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AIA Embraces Global Warming.

The AIA (American Institute of Architects) has fully embraced the concept of man-made global warming.
In an AIA issued brief entitled Architects and Climate Change, it states:
“In our quest to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions and lessen our dependence on fossil fuels, we have overlooked the biggest source of emissions and energy consumption both in this country and around the globe: buildings and the energy they consume each year. Buildings and their construction account for nearly half of all the greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumed in this country each year. This includes energy used in the production and transportation of materials to building construction sites, as well as the energy used to operate buildings. Globally, the percentage is even greater. The Building Sector is the key source of demand for energy and materials that produce by-product greenhouse gases.”
The brief goes on to state that we will need to build between 1,300 and 1,900 new power plants over the next 20 years, with most of the new power demand coming from buildings.
According to the AIA, there will be about 5 billion square feet of new construction that will take place each year between now and the year 2035. There will also be about the same amount of renovation and around 1.75 billion square feet of building demolition each year.
At that rate, according to the AIA, by 2035 three fourths of the built environment in the United States will either be new or renovated construction.
The brief also claims that energy consumption in the United States will increase by 37% during that time, and that greenhouse gases will increase by 36%. Globally, it says, energy consumption will increase by 54%.

To prevent this from happening, the AIA has set goals for reduction of energy use by buildings between now and 2030. This reduction would be phased in incrementally, beginning with a 50% energy use reduction in all new and significantly renovated buildings by the year 2010.
The reductions would increase an additional 10% every five years, so that in the 2015, the total reduction would be 60%, then 70% by 2020, 80% by 2025, and 90% by 2030. Presumably, by 2035, we would be “carbon neutral”, which means that we would burn no fossil fuels to operate those buildings.
The AIA brief states that this would be accomplished using sustainable design methods at little or no additional construction costs. However, it also states that the reductions would be driven by two things.
First by “creating building performance standards in building codes and standards to address private sector structures” and second by “creating governmental mandates that federal and state buildings meet energy efficiency targets.”
The AIA is actively lobbying Congress to implement its goals into law for federal buildings, as a means to eventually codifying green construction for private sector buildings.
If the AIA is successful in getting their goals implemented into law, don’t expect green design to happen overnight. Despite what the AIA says to the contrary, green construction does cost more.
Whether or not AIA really believes the global warming threat is real or not is unclear. What is clear is that there is a perception that the crisis is in the best interests of the architectural profession, because it will be architects who will benefit from the work it generates, and it will be architects who are credited with solving the problem.
However, code does not necessarily mean implementation. When ADA was enacted in the early 90’s, it was thought that architects would be swamped as building owners scrambled to make their buildings accessible. The work never really materialized.
I actually don’t disagree with many of the AIA’s goals, especially in regards to reducing our dependence on foreign oil supplies. And it make sense to reduce energy usage, because the reduced demand will make it cheaper for all of us, and make it more available for developing countries.
What concerns me is that as more information comes out about the bad science of global warming, how serious will the public take the AIA when they realize it was all a lie? How eager are they going to be to participate in energy reduction for the right reasons? Or to use AIA architects?
One way or another, there is no doubt about the AIA’s commitment to the promotion of global warming as fact. This year’s AIA Convention features Al Gore as the keynote speaker with his “persuasive argument that we can no longer afford to view global warming as a political issue; it is the biggest moral challenge facing our global civilization.”


		8-1-2005 ©2006 Randy W. Bright, AIA, NCARB, Church Architect 4821 So. Sheridan Suite 209 • Tulsa, Oklahoma 74145 • Phone No. 918-664-7957 • Fax No. 918-622-0097• Email