The Australian Institute of Architects has encouraged members to attend the Global Climate Strike on Friday 20 September. It has also supported staff in offices throughout the country to attend.
‘Taking collective action is a powerful way to come together as a community,’ says National President Helen Lochhead. ‘Supporting the outstanding leadership shown by children through the school activism movement sends a powerful message that we as a profession support their call for urgent climate action.’
‘The climate crisis is the critical challenge of our times, but it also presents an opportunity for our profession. We know that as architects, we can do something about this through the decisions we make on a daily basis. It is more urgent than ever that we have design resilient homes, schools, and workplaces that are also more efficient and affordable to light, heat and cool for all Australians.
‘Many of our members will be out in force tomorrow, adding to the work they are already doing in developing innovative solutions to reduce the impact of building and construction on our energy and resource consumption. But, we all need to do more and we need urgent action from all levels of government to implement nationally consistent policies,’ Prof Helen Lochhead said.
In an email to all staff throughout the country, Institute employees are also supported to join the public strike on Friday. Following on from its endorsement of Architects Declare Australia on July 29 2019, CEO Julia Cambage says this is another signal that the Institute will provide the leadership the profession needs to transition to more regenerative and more sustainable built environment, working with government and allied built environment professionals to make urgent change.
School Strike for Climate is joining the Global Climate Strike to call for urgent political action on climate change. The Global Climate Strike is expected to be the largest climate mobilisation in history. Three days before the United Nations climate summit in New York, strikes are planned in 120 countries across the world and almost 100 locations across Australia.
