Now as an architect who believes strongly in the environmental movement and understands what the impact of the buildings we design have on the environment, I am glad that you found the AIA's press release on fuel and green house gas reduction. Because as you stated we do not always have the opportunity to determine where a building goes. But we do have a lot of say in how much it cost and how it performs as a whole. Though that is not our biggest hurdle. Our biggest hurdle is our client. Not all of our clients care about the environmental footprint of their building. They only worry about upfront costs. So we take what measures we can to reduce it. So right now we are in the profession as a whole is in the process of educating our clients and the general public, because our designs/buildings can be great educational tools for people. That is why I am apart of my states AIA Committee On The Environment (COTE) chapter where we are currently trying to get energy performance standards for state funded buildings. You would be surprised to see what the building industry is doing to reduce their environmental footprint. It’s that we are not all as out spoken as William McDonough.

I have to take exception to the rather cynical and dismissive tone the author of this post uses in regards to the impact architects have on the building process. As a engineering technician in the employ of an architectural firm I have to wonder what sort of experience and qualifications Mr. Alter has to say: "As if architects have anything to do with what buildings cost and where they go." I am usually a fan of Mr. Alter's posts, being Canadian myself, but this one bothered me immediately.

I feel that I must respond to Andy's query about my qualifications- for once I can say that I have some. I am a licenced architect and a former VP in our professional Association, the OAA. I live in a city where condo's are going up on every street corner, their size and bulk controlled not by city regulation, urban design or architecture but by the whim of a gang of appointed lawyers called the Ontario Municipal Board that can over-rule everyone. The suburbs are expanding faster than you can drive and if there is a nice building there it is surrounded by a parking lot. Architects are the headwaiters at the developers dining table- taking orders, directing the help and ensuring that it looks pretty on the plate. Yes, I am cynical and dismissive, and getting more so every day.

One of the beautiful things about sustainability is that it brings people together in a common cause. The AIA's statement brings together the collective thinking of thousands of educated and influential individuals and firms toward this common cause in an area that needs attention.

The "empty gesture" comment is clearly not an example of sustainable thinking.

It is a response based on old modes of thinking; would not a sustainable thinker acknowledge instead the vision and direction the AIA has embraced instead of relating it to the past?

It is an under-educated response that ignores the volumes of research, discussion, continuing education, and innovation that have been going on behind the scenes for years in the AIA and architectural firms across the globe.

The comment is an unnecessary deflation of a tremendous and valuable effort that will have lasting positive impact on the world. Would not a sustainable advocate take the AIA's statement on the environment at its word, and call all architects, not just AIA members, to the challenge?

The obstacles we face in sustainability call for embracing new ways of thinking, educating ourselves about the reality behind the merely apparent, and supporting the efforts of each profession to improve itself and the world.

Calling yourself a Treehugger and sniping from the branches doesn't fit the paradigm.

I believe my skills should be used for the betterment of the world. Because I prefer to eat and pay my bills than not, as a young architect I must take orders from my superiors, and they from their clients. All I can do right now is select employers whose clients' goals approximate my views. I agree with Josh - CLIENTS are a huge hurdle; they pay for our work.

There will always be other architects who merely provide a service to a paying client; there will always be developer conglomerates building garbage buildings. It seems that these are the majority... and I appreciate the comments of Lloyd Alter above.

To do architecture as we believe it ought to be, we need to either find clients of the same mindset, or create them. The only way sustainable will be made is if clients pay for them - so architects need to show the clients how these buildings meet THEIR goals.