commitment: Commitment Issues

If you have commitment issues, the thought of going “all in” with another person could give you the shakes. For some peripatetic people, the grass over there always looks greener. Some sorry folks have torched a few too many bridges in their lives.
Commitment Issues3

Are you a commitment-phobic? It’s not pretty.

If you have commitment issues, the thought of going “all in” with another person could give you the shakes. For some peripatetic people, the grass over there always looks greener. Some sorry folks have torched a few too many bridges in their lives.

But hey, not us! We’re architects and interior designers. Ours isn’t a field you dabble in. You commit to it. Every day.

So we shouldn’t have a problem making the AIA 2030 Commitment, right? Bust so far, only 350 firms have signed it. There are 21,000 architectural firms in the USA. That means 20,650 companies need help. So allow me:

Start here. Andrea Love, AIA, is Director of Building Science at Payette and chairs the AIA National 2030 Commitment Working Group. Her firm has committed. In this great article about her in AIA Architect, she’s described as a “commitment coach.” Andrea says thanks to the 2030 Commitment, there is now “energy intuition” at Payette. Even the firm’s Principals (gasp!) know what an EUI is, how to find the EUI for a project, and whether a specific EUI is good or not.

Andrea has also led the charge on developing and rolling out AIA’s new Design Data Exchange (DDX) reporting tool and initiated the Working Group’s new peer-to-peer mentorship program that will (hopefully, soon) get you and your firm to overcome your fear of commitment and sign up.

Need more? Paula Melton at BuildingGreen Inc. says there are selfish reasons to commit, too. She quotes Greg Mella, FAIA, VP at SmithGroupJJR who says that signing the AIA 2030 Commitment gave his firm specific, measurable ways to track their progress towards greater energy efficiency goals.

Paula also quotes Heather Holdridge, Assoc. AIA and sustainability manager at Lake|Flato Architects. Heather says the AIA 2030 Commitment saves her firm time as reporting becomes a database of high-performance project strategies that keep them from re-inventing the wheel.

Perhaps you think that committing won’t make a difference? Another Environmental Building news article takes a more philosophical approach. In this one, “Progress on 2030 Goals” (also by Paula Melton), Melissa Wackerle, the AIA’s Senior Director for Sustainable Practice & Knowledge, reports that the AIA 2030 Commitment is growing. In 2010, year one of the Commitment, 56 firms reported. By the end of 2014, 140 firms were delivering data. And given recent news about the growing threats of climate change AND the new ease and benefits of 2030 reporting, she expects that more firms will be committing in the near future.

The take away? Change is happening. So c’mon, sign up. You have nothing to fear.

This post is part of an ongoing series from Principal Mike Davis, FAIA on our progress toward the AIA 2030 Commitment.