Featuring COTE's Policy + Advocacy Subcommittee

By: COTE Co-Chairs, Danielle Fleischmann & Roshni Krishnan

AIA Philadelphia's Committee on the Environment is a band of leaders working to realize a healthy, equitable built environment. We educate designers, campaign for policy change, influence design culture, and join forces with other organizations advocating for change. We have 5 subcommittees that work to support the AIA's Climate Action Plan, the Framework for Design Excellence, Zero Waste, Environmental Justice, and the 2030 Commitment. 

Here is some more information about our subcommittees and their dedicated members!

The COTE Policy and Advocacy Subcommittee (COTE PAS) meets weekly to advocate for policy and legislation that advances the role of architects in addressing climate change. COTE PAS will promote legislation that encourages high performance, low carbon impact buildings, environmental justice, and seeks alliances with groups that share similar goals and want to advance similar policy. We strive to increase employment opportunities and community revitalization opportunities, while seeking to implement our climate change goals through codes and regulations.

The current areas of Policy Research + Advocacy include:

Embodied Carbon / Procurement - Regulations or requirements for the process of purchasing goods and/or services.

Adaptive Reuse - The process of repurposing buildings for viable new uses and modern functions, other than those originally intended to address present-day needs.

Deconstruction & Waste - The selective dismantling of building components, specifically for reuse, repurposing, recycling, and waste management.

Environmental Justice - The social and economical impact that climate change has on society.

Electrification - Electrification refers to the process of replacing technologies that use fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) with technologies that use electricity as a source of energy.

Reach out to learn more, volunteer, or participate in our Advocacy efforts!

The subcommittee partners with AIA Philadelphia to lobby and advocate for legislation related to all of the areas of research above. We regularly communicate with our councilmembers and provide support to the City on potential precedents that might be applicable to Philadelphia. Our list of collaborators is extensive and ever changing depending on the priorities in which our research leads. Currently we are focused on highlighting the importance of Embodied Carbon legislation in a coalition effort with the Carbon Leadership Forum (Philly) and Green Building United.

For events, we host an annual Spring into Action educational event around the importance of Policy and Decarbonization. In the past few years, we've had the honor of including the following prestigious individuals to help further our cause; Christine Knapp, Director of the Office of Sustainability; Ed Mazria, Founder of Architecture 2030; Matt O'Malley, Chief Sustainability Officer at Vicinity Energy, Christina Simeone, Policy Researcher at NREL; Russell Unger, Principal at the Rocky Mountain Institute; and others!

Stay tuned for an in-person tour of the Vicinity Energy Facility in Philadelphia and how they can help Philadelphia achieve carbon neutrality at an exponential rate! This fall we will be assisting with an Advocacy Day with local legislators and hosting training sessions for those who want to learn more about how to do so on a regular basis!

This subcommittee is currently lead by Brian Smiley and Danielle Fleischmann with a wide range of members including Architects, Structural Engineers, and Sustainability Consultants! Special thanks to our active members; Jelena Matic, Denise Richards, Steve Krug, Kevin Malawski, John Cassidy, Lauren Thomsen, Jennifer Gajewski-Heon, and more.