Press Release
Steve Kismohr elected Chair of the AIA Chicago Chapter's Committee on the Environment
After 10 years of service, Steve Kismohr has been recently elected to the Chairmanship of the AIAChicago CotE (Committee on the Environment) or Environment KC. Steve is continuing the Committee’s role of educating the Architecture and Building Community of the Chicago area on sustainable design and construction.
AIAChicago CotE has a long-standing relationship with the City of Chicago, and particularly with the Department of Environment (DoE). Realizing that both groups strive to improve the City’s building stock in environmentally sensitive and energy efficient methods; they signed a formal agreement in 1999, aptly named the Memorandum of Understanding or MOU. Upon resigning the MOU this year, Mr. Kismohr further realizes CotE’s mission by expanding programming and educational opportunities with both organizations. Recently this relationship has grown to include advisement on building policy ideas. The biggest and most challenging is finding ways to meet the goals of the 2030 Challenge. This Initiative is to promote all new and existing public buildings in Chicago to be carbon neutral by 2030, enabling them to operate energy systems without the use of fossil fuels or emitting greenhouse gases during their operation. During Steve’s leadership, CotE has also expanded their connection to other non-profit sustainable groups in the City by hosting programming coordination meetings, joint events, and green charrettes.