Welcome to the 50to50, a how-to resource intended to assist architects and the construction industry in moving toward the AIA’s public goal of a minimum 50 percent reduction of fossil fuel consumption in buildings by 2010 and carbon neutrality by 2030.

The AIA has been committed to sustainability as an important component of quality design for more than 30 years. The Institute understands that sustainability means much more than energy conservation alone and has maintained a strong commitment to sustainability in the broadest sense of the term. Growing evidence
of global climate change as the result of increased production of greenhouse gases has necessitated some new priorities.

The AIA recognizes that buildings are responsible for approximately 48 percent of energy consumption in the United States. Ongoing operation and maintenance of buildings account for approximately
76 percent of U.S. electrical use. With these facts alone, it isn’t hard to establish buildings as one of the primary sources of the greenhouse gases contributing to global warming and climate change. This realization has established carbon reduction as the
top priority of the Institute’s SustAIAnability2030 initiative.

The 50 strategies, detailed in the pages that follow, have been selected to provide readily available and effective tools and techniques that will have an effective and immediate impact on architects’ ability to achieve significant carbon reduction. The strategies span a spectrum from broad-based site and planning objectives to specific, building-based concepts. Each strategy includes an overview of the subject, typical applications, emerging trends, links to information sources, and important relationships to
other carbon reduction strategies.

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