WMAIA COTE: Environmental Impacts—Making a Difference

Material selection is a core service provided by architects, but that process is far from simple. The AIA Materials Certificate Program untangles the complexities of that process in five essential courses. The key? Materials transparency. When you know everything you can about the materials you use, you're able to make the best product decisions for projects, people, and the environment. The courses cover different types of impacts, and best practices for reducing these impacts, from industry-best instructors. Take all five courses and earn a certificate.

COURSE 2—Environmental Impacts: Making a Difference

Often material impact is evaluated while a product is serving a useful purpose in a building, but that only accounts for a portion of the product’s complete life cycle. This course unpacks the entire product life cycle along with the unique environmental impacts at each phase. You’ll learn best practices for improving the environmental performance of materials through a variety of strategies, including designing for deconstruction at the end-of-life.

Learning objectives

• Identify five environmental impacts typically reported through life cycle assessment.
• Describe how the environmental impact of products varies by life cycle stage.
• Describe the environmental benefits of design for deconstruction.
• Identify five actions to incorporate improved environmental performance in the specification of products.