2025 Earth Day Report

On April 22, billions of people around the world celebrate Earth Day. Established in 1970, education has always been at the forefront of Earth Day. What initially began as proposed teach-ins across college campuses has evolved into a global day of environmental recognition, advocacy, and action.

Today, ACSA aims to work with the larger architectural education community to advance sustainability and climate consciousness in pedagogy. The work of architectural educators across the globe includes care and stewardship of the natural environment and the people who inhabit built space. The planning, design, and use of built and natural spaces have direct and indirect impacts on our climate. ACSA’s ongoing commitment to climate action and climate justice acknowledges the inextricable link between architecture, the natural environment, and the systems that disenfranchise marginalized communities. ACSA supports work that helps mitigate the disproportionate effects of climate change on indigenous peoples, communities of color, and populations across the globe with limited access to water, shelter, and food.

In April 2022, ACSA announced its 2022-2025 Strategic Plan, which highlighted “Equity, Social Justice, and Climate Action” as organizational core values. The strategic plan included charges to “promote educational practices to help mitigate climate change” and “increase critical awareness of the intersection of equity, social justice, and climate action.” Over the years, ACSA has acted on its goal of expounding on the connection between climate justice and education through various opportunities for professional development, programming, and competitions.

One example of ACSA’s commitment to advancing research on climate justice is the 2024 Cohort for the Academy for Public Scholarship on the Built Environment: CLIMATE ACTION. In 2023, the Research and Scholarship Committee received a charge to expand the impact of scholarship on climate action in built environments. This included going beyond academia to promote research and scholarship with external publications and outlets. In May 2024, they announced the 2024 Cohort, comprised of faculty members whose research intersects with climate action and/or climate justice.

Cohort members participated in The OpEd Project’s virtual “Write to Change the World” workshops to connect with diverse identities, voices, and ideas, along with mentor-led feedback on their articles. ACSA also hosted a series of climate training modules led by the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism that focused on climate, architecture, storytelling, and policy. To date, cohort members have completed the workshops and are working on op-eds to publish in local, regional, and national newspapers.

Through competitions, ACSA offers unique opportunities for students and faculty to investigate, develop, and challenge systematic approaches to design. In recent years, sustainability, equity, and climate change have been the cornerstones of ACSA’s competitions and faculty prizes. 

From creating designs that imagine sustainable and equitable futures to projects centered on renewable materials, ACSA’s student competitions engage students with real-world issues of combating climate change.

The AIA COTE® Top Ten for Students Competition is sponsored by the American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment (AIA COTE®), in partnership with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). Each year, the competition recognizes ten exceptional student design studio projects that integrate health, sustainability, and equity, evaluated following the same categories of the AIA COTE® Top Ten Award for built work, and the AIA Framework for Design Excellence.

View the gallery below to browse the 2024 winners and click here to learn more about the 2025 COTE Competition.

In 2024, the TIMBER IN THE CITY 5: Urban Habitats Competition challenged students to reimagine the boundaries of wood construction in the urban environment, leading to the transformation of our existing cities through constructing sustainable buildings made from renewable resources, offering expedient affordable construction, innovating with new and traditional wood materials, and designing healthy living and working environments. Since 2019, the Softwood Lumber Board (SLB) has funded this competition with the goal of nurturing innate enthusiasm among students for renewable materials and of advancing deeper investigations into wood design at all schools of architecture. 

View the gallery below to browse the 2024 winners.

ACSA recognizes the importance of uplifting faculty as they incorporate sustainability and renewable resources into their curricula. Through faculty prizes, ACSA supports the development of courses that critically address the challenges of climate change. The winning prizes are set to be taught at ACSA Member schools in the coming years.

The Course Development Prize in Architecture, Climate Change, and Society highlights courses that innovate within their institutional setting—asking hard questions of students that are equal in weight to the hard questions being asked of society in the midst of a global pandemic as it continues to grapple with the intertwined causes and effects of climate change. Together, ACSA and the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture offer an opportunity for faculty to propose courses that redefine these problems and leave room for the imagination.

View the gallery below to browse the 2025 winners and click here to learn more.

Sponsored by the Brick Industry Association (BIA), the Brick in Architecture Education Prize seeks to recognize effective, innovative proposals and curricula that create a stimulating environment for learning about brick. Clay brick is a 100% recyclable and reusable material that has been used for centuries. It can be used for new builds, renovations, or mulched for landscaping. The proposed courses equip students with the knowledge and design skills to achieve sustainable design goals in a range of project types. 

View the gallery below to browse the 2025 winners and click here to learn more.

ACSA continues its commitment to climate action, equity, and climate justice. Are you interested in staying up-to-date with ACSA’s climate justice initiatives, competitions, and the 2024 Cohort for the Academy for Public Scholarship on the Built Environment? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter!