Erin Lauer, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, Fitwel Ambassador
Chair of the AIAO Committee on the Environment
With an increasing number of publications and major news media outlets reporting daily on the effects of climate change on our world’s populations, along with this change recently being reported by National Public Radio (NPR) as the “greatest threat to public health,” the imperative for climate action from each of us as an individual and a professional is now. The AIAO Committee on the Environment (COTE) welcomes and embraces collaboration and thought processes that distinctly progress us to positive sustainable actions.
I learned at the beginning of my career years ago, and then relearned many times again, that my daily work and career choices must involve providing and improving habitable environments for all to enjoy. Sure, I attempted other types of work, but conclusively was not interested. My work must make a difference and positive impact. My work in sustainable design and planning often served more privileged building occupants, but that is how a movement must begin. Computers were not affordable at first and neither were solar panels, but we began somewhere as a society and thus the sustainability movement also progressed to providing healthy environments for a more inclusive population.
As Chair of COTE, I am enthusiastic about how we welcome collaboration as people to share old and new ideas, tools, and resources and share knowledge across a diversity of disciplines, and not architecture alone. This collaboration informs my daily professional practice as sustainability consultant and co-owner of Project Pivot, a women-owned sustainable building consulting practice. I am motivated to listen to the concerns of our clients and building occupants, to hear the stories of how climate change is affecting us all as individuals and those for whom we care all around the region and the world, and to brainstorm together actionable solutions that can be incorporated into early design to mitigate and reverse climate change or to adapt to these changes, while considering the effects on our building inhabitants and surrounding environment.
The Committee on the Environment has had participants join from around the state who voice concerns and give solutions. At the beginning of 2021, we listened to AIAO members express their desire to join our committee, but observed the overlap with other similar committees. Thus we joined committees with the Architecture 2030 Working Group, an Energy Trust of Oregon (ETO) working group focused on bringing firms together to calculate carbon. Together, we joined forces in April 2021. We collaborate with other committees including the Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (CoEDI), Emerging Professionals Committee (EPC), and the Legislative Affairs Committee (LAC), with liaisons from these committees joining our COTE meetings to cross pollinate information and resources.
This collaboration of different committees or groups has evolved our offerings. This year’s Green Champion Summit, on Monday, October 11, focuses on the imperative for climate action now. The year 2030, that year that we have all been benchmarking as the year for net zero carbon design, is just around the corner, less than 9 years away. Climate change is real and is having long-lasting impacts on our most underprivileged communities. We are seeing a rise in houselessness and climate refugees. We are feeling the effects of the forest fires in our western states, with the burning of rainforests that left us with this year’s heat dome. We experience extended power outages, more extreme freezing temperatures in the winter, and longer periods of drought. The Green Champion Summit weaves together voices from around the country and the region, to dive more deeply into the effects of climate change, the data that supports those most affected by this climate change and to develop solutions as individuals and professionals for actionable change over the next year. To continue the conversation, AIAO and COTE will be hosting a panel discussion of ETO Net Zero Fellows in November and introduce the carbon tracking tool with an educational component in the spring of 2022. (If you are a Net Zero Fellow, you may be contacted by a member of COTE in the near future.)
If you care about the effects of climate change on your daily life or the daily life of someone you care about, please join the AIAO Committee on the Environment, to share your ideas, resources and tools and to be inspired to do more today.
“No time like the present…” - John Trusler, 1562
Erin Lauer is Chair of the AIAO Committee on the Environment, a LEED Accredited Professional and Fitwel Ambassador. She is a licensed architect in the State of Oregon and sustainability consultant and owner of Project Pivot, a COBID certified ESB and WBE in the state of Oregon, along with her business partner Julie McEvoy Baines.