AIA Meeting Calls for Response to Climate Change

Washington, DC, June 19, 2007--At the American Institute of Architects (AIA) 2007 National Convention in San Antonio, the presidents of 16 national, regional and international architects associations spoke in one voice to urge the design and construction industry to adopt well-defined global sustainability goals as the benchmarks of their practice.

San Antonio Declaration:

We the undersigned, presidents of our respective national architectural institutes, acknowledge the critical nature of global climate change and the urgent need to mount a global response. Statistics clearly show the preponderant responsibility of the design and construction industry for energy consumption and carbon emissions in building construction and operations.

Over the past 35 years, a long list of increasingly urgent calls for responsible action have been issued on the world stage: from United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972; to the Bruntland Report, “Our Common Future” produced in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development; to the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992; to the Declaration of Interdependence for a Sustainable Future, UIA/AIA World Congress of Architects, Chicago, 18-21 June 1993; to the three environmental principles of the United Nations Global Compact.

We call on all architects, engineers, contractors, developers and educators to adopt and implement these sustainability goals as the benchmarks of their practice.

RK Stewart, FAIA

President, The American Institute of Architects

Marshall E. Purnell, FAIA

First Vice President, The American Institute of Architects

Kate Schwennsen, FAIA

2006 President, The American Institute of Architects

Jean-François Susini

President, Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE)

Kun-Chang Yi

Chairman, Architects Regional Council of Asia (ARCASIA)

Ivan Cervantes Erosa

Federacion de Colegios de Arquitectos de la Republica Mexicana (FCARM)

Gabriel Durand-Hollis, FAIA

President, Panamerican Federation of Architects Associations (FPAA)

Abel Salazar Vargas

President, Costa Rica Institute of Architects (CACR)

Mitsuru Senda

President, Japan Institute of Architects (JIA)

Yael Kinsky, AIA

President, The Israeli Association of Independent Architects (IAIA)

Alec Tzannes, FRAIA

President, Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA)

Kyoshi Matsuzaki, FRAIC

President, Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC)

Jack Pringle

President, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

Gaetan Siew

President, International Union of Architects (UIA)

Endorsed by:

Douglas E. Engebretsen, FAIA

First Vice President, National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB)

Bruce E. Blackmer, FAIA

First Vice President, National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB)

Theodore C. Landsmark, M.Ev.D, JD, PhD

President, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA)

Jonathan Bahe

President, American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS)

Donald J. Hackl, FAIA

UIA Treasurer

Louise Cox, LFRAIA

UIA First Vice President (Region IV); RAIA International Relations Committee & RAIA 1994 President

Giancarlo Ius, UIA Vice President, Region I

Mauricio Rivero Borrell, Hon. FAIA, UIA Vice President, Region III

The International Presidents’ Forum is a meeting held each year during the AIA National Convention since 2002. Approximately a dozen presidents of national, regional or international architects association attend the AIA convention, along with other officers and members of these associations. The International Presidents’ Forum was created to allow an opportunity for informal, broad-reaching discussion and information sharing among the leaders of the international architecture community. This meeting allows not only the AIA president to spend time with visiting international leaders, but for the leaders to spend together in a multi-lateral discussion. This is the third year that the presidents have unanimously adopted a declaration on a critical issue.

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