Billie Faircloth, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C, Partner with KieranTimberlake, has assumed the role of 2022 National COTE Chair ushering in her term with a welcome message and vision for the future of the AIA National Committee on the Environment (COTE).
Read her message below.
We begin 2022 with a note of deep gratitude for all past, present, and new COTE volunteers. The Committee on the Environment (COTE) has begun its 32nd year of essential work to “promote design strategies that empower all AIA members to realize the best social and environmental outcomes with the clients and the communities they serve.” Our volunteers are individuals, groups, and firms who have and continue to offer their vision, expertise, and resources to achieve a healthy, equitable, and sustainable future. They are jurors, technical reviewers, advocates, practitioners, students, and educators who collectively expand and improve upon our key programs: The COTE Top Ten Awards and The COTE Top Ten for Students Competition.
THANK YOU for dedicating yourselves and your firms to this work, and for helping COTE demonstrate the positive and transformative power of design. Our work aspires to be uplifting, but it comes with self-reflection and unflagging critique. We have all contributed to big wins in our individual work with clients, organizations, and institutions, as much as we’ve felt deep disappointment over decisions that seem to fail in their lack of nerve. We know that many of you are feeling the sting of advocacy fatigue even as you commit and recommit yourselves to climate advocacy work nationally and locally. COTE’s programs have always aimed to be a platform from which to celebrate the wins while also propelling us toward a deeper understanding of the impact of our actions on people, communities, and the environment.
In 2022, COTE will focus on the essential work of its strategic mission and vision. The work of the COTE Leadership Group (COTE LG) will place emphasis on these three priorities:
One priority will be to strengthen our network and expand our capacity for outreach, amplifying the climate work of AIA board committees, AIA Knowledge Communities, and industry-wide organizations. This year we officially welcome into the COTE LG liaisons from the Young Architects Forum (YAF) and COTE Network. These liaisons will work throughout the year to coordinate the efforts of our respective groups. We will also continue to coordinate with the Committee on Climate Action and Design Excellence (CCADE), the Committee on Design (AIA COD), AIA Honors and Awards, and AIA staff to promote the accessibility and evolution of the Framework for Design Excellence.
As a second key priority, the COTE LG will begin a new and essential workstream that examines the relationship between design excellence, climate action, and climate justice. This work builds upon COTE’s update in 2021 to the COTE Top Ten Awards Measure 2, Design for Equitable Communities. It also learns from the work of COTE Advocacy which prioritizes national-level environmental policy action. The COTE LG looks forward to announcing more about this work mid-year and inviting volunteers to work with us on this important initiative.
The third priority I wanted to mention is that in 2022, we will also reflect on the meaning and purpose of our programs and plans for their future. Early in 2022, the COTE LG will assemble groups to begin a broad review of The COTE Top Ten Awards and The COTE Top Ten for Students Competition. These programs have elevated exemplary projects and have built, in the words of the late Gail Lindsey, FAIA, a founder of The COTE Top Ten Awards, “a database of the very best.” What is design excellence now, and what should these programs aim for in the immediate future? COTE volunteers, if you are interested in contributing your feedback, and participating in this effort, please reach out to us via cote@aia.org (or to me or a member of the COTE LG) and indicate your interest and willingness to work with us to evolve these programs.
Billie Faircloth, FAIA | 2022 AIA COTE Chair