Going for Zero: Decarbonizing the Built Environment on the Path to Our Urban Future

AIAU25-HRC01R

Included in subscription

1 LU|HSW

Course expires on: 09/21/2028

$30

Architect$30

Member Price

$45

Non-member Price

Description

Climate change is no longer an abstract threat. Day after day, an already disrupted climate is impacting the lives of millions, and the time available to curtail climate change is alarmingly limited. Decarbonizing how buildings are designed, constructed, and operated is a sea change that is already altering professional principles and practices.

In Going for Zero: Decarbonizing the Built Environment on the Path to Our Urban Future, seasoned architect and former AIA president Carl Elefante addresses how buildings and cities can and must help resolve the looming climate emergency. Elefante offers a decidedly alternative viewpoint, one informed by his architecture career rescuing buildings from senseless demolition and learning from the practices and wisdom embedded in built heritage.

Going for Zero is an urgent call to action and path forward. Elefante’s message is ultimately one of hope—but we must act now.

This session was recorded live on October 23, 2025.

Learning Objectives

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Articulate the urgency of addressing climate change and its direct impact on millions of lives, recognizing the critical role of decarbonizing the built environment in achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions.

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Evaluate the role of built form in addressing the justice imperative by resolving intransigent social and economic injustice through the strategic optimization and direction of resources.

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Explain the profound mode shift advocated by Carl Elefante, moving from an expansion mindset to one of reintegration and healing in their professional practices, informed by learning from built heritage.

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Describe how revitalizing communities through optimizing existing resources makes social, economic, and environmental sense, thereby directing resources where they are most needed.

Presented in partnership with the Historic Resources Committee.

hrc

Instructors

Robert C. Burns

AIA, LEED AP

Robert Burns has recently retired from his position as a Principal with Commonwealth Architects in Richmond, Virginia after a distinguished forty-year career. Serving as the firm’s Director of Historic Architecture, his primary area of expertise is in the preservation and adaptive reuse of existing buildings.

Currently serving as 2025 Chair for the AIA’s Historic Resources Committee Advisory Group, Robert has participated on several panels and written numerous articles on the topic of sustainable design for historic preservation, including a chapter on that subject for the CSI’s Sustainable Design and Construction Practice Guide.

Robert holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture, cum laude, from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Architecture degree from Clemson University.

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Carl Elefante

FAIA

A nationally recognized expert on sustainability, Carl Elefante serves as principal for Quinn Evans Architects in Washington, DC, a full-service architectural firm with special expertise in the preservation, expansion, and adaptive use of historic buildings and sites.

Carl has brought his expertise to projects across building types, including the renovation of Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Museum; design of Ames Hall at George Washington University; collaboration with William McDonough + Partners on the School of International Service at American University; renovation of the Sant Ocean Hall at the National Museum of Natural History; and renovation of Baltimore’s Peabody Institute.

Carl has been an active member of the AIA at the local, state, and national levels. Nationally, he represented the Middle Atlantic region on both the AIA Board of Directors and Strategic Council, and has worked closely with the AIA Committee on the Environment, the Historic Resources Committee, and the Sustainability Scan Advisory Group. He also served as President of both AIA Maryland and AIA Potomac Valley.

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