Corgan's Climate Action Plan - Moving Towards a Decarbonized Future
As an international architecture and design firm, Corgan is keenly aware of the impact of our work on the environment and that we have a responsibility to both minimize our impact and to address adaptability and resiliency to rapidly evolving impacts of climate change. Corgan's Climate Action Plan (CCAP) outlines our approach, our strategies and our path to actions for tackling these challenges.
Our Commitments
Corgan is aligned with and committed to environmental stewardship globally. Our commitments confirm our position and our ongoing actions to meet those commitments speaks to our rigor. As part of AIA 2030 Commitment, we have continuously collected our project performance data and are working to reduce energy use intensity (EUI) and lighting power density (LPD) in all of our projects. Corgan recently signed on to the AIA Materials Pledge, furthering our engagement with our industry and our peers and driving change in our practice. Corgan is also one of the few global design firms that have committed to World Green Building Council’s Net-Zero Buildings Commitments which asks that we reduce and offset carbon associated with our business operations. These commitments cover our impact and emissions associated with both our operations and our work. To meet our own aspirations for a sustainable future, and to meet the commitments we have signed on to, we are now taking decisive actions to achieve our goals – starting with Corgan’s Climate Action Plan (CCAP) that lays out a path and outlines our focus areas.
The Plan Forward
The CCAP is designed to guide our practice to focus on areas of impact, primarily focusing on achieving carbon neutrality in our operations and minimizing our impact on the environment. We have identified areas to focus on in our operations and in our work that will move Corgan toward these goals:
In Our Operations
There is a reason that “reduce” is the first piece of “reduce, reuse, and recycle.” One of our primary goals is to reduce energy use in our offices. One way to achieve reduction is use of smart controls and building systems -- like daylight and occupancy sensors, smart thermostats, and automated lighting systems – to monitor, track, and report performance. We will explore and add such devices along with high performance appliances in new offices and office renovations. In the coming years, we will create a set of new office lease selection criteria that establish minimum requirements for performance from property owners.
To ensure that our firm operates with minimal resource depletion, we will establish Sustainable Procurement Policies. In alignment with Corgan’s commitment to maintain carbon neutral operations by accounting, reporting, and offsetting emissions, starting in 2030, we will ask our major partners, consultants and suppliers to align and support our environmental commitments. The principles of circularity will be a focus in our standardized office renovation guidelines.
As part of our commitment to proactive risk management, we will enhance our preparedness against the impacts of climate change. This will involve conducting climate change induced risk assessments to identify climate risks, evaluating building vulnerabilities, assessing the potential operational impact, conducting site inspections, analyzing data, prioritizing risks, and engaging stakeholders to address matters. Using design and operational strategies to fortify our operations, minimize potential disruptions, and create continued stability in the face of climate change, we will initiate the deployment of adaptation strategies across all our offices, monitor their deployment, and communicate the results to all stakeholders.
In Our Work
In 2023, we established Corgan-Echo, a team of in-house sustainability and climate-related subject matter experts as a critical resource for designers across the firm. Corgan will continue to provide educational support, resources, and comprehensive training programs while providing access to cutting-edge technology and tools. The firm will deploy research and innovation to address specific sustainability topics, like embodied carbon and coastal resiliency, among others.
At the leadership level, we will continue the conversation on the ever-evolving landscape of sustainable design and climate change impact. Coupling that with in-depth knowledge of our market sectors will allow us to stay ahead of the curve and identify specific needs of our industry. In our studio spaces, we will encourage dialogue on sustainable design integration through internal critics and other design process changes. We will also measure and share our progress in performance design to ensure we are maintaining alignment with our strategic goals and contributing effectively to the firm's overall mission.
Target Zero
To set targets and achieve a goal, the first step is always to understand and measure the current scenario. That is what we have done at Corgan through a team effort led by Echo. We have completed measurement and assessment of our current status in our progress towards minimizing and ultimately eliminating our impact on the environment. For the calendar year 2023, Corgan accounted for and offset all of our Scopes 1 and 2 carbon emissions attributable to our fourteen active studios at the time. We are now working towards accounting and offsetting all three scopes to achieve carbon neutrality.
For a firm of more than 1,000 employees across 14 offices (in 2023, currently 19 studios in 2025) on three continents, determining the firm’s current energy use and therefore carbon footprint was an extensive process. To establish Corgan’s emissions for Scopes 1 and 2 — which cover direct and indirect emissions — our team collected energy consumption data from every studio to calculate the overall footprint of our operations, in accordance with GHG Protocol’s standards. This was by no means a simple task, given that sub-metering is not common in all parts of the country, and we had to use varying methodologies to determine each office’s EUI. Our total emissions from 2023 amounted to 690 metric tons of CO2e. We then worked with a carbon solutions provider to create a portfolio of projects and purchase carbon offsets that support initiatives promoting climate resiliency and climate justice, ensuring alignment with our ethos and core values while also continuing to move the needle toward carbon neutrality around the world. Learn more about the initiatives Corgan’s offsets are supporting here.
In 2025, the firm will also account for and offset Scope 3 emissions. While we are still working through our materiality for this scope, at the very least we will include business travel and staff commuting, which we anticipate to be the bulk of our scope 3 emissions. We plan to be transparent with our data, as we have been thus far, and will collaborate closely with our peers in groups like the Large Firm Roundtable (LFRT). And as part of our external commitments our annual data will be reported to external groups including the World Green Building Council.
The Big Picture
We believe in taking action now to build a better future. Corgan’s Climate Action Plan gives a snapshot of where we are now and gives us a roadmap to achieve our goals. We’re focused on making sustainability a priority in everything we do — from our operations to our projects to the services we provide for our clients. We know that collaboration, consistency, and transparency are the key to any successful initiative, and we are excited for Corgan to be a leader in the shift toward a more sustainable future.
