Climate Action
Our Position
The climate emergency requires urgent and sustained action to ameliorate its effects. It will require the collaboration not only of architects, but of clients, developers, consultants, users, and politicians to urgently and effectively address this climate emergency – both to ameliorate its effects in the long term and to deal with problems already happening.
Key Highlights: What have we done so far
Climate Action is embedded across our different initiatives, programs and advocacy efforts. This page highlights some key moments, initiatives and partnerships that have formed through sustained action and chronicles the work done to date.
Climate Action Questionnaire
On June 23, 2020, in collaboration with Architects Declare Canada, the TSA launched a jointly formulated Climate Action Questionnaire to better understand the state of our practices today as they relate to issues of sustainability and resiliency. Detailed in nature and broad in scope, the questions were designed to help identify tools, strategies and resources that can inform a shared action plan amongst the architectural community and pinpoint knowledge gaps so that we can build our collective capacity.
In total 44 studios practicing across Canada and representing hundreds of architectural professionals answered the call. The aggregated results of this questionnaire and plan for next steps are summarized in the report and action plan below.
B.E.S.T. Lecture Series Partnership
Beginning in the fall of 2020, the TSA began collaborating with the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design to host the Building, Ecology, Science, and Technology lecture series as part of the TSA’s existing Technical Series. This collaboration formalized our commitment to provide affordable, timely and relevant knowledge, skills, and tools to the profession through educational opportunities.
New lectures are announced as they are confirmed and can be found in our events calendar. A list of past lectures (including a link to recordings) can also be found in the Technical Lectures summary page.
Resources
The following list of resources is an aggregate of resources highlighted by our Technical Series speakers. New resources are continuously being added as they are made available.
Timeline
Climate Action is a sustained, long-term effort. The following timeline captures key moments in the TSA’s work on this issue.
| TSA Executive issues a letter to members acknowledging our collective responsibility to take action. | September 25, 2019 |
TSA hosts an Urban Affairs Forum: Addressing the Climate Crisis | January 21, 2020 |
In collaboration with Architects Declare Canada, the TSA launches a Climate Action Questionnaire | June 23, 2020 |
First Technical Lecture of the B.E.S.T. Lecture Series hosted on the topic of Embodied Carbon | November 3, 2020 |
Climate Action Questionnaire Summary Report published | February 3, 2021 |
Next Steps
The TSA plans to continue to work in addressing the top priorities identified in the questionnaire, developing and adapting our programming and resources to support our members in addressing the climate emergency.