AIA Materials Pledge

The design community has a responsibility to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the occupants we design. The human health pledge statement commits designers to include the evaluation of emissions and harmful substances in products as part of The Standard of Care. It also commits design professionals to consider the material ingredients in manufacturing and the impact on workers and surrounding communities.

Human rights abuses and violations of decent work conditions occur globally in the supply chains of many goods, including building products. As primary advisors and decision makers on material and product selection, the architecture and design community has a responsibility to support supply-chain human rights for all materials used in building projects. Firms can prioritize education around supply chain issues, training on determining whether products and manufacturers support the intent of the social health and equity pledge statement, and creating specifications and product libraries for projects and contracts. In addition, architects should advocate to manufacturers and owners for building products unburdened by human suffering.

The extraction, production, and assembly of building materials often create negative environmental impacts, including air and water pollution, soil degradation, and habitat destruction. Destructive impacts to natural systems are typically excluded from material costs, however. The ecosystem health pledge statement aims to close gaps in knowledge about how the building products we use increasingly threaten the building blocks of life. It's important to prioritize building materials that respect and restore the health of the environment in their creation through the thoughtful use of soil, air, water, and other natural resources. This responsibility includes considering impacts throughout the supply chain, including how sourcing and manufacturing materials affect ecosystems and those living in them

While the building industry needs to drastically reduce operating emissions, there must also be a coordinated effort to reduce embodied carbon from materials. Construction materials generate over 11% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. If we continue with business as usual, more than 50% of the emissions from new construction will come from the CO2 emitted in the production of materials, particularly cement and steel. The climate health pledge statement commits those who design buildings and select materials to accelerate the drive to zero by building less, reusing and retrofitting more, and choosing materials and products that will store carbon in our buildings in the long term. Designers should make use of environmental product declarations and whole building life-cycle assessmen

For far too long, we have constructed new buildings with limited lifespans. Since demolition and renovation activities contribute significantly to global waste, this approach is both inefficient and wasteful of the earth's finite natural resources. A much better option is to capitalize on the significant investment and reuse buildings and building components for generations. The circular economy pledge statement aims to transform attitudes toward building design by encouraging teams to prioritize reusing existing building stock over new construction. Renovation and new-construction methodologies and specifications must evolve to be based on product modules (thus eliminating cutoff waste), design for disassembly, and reuse.