Sustainability Action Plans: How four firms are setting goals and taking action

For many architecture and design firms across the country, prioritizing sustainability, resilience, and climate action is key to their firm's culture and design processes. By signing onto the AIA 2030 Commitment and AIA Materials Pledge, a collective 1,400+ firms publicly show this by committing to 1) annually reporting their predicted energy and materials data to the AIA and 2) creating a Sustainability Action Plan (SAP) and/or Materials Action Plan (MAP). Together, these two actions set signatories on a path to establishing and operationalizing their goals and contributing to a better built environment.

AIA recently published an updated Creating a Sustainability Action Plan that works! resource that includes new additions on holistic participation in the AIA 2030 Commitment and A&D Materials Pledge, small firm-focused addendum, and a Materials Action Plan companion resource. 

We chatted with architects at four firms with diverse sizes and geographies: Alyssa Manypenny Murphy, AIA, of Placework; Amy Running, AIA, of Bora Architects and Interiors; Ellen Mitchell, AIA, of LPA Design Studios; and Matt Krieger, AIA, of Neumann Monson Architects. 

They speak on the value of their SAP: internally in building firm culture and creating good design processes, and externally when engaging with clients, prospective talent, and collaborating with peers.

Sustainability, resilience, and climate action are integrated in firm ethos

Murphy: Climate action informs the work we do, how we operate as a company, and how we integrate with and support our community. At the root, it means Placework is thinking about how every design choice affects the people, community, and ecosystem around us. 

Running: For Bora, sustainability means caring for future generations and addressing climate justice. Resilience is the capacity to adapt to climate change while maintaining ecological integrity. The firm’s holistic approach integrates ecological, social, and design excellence to transform the built environment for equity and health.

Mitchell: LPA’s ethos that sustainability can be incorporated into every project regardless of size or scale was cited by the AIA as critical to our recognition as the 2025 Firm Award winner. We take our commitments around climate action seriously and constantly challenge ourselves with a “no excuses” mentality that shows up in our work. 

Krieger: At Neumann Monson, our mission is to “achieve a sustainable and equitable future through design.”  We believe that should be possible at every scale. Design should strengthen communities and help everyone reach their potential, no matter the project type or budget. 

Creating an SAP pushes firms to do better while holding them accountable

Murphy: Over the last five years we’ve updated our plan annually, evolving its structure to better reflect our current practices and new benchmarks. We include its goals in our annual strategic plan, so that the climate goals are integrated into our larger firm's operations goals. Doing this helps ensure that the plan doesn’t sit on a shelf or is only consulted by some; we check our progress monthly and reprioritize actions as necessary to serve the goals.

Running: Bora developed Climate, Health, and Equity goals for the entire office through leadership roles that embed these values across all work and firm-wide visioning exercises. A knowledge-sharing platform allows for ongoing educational sessions and annual goal setting with progress reporting, ensuring a unified culture embracing these principles. This approach creates a cohesive environment where sustainability and equity initiatives are prioritized beyond individual projects.

SAPs provide value when talking to clients and prospective talent

Mitchell: LPA’s SAP is not only a way we can talk about our values as a company, but it is also a road map demonstrating what we have done, what we aim to do, and how we are going to get there. The level of clarity around both the firm’s environmental and social impacts is helpful for our clients, our potential clients, our employees, and our prospective employees, helping us communicate who we are and how we work. 

Krieger: The Sustainability Action Plan is our roadmap to a better future—it’s what will help us achieve our mission as a company. Internally, we include it as part of our onboarding process for all new staff and encourage them to join our Green Team.  With clients, we focus more on the individual actions within SAP and our actual design solutions rather than the document itself. 

Having said that, we have had a client tell us they found our SAP on our website, and it was one of the determining factors in selecting us, which has prompted us to be even more direct in how we communicate its value.

SAPs come in all shapes and sizes

Murphy: In 2020, the slow down gave us a chance to step back, consider all our practices, and make clear commitments. Writing our first SAP became an important part of that work. As a small firm, the glossy reports of larger firms made the task seem daunting, but we broke it down into areas of focus and established achievable goals and corresponding action items. Our first plan was more like a letter we wrote to ourselves, challenging the team to build on existing practices and develop new habits.  

Mitchell: LPA’s SAP has been a critical component of enabling us to create a roadmap outlining how we incorporate high-performance design into our workflow. Our plan is not static but is constantly evolving. Our next iteration will be released in the coming months and has been significantly expanded to include information on our carbon reduction, healthy materials, and social impact efforts.

AIA’s climate pledge programs create better design outcomes

Murphy: Placework aspires to have the lightest ecological footprint that we can, so our team is always working to understand the latest materials and tools. We’re in a time that demands many creative solutions, so we’re always adapting our approach to try to achieve the greatest reductions possible.

Running: The AIA Materials Pledge drove Bora to develop sustainable criteria for its materials library and emphasize comprehensive internal education on materials impact. Collectively, these reporting efforts foster transparency and continuous improvement in sustainable design practices within the firm and the broader AEC industry. 

Mitchell: LPA’s SAP has been a critical component of enabling us to create a roadmap outlining how we incorporate high-performance design into our workflow. Our plan is not static but is constantly evolving. Our next iteration will be released in the coming months and has been significantly expanded to include information on our carbon reduction, healthy materials, and social impact efforts.

Krieger: We take to heart the adage, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” The reporting mechanism in these programs drives action beyond simple aspirational change.  It took AIA 2030's reporting mechanism for us to truly understand how our projects were performing and inform us of the changes within our design process and approaches.  We were inaugural signatories of the Materials Pledge and just going through the reporting process, even the project level reporting, has informed our project teams of the impact we can have at varying scales.

Want to learn more on Sustainability Action Plans? The AIA 2030 Commitment and AIA Materials Pledge are hosting a series of webinars to help firms get started. Attend the live webinar and earn LU|HSWs! 

• Small firms and the benefits of an SAP | August 25, 3-4 PM ET | Register now
• Materials matters: Integrating materials into SAPs | September 9, 3-5 PM ET | Register now

About the interviewees and firms

Matt Krieger, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, is Associate Principal at Neumann Monson Architects, a medium-sized firm based in Iowa City, Iowa. See Neumann Monson Architects’ newly updated Sustainability Action Plan here. 

Ellen Mitchell, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, SEED, is Director of Sustainability and Applied Research at LPA, a large firm based in California and Texas and 2025 AIA Architecture Firm Award recipient. She is an incoming 2026 co-chair of the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE®) Leadership Group. See LPA’s Sustainability Action Plan here. 

Alyssa Murphy, AIA, LEED AP, is Principal at Placework, a small firm based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She is currently on the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE®) Leadership Group. See Placework’s Sustainability Action Plan here. 

Amy Running, IIDA, is an Interior Designer at Bora Architects & Interiors, a large firm based in Portland, Oregon. She is currently on the AIA Materials Pledge Working Group. See Bora’s Climate, Health, and Equity goals here.