AIA 2030 Commitment with OPN Architects’ Tate Walker

Tate Walker is the Director of Sustainability at OPN Architects and leads projects and initiatives across the firm’s four offices. His experience is rooted in the architectural design process but also includes program and project management as well as the development of technical guidelines for high performing buildings. He has served on the AIA’s Committee on the Environment and USGBC’s Energy & Atmosphere Technical Advisory Group. Tate firmly believes that the connection between architecture and energy provides leadership opportunities for architects as creative problem solvers. This is especially true for those willing to stretch their practice beyond its traditional boundaries. Show Highlights  The blue ocean of green building The COTE Toolkit operational guide to achieve the COTE top 10 A framework for design excellence beyond sustainability for the entire Institute.  Fundamental measures about design and equitable communities, energy, water, wellbeing Projects that weave concepts to tailor unique circumstances through a lens of what health hazards people are currently facing AIA, commitment 2030 challenge and other mechanisms, and tools to achieve green building goals Tate shares the essential questions he asks when walking a client through options  How to embrace strong divergent thinking to cast a wide net to determine what's out there, how things fit together, and that is what is missing.  “We're tripping over ourselves, no one person can span the breadth of all these subject areas for sustainability.  We need to pick a subject and go deep on that. Figure out what you're passionate about. If it's energy, if it's materials, if it's resilience, these are all super important and the crossover is huge. I've been deep into energy for my entire career and we still are not building net zero buildings.” -Tate Walker     Tate Walker’s Show Resource and Information   Connect with Charlie Cichetti and GBES   GBES is excited our membership community is growing. Consider joining our membership community as members are given access to some of the guests on the podcasts that you can ask project questions. If you are preparing for an exam, there will be more assurance that you will pass your next exam, you will be given cliff notes if you are a member, and so much more. Go to to learn more about the 4 different levels of access to this one-of-a-kind career-advancing green building community! If you truly enjoyed the show, don't forget to leave a positive rating and review on .  We have prepared more episodes for the upcoming weeks, so come by again next week! Thank you for tuning in to the !   Copyright © 2020 GBES