About this event:

4:30 – 5:30 pm Cocktail Reception with Legislators

5:30 – 6:30 pm

Program: Wisconsin’s Clean Energy Plan - How can Architects become essential partners in a sustainable future for Wisconsin?

Opening Remarks: Lara Bakker, Assoc. AIA, Focus on Energy, Event Co-sponsor

Panel of Experts:

Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes
Former Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna
Wendy von Below, Section Chief Project Delivery, Division of Facilities Development

6:30 – 7:00 pm After hours networking

Co-Sponsor: Focus on Energy

Please consider a donation to Wisconsin Society of Architects/Political Action Committee.

Program Description:

In 2019, Governor Evers issued Executive Order #38 outlining a clean energy plan for the State of Wisconsin ramping up the conversation about our environmental responsibility and calling for Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050.

In 2020, the AIA adopted its “Blueprint for Better” campaign with the same mission in mind. According to the research, “if we don’t reduce our current global CO2 emissions by 65% by 2030—and then to 0% by 2040—the change will become irreversible.”

What does that mean for architects? Many look at the CO2 emission data and think that the only way to affect this crisis is by driving an electric car. NOT SO!

“Ed Mazria, FAIA, an architect in Santa Fe, New Mexico, founded Architecture 2030, a nonprofit initiative to transform the global built environment from the major contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to a central part of the solution to the climate crisis. Mazria dug into the data behind the materials used to create buildings and came to a new conclusion: The profession of architecture has been on a “carbon binge” for decades.

Learning Objectives:

• While transportation garners many of the headlines about CO2 emissions, it surprisingly only accounts for about 23% of global emissions. Evaluate how building operations, materials, and the construction sector, by contrast, cause most of the rest.
• Explore the global building floor area (today is about 2.4 trillion square feet) and why it is expected to double by 2060. Evaluate what this means and if we hope to stop climate change, all of it must be designed to meet zero-carbon standards.
• For architects, this challenge is a pivotal opportunity in design, planning, and construction—a chance to address the carbon binge, drastically lower CO2 emissions, and shape the future of our world. Identify how architects can quickly change how they design buildings to positively impact climate change.
• Examine how to support the AIA’s “Blueprint for Better” mission and to join the efforts and achieve a zero-carbon, resilient, healthy, just, and equitable built environment.

It’s time to show the world what design can accomplish.”*

Please join us for a discussion on this topic here in our home state. Let’s talk about the opportunities for architects to get involved in the processes and projects that will help us get to this goal. We will have elected officials, industry experts and yes, of course, architects gather to discuss ways that Wisconsin can lead the way in this global effort, even if it is one small project at a time.

*Excerpts from Blueprint for Better, The American Institute of Architects, 2020.

1.0 LU/HSW