Architects Declare Update

6 December 2020

Since its establishment in July 2019, Architects Declare Australia has continued to advocate and educate, with a guide to going carbon neutral and a number of webinars on topics related to biodiversity and sustainability.

On 25 July 2019, a group of 30 Australian architects and practices joined the global Architects Declare movement. The group is committed to raising awareness of the climate and biodiversity emergencies and the urgent need for action among their clients and supply chains, as well as advocating on strengthening work practices to create architecture that has a more positive impact in our world. High on the agenda is the need to collaborate with engineers, contractors and clients to further reduce construction waste.

The number of architects and practices signing on has grown significantly since those early days, and today the Australian arm of the Architects Declare movement has 984 signatories.

Australian Architects Declare (AAD) provides an update on their achievements to date:

Fostering action and awareness

Almost 1000 practice and individual signatories have committed to take action. We have set up a Facebook Discussion Group with 813 members, sharing knowledge about materials, events and insights.

Taking a leadership role

Australian Architects Declare has inspired the founding of other Declare movements in Australia – for example, Australian Engineers Declare (founded October 2019) and Australian Builders Declare (founded April 2020). The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects declared a Climate Emergency in August 2019.

Australian Architects Declare is a key member of connecting these groups into the Australian Construction Declares movement, which is finding its feet as it works out the best way to connect the groups.

As part of the Built Environment Sector of Better Futures Australia, AAD is working with others to build local cross-sectoral networks, showcase individual and collaborative climate action, and invite all Australians to join a growing community of climate champions in advocating for a national response that will reach net-zero emissions by 2050 or sooner.

Reach

While starting with six “branches” across Australia, the breakdown of borders by electronic connections has seen meetings and events shared across the country.

Education

In 2020, we held four free webinars on the following topics: Biodiversity; Living Building Challenge; Passive House; and Sustainable Building Materials. All webinars are available on Youtube.

Action

In September 2019, architects joined School Strike for Climate, encouraged by Australian Architects Declare. This is the first time in history architects have joined a strike on climate action. Individuals and practices – large and small – are also taking action, such as John Wardle Architects’ Biodiversity Recovery Project and Breathe Architects’ Going Carbon Neutral campaign. We supported this campaign and created the Guide to Going Carbon Neutral. Hundreds of practices have completed or are completing the journey to go carbon neutral.

Australia was the third country to join the Architects Declare movement. Now 26 countries have joined under the banner of Construction Declares, a global petition uniting all strands of construction and the built environment.