Green Buildings + Climate Change

What AEC Professionals + Firms Can Do to Tackle'The Single Largest Issue Facing the Nation Today'

“To me, climate change is the single largest issue facing the nation today. We must make dramatic changes immediately in order to have hope that our quality of life will not change for the worse over the next decades due to climate change.” — Elizabeth Weiss, Managing Principal, Gorman Richardson Architects

Elizabeth Weiss speaks for the hundreds of AEC professionals who responded to our exclusive survey on climate change and who expressed deep concern about global warming. They want to do something about climate change, but may not necessarily know how they can make a difference.

In this White Paper, we provide concrete ways in which AEC professionals can have a positive role in addressing climate change. To that end, we offer:

An analysis of the most rigorous scientific study of global warming, the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with particular attention to the built environment.A review of 34 national, regional, state, and local climate change initiatives and their impact on the AEC industry.Practical steps AEC professionals can take to cut greenhouse gas emissions in buildings using well-known technologies and methods.

We conclude with a detailed Action Plan—eight recommendations and 22 specific action items for AEC professionals and firms to implement in their work.