AIA: When progress stalled, LPA doubled down on performance

Writing for AIA Architect, LPA President Keith Hempel shares lessons from a year in the 2030 Commitment wilderness, and what the firm did to get back on track.

By Keith Hempel, FAIA

Our firm uses the AIA 2030 Commitment as the key metric for measuring our progress toward designing carbon neutral buildings. Last year, when we reported our results for 2023, we were in for a shock.

After reducing predicted energy use by 78.7% across more than 6.2 million square feet of projects in 2022, our best-ever result, the overall performance of our projects had fallen to an average of 71.4%, a 7% decline.

For us, the 2023 result was a step backwards. The drop, after years of a steady upward trajectory, prompted serious self-reflection about our process and rigor. Like many firms, we had reached a point where we appeared to be plateauing, and we needed to push forward and find a way to get to that next level.

We knew our projects were still performing far above the industry average of a 50% pEUI reduction, and the results were partially attributable to challenging project types and an increase in the number of renovations. But we had to face the possibility that we had taken our foot off the gas pedal. We’d seen years of steady improvement and maybe we simply thought that the momentum was going to naturally continue. That didn’t happen.

The 2023 numbers were a wakeup call. As a team, we’ve made the AIA 2030 Commitment one of the key measures of our performance. Looking at the decline, we committed to taking a hard look at what we needed to improve and fine tune.

What happened next? Check out the full article on AIA Architect.