THE DOGRUN

We are excited to announce the release of the AIA Climate Action Business Playbook. This resource was created by Lake|Flato, Buro Happold, Sustainable Performance Institute, unabridged Architecture.

Project Team

The project team included:

• Heather Holdridge, Director of Design Performance, Lake|Flato
• Dan Stine, Director of Design Technology, Lake|Flato
• Aurora Jensen, Embodied Carbon Lead, Brightworks Sustainability
• Varun Kohli, AVP - Real Properties, Battery Park City Authority
• Barbra BatShalom, Founder & CEO, Sustainable Performance Institute
• Allison Anderson, Principal, unabridged Architecture

FYI: Aurora and Varun worked at Buro Happold during this project.

Introduction

The AIA Climate Action Business Playbook (CABP) is meant to parallel the AIA Framework for Design Excellence. Where the framework is primarily focused on project delivery, the CABP places more emphasis on business practices that can support climate action. And, to create a well-rounded resource, CABP has a section on project delivery (called Portfolio). Finally, there is a section called Impact which occupies an overlapping area between the Firm and Portfolio sections.

Organization

Here is the overall organization:

Introduction: An urgent challenge, a looming deadline

Firm

• Transform Leadership & Practice 
• Embody Climate Action in Studio Operations
• Communicate Key Principles

Portfolio

• Goal Setting: Aim High
• Measure Progress & Successes
• Planning for Change

Impact

• Participate & Advocate
• Sustain Research & Innovation
• Elevate All Voices
• Expand Education

Glossary

Related to the sections and "chapters", Here is an interesting matrix we created on intersections with other recourses...

Like the Framework, the Climate Action Business Playbook is organized into several tiles on the AIA website, as shown below.

Each tile is then organized into four sub-sections:

• Foundations (e.g., see first image below)
• Best practices (e.g., see second image below)
• High impact
• Resources

The document also includes a glossary for key terms used throughout the playbook.

SME Meetings

During the development of the playbook, the AIA curated several subject matter experts (SME) which convened for meetings early in the process, to help formulate/validate the content and high-level organization.

We used Miro, a live online collaboration board, for these SME sessions and for our own team meetings/organization. The image below shows a zoomed-out view of the workspace, which has everything from post-it-type notes to free-hand sketches!

Link: AIA Climate Action Business Playbook