2030 Commitment

The mission of the AIA 2030 Commitment is to support the 2030 Challenge and transform the practice of architecture in a way that is holistic, firm-wide, project based, and data-driven. By prioritizing energy performance, participating firms can more easily work toward carbon neutral buildings, developments and major renovations by 2030.

Joining the 2030 Commitment gives you access to the Design Data Exchange (DDx), a national framework created by AIA with simple metrics and a standardized reporting format for measuring progress. The confidential, easy-to-use DDx lets you pinpoint best practices and anonymously compare project performance in your firm and beyond. The research tool allows you to compare projects of similar type, size, climate, and a host of other attributes across the 2030 portfolio.

Through the 2030 Commitment, you can elevate your practice, save clients money, and combat the effects of global climate change. Explore the resources and articles below to navigate the program.

The commitment has a clear, long-term goal: by 2030, it will be standard practice to design and construct climate neutral buildings, that is, buildings that do not use greenhouse gas emitting energy to operate. The goal is to reduce energy consumption across each firm's entire portfolio, not just for projects seeking green building certification.

The act of collecting project data and analyzing the reporting output demonstrates our achievement or progress towards the goal of this Initiative and another related idea—the 2030 Challenge. AIA Chicago leadership and the Chicago Chapter's Committee on the Environment (COTE) support this initiative through the formulation of educational programming to demonstrate best practices for energy reduction.

AIA Chicago is a proud leader in the development and ongoing support of this national initiative. We have contributed to the formulation of the Commitment, built the 2030 Reporting Tool used throughout the country, formulated a Working Group to advance the ideas to our members, and created educational presentations to inform our members about the initiative. In addition, we have collected data from our members to develop a regional snapshot of our commitment to reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gasses within our local area.

We salute the following AIA Chicago Member Firms have made a commitment to their employees, their clients, and to the nation to conscientiously bring energy performance into their everyday practice by signing onto the AIA 2030 Commitment:

Signing onto the AIA 2030 Commitment:
A five step process

Send a commitment letter to AIA National

Expressing your pledge to incorporate energy wise considerations into your design and operations. Example letters are available at the AIA 2030 Commitment website.

Establish leadership within your firm

Choose an in-house sustainability Leader or Team within (2) months of signing your pledge.

Implement operational action items

Within 6 months of your pledge, create at least (4) in-house policies aimed to reduce the firm's operation energy use. Example operational action policies are available on the national AIA website devoted to this Initiative.

Create a sustainability action plan

Within one year of signing the commitment, incorporate energy reducing measures in your design practice which match the goals of the Initiative and the 2030 Challenge. Integrate the following (4) aspects into your firms practice:

• Operations
• Design goals
• Staff training and eEducation
• Business strategy

Submit a comprehensive sustainability action plan that denotes each of these aspects to AIA National as a PDF or Word document.

Report your firm's annual progress

Track the predicted energy use of each building designed and report a summary of your firm's reductions on a yearly basis to AIA National through the AIA 2030 Commitment website. Use the AIA 2030 Commitment Reporting Tool (Excel-based) to complete your report.

Sign up today to exercise your leadership in changing the course of the planet's future. See all committed firms.

The AIA 2030 Commitment Reporting Tool

The AIA National 2030 Commitment Reporting Tool was created by the leaders of the AIA Chicago 2030  Working Group with the goal of creating a tool to facilitate the reporting methods of the AIA 2030 Commitment.

The Reporting Tool includes information on what type of data is required to complete the report, a step-by-step list of instructions, a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) guide, as well as a worksheet to compile the firm's yearly data. Contained within the Tool is a printable, graphic summary page, used to demonstrate the level of reduction achieved by the Firm for the reporting year.

To complete your firm's yearly report, submit it to AIA 2030 Reporting website as a PDF file.

The AIA Chicago COTE will collect data from participating Chicago area firms to show how our region is leading the country in designing to match the goals of the AIA 2030 Commitment. Demonstrating our reductions as a region will show how Chicago design professionals are leading the nation toward a more sustainable built environment.

If you have additional questions or comments regarding the Reporting Tool, please email them to Chicago 2030 Working Group.