Since the nonpartisan grassroots network Architects Advocate Action on Climate Change (Architects Advocate) was founded in late 2016, the group has called for greater participation among architects and designers to demand climate change legislation from political leaders. Nineteen months later, the organization has unveiled its Catalytic Action Platform, a series of steps for firms and individual architects to take ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
“Maybe more than any other profession, architects are trained to build consensus around multiple—and often competing—interests and stakeholders. We need to deploy these skills towards a redesign of the systems that impact all of society,” said Architects Advocate co-founder Tom Jacobs, AIA, in a press release. “This is leadership in the truest sense. To achieve the ultimate goal of transforming to a carbon-free economy, we need to go to the polls and make choices based on issues, not parties.”
The platform calls for individual architects to join the Architects Advocate Network; to use the group’s form letter to write to individual representatives in Congress supporting the Bipartisan Climate Solution Caucus; and—most importantly—to vote on Tuesday, Nov. 6 for candidates that “affirm climate science and who are dedicated to enact meaningful and needed legislation,” according to the platform website.
For participating design firms and practices, Architects Advocate asks that they become signatories of the AIA 2030 Commitment; join the We Are Still In network to demonstrate a commitment to upholding the standards in the Paris Climate Agreement; and offer a fossil free investment fund options as part of investment plans if 401(k) plans, where they are available to employees.
For more on Architects Advocate, read our interview with co-founder Tom Jacobs here.
