Canadian architects are committed to creating and renovating buildings with an operational footprint of net-zero carbon by 2050 (the goal of the IPCC special report limiting global mean temperature rise to 1.5ºC). We have demonstrated net-zero precedents that are capital cost-neutral when compared to conventional construction. Reductions of 90-100% operational GHGe and 70% reductions in thermal energy are possible today even on large scale renovation projects, such as the renovation of the OAA’s own headquarters in Toronto, which met the net-zero goal a full decade early with an operational energy reduction of 70%.  

We have even produced zero-operational carbon buildings at half the cost of conventional construction. But we must also look at how our business practices may support continued expansion of fossil resources, and we must encourage our financial partners to divest from these practices to keep in line with the 1.5ºC pathways. This action is also important to our clients, and to the allied professionals we work with on a daily basis. Our clients expect us to lead not only in professional knowledge and technology, but also in the way that we practice the business of architecture.

We believe that communicating with our finance and insurance partners is the first step in helping the world of finance understand that Architects have solutions to limit the climate crisis, but that we need their support to take action.

Canadian architects have been informally discussing the lack of green banking and/or fossil-divested banks in Canada. This is important to us as we are committed to take action to reduce the 40% energy and GHG emissions that the AEC sector is responsible for in Canada. This reduction must be radical, and the timeline is urgent. To this end, as many architects have collectively declared their own climate emergencies and signed on to this commitment form at https://ca.architectsdeclare.com/

Jennifer Cutbill is the Vancouver-based Architect from Lateral Agency that started the Canadian Architects Declare Site. Andy Thomson and Bruce Haden have been active in taking action beyond the scope of their design practice and into the way architects do business. Each of their firms have committed to climate-positive activism and advocacy in their respective regions, and collectively we have launched this website to help others follow suit.