Online Courses to Support the Goals of the 2030 Commitment
AIAU Design for Decarbonization Series
The following AIAU courses are meant to be combined in order to support architects in meeting the goals of the 2030 Commitment.
Carbon Reduction Strategies for the AIA 2030 Commitment
Equip yourself with the necessary knowledge and tools to meet the goals of the AIA 2030 Commitment—AIA’s actionable climate strategy for reaching net zero emissions in the built environment by 2030. Explore key concepts and strategies for reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions in building design and construction. Topics include the integrated design process, passive design strategies, energy modeling, high-performance building systems, post-occupancy evaluations, and renewable energy integration.Achieving High-Performance Building Design
This dynamic course gives AEC professionals the tools to master high-performance building design—merging cutting-edge technology with proven design strategies. Explore the core components of high-performance design—building envelopes, HVAC, lighting, and control technologies—while learning how to integrate them for optimal energy efficiency and occupant well-being. Across five focused lessons, you’ll also gain insight into emerging trends and technologies like AI and IoT, and how they’re reshaping the future of high-performance design.Passive Design Strategies for Energy Efficiency and Decarbonization
Passive design is a powerful strategy for reducing energy demand and advancing building decarbonization. This course provides architects, designers, and sustainability professionals with a foundational understanding of passive design strategies and how to apply them from early concept through building operation. Explore how passive design aligns with the AIA Framework for Design Excellence and how strategies—such as building orientation, envelope design, natural ventilation, and thermal mass—can reduce reliance on mechanical systems while improving thermal comfort and indoor air quality.An Introduction to the AIA Framework for Design Excellence
Propel your practice’s success with the AIA Framework for Design Excellence—the defining 10 principles of design excellence in the 21st century. In this introductory course, you will learn the origin, evolution, and significance of each of the framework’s principles and examine how they advance progress toward a zero-carbon, healthy, just, resilient, and equitable built environment. Learn from real-world case studies showcasing successful implementations across diverse firms and project types.
AIAU Embodied Carbon 101 Certificate series
Embodied Carbon 101 is designed to help AEC professionals understand embodied carbon and immediately apply that knowledge to projects to reduce emissions and get to zero carbon. Take the courses >
Climate Action Pledge Program youtube Channel
AIA also maintains a Pledge Program youtube channel with recorded tutorials, case studies and best practices for both meeting the decarbonization goals 2030 Commitment and particulars of reporting to the DDx.
LMN Path to Zero Carbon series
This written online series was created by LMN Architects, not the AIA but contains vetted content and is a great introduction to key decarbonization topics. The series is an honest exploration of a very near-term and critical challenge, in the spirit of failing forward, enabled by a culture of sharing among sustainability professionals. Goals include identifying resources and robust tools to calculate and reduce carbon emissions where they exist; to provide actionable methods where tools do not exist; and to provide questions and links to studies where no tools or methods exist.
This series is broken into 3 main topics:
Framing the Challenge considers our overall impact on our environment, resilience, and equity; our responsibility for these impacts and how they impact our clients carbon emissions disclosures; and the expanding scope of carbon emissions beyond just energy and structural embodied carbon.
Fundamentals posts cover the science, policy, and basic research that provides context for climate action, including how greenhouse gases warm the planet, the time value of carbon, how the electricity grid is transforming, and the challenges of understanding and procuring carbon offsets.
Exploring Carbon provides research on building-scale tools, methods, and strategies to understand and reduce emissions, from whole-building reuse to emerging research on embodied carbon and the circular economy.