By Kevin Trout, AIA; COTE Committee Chair

I joined the COTE committee in November of 2023 so I could have an opportunity to meet my peers and act on my commitment to lower embodied carbon in my projects.  It isn’t an easy thing to do consistently, and there are multiple hurdles to face.  Healthy material comparisons, life-cycle implications, expensive alternatives, unfamiliar performance and installation, and fear of “turns-out” moments down the road to name a few.  I realized I couldn’t transform my practice on my own, so I turned to the COTE committee to become a part of something larger and to form partnerships with all of you.  After a year of working with the Committee, I’ve been able to learn from many people who have already started down this road.  One of the great rewards of architecture, for me, has been the privilege of working with architects, contractors, and clients in ways that elevate what can be accomplished beyond ourselves.  Now, let me update you about what COTE has been up to:

Embodied Carbon 101 Video Series
The COTE Committee partnered with AIA University to present three parts of their 12-part Embodied Carbon 101 video series. The courses were presented by the Boston Society for Architecture with support from the Carbon Leadership Forum, and cover everything from measuring carbon in our building designs to managing carbon impact and implementing practical solutions from experts. COTE hosted these three weekly webinars to help members learn why and how to turn their practice toward reducing embodied carbon in construction. We presented the courses, "Basic Literacy", "Building Envelopes", and "Making the Case to Your Clients and Stakeholders". Each session, we were joined by one of the original presenters for a Q&A following the video. Rachel White, CEO, Byggmeister Design Build Joined us for "Making the Case", Chris O'Hara, PE, Founding Principal of Studio NYL joined us for "Building Envelopes", and Stacy Smedley, Executive Director of Building Transparency participated in the "Basic Literacy" session. Having each of them present to field questions and share insights as to what has changed since the original video series was incredibly valuable.

Fairbanks Tour
This past June, we attended the Fairbanks Museum tour hosted by VGBN, AIAVT, and the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund.  What a pleasure to be invited inside and to share it with all of you who were there.  The addition, designed by Vermont Integrated Architecture and Engineering Ventures, features a stunning mass timber design. It is the first mass timber demonstration project in Vermont and the first building to use cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels made from locally sourced Eastern Hemlock. This innovative approach sequesters carbon and reduces construction emissions while creating an aesthetically beautiful environment.  We’ve all been learning about mass timber, and we’ve all been learning the benefits of using wood instead of steel and concrete structural systems…but we know that there are obstacles to popular adoption of the system, at this time, and in our region.  This project helped make some of the problems easier to overcome as it was part of a program to prove our regional wood stocks can be used to make mass timber building systems.  It was also a great example of how the thinner structural depth can help adaptive reuse projects work with existing (shorter) floor-to-floor heights.  We appreciate all the work that went into planning the event, and we hope all in attendance became more familiar with mass timber construction after seeing it in person.

Embodied Carbon Community
COTE would like to increase our ability to get members talking about embodied energy and better operational energy strategies without waiting for monthly meetings, newsletters, or in-person events.  Our ability to collectively elevate our understanding of climate crisis issues depends on our ability to reach out of our offices and work together.   Toward this end, COTE conducted an informal digital survey to understand how AIAVT members use social media to communicate. While LinkedIn emerged as a popular platform, the low response rate prevents us from drawing definitive conclusions. If you missed the survey and would like to share your preferences, please email Kevin at kevin@ scottpartners.com.

We hope to build a better presence on the AIAVT website and through our own working networks to enable all of you to get more information from each other about evolving our profession’s ability to lead our clients through this necessary transition.  If you see us talking about this on social media or in your email inbox, don’t be afraid to join in!  Connecting members with valuable resources is part of what the COTE committee is here for. 

Looking Ahead: COTE Goals for 2025

COTE’s primary goal heading into 2025 is to enhance carbon literacy among AIAVT members. We aim to elevate our collective knowledge and share resources and experiences. By openly collaborating and sharing carbon expertise, we can transform our practices and contribute to reducing the climate crisis's impact on the built environment.  The COTE National Committee has resources for guiding this process including the Framework for Design Excellence, and the COTE National Strategy.  We are also working on a shared resources list to update the COTE page on the AIAVT website.  We’ll link to books on the topic of embodied Carbon, web resources like the Carbon Leadership Forum’s Architect’s Toolkit, and the AIAU whole Embodied Carbon 101 video course series.

We encourage all members to participate in this initiative by contributing ideas or attending monthly COTE meetings on Zoom. To learn more, reach out to Kevin, or any COTE committee member.  Your suggestions and feedback can only make us collectively better.

Join Us!

Interested in shaping the future of sustainable design? COTE is seeking new members to help grow the committee and make a bigger impact. With more people and more ideas, we’ll have more time to make it all more valuable.  If you have experience with embodied carbon design, or other climate crisis issues, or want to help steer our focus in 2025, we invite you to get involved!  We meet via Zoom on a monthly basis.  Email kevin@ scottpartners.com for more details.

On behalf of the COTE Committee: a big thank you to everyone who helps define our value relative to altering the course of construction to clients and the community.  Generational change is hard to make alone.  We can only succeed if we work together on this.