Limited access to high-quality, concise, and usable information is a major barrier to the universal adoption of sustainable design. The COTE® Top Ten Toolkit is a resource, accessible to all architects, that closes the information gap to designing high performing, equitable, beautiful buildings. The resource is designed to provide relevant, general guidance to architects incorporating deep green principles from the beginning of every project.

The intent is to keep this resource current and to add to it over time. Ultimately, this feedback loop informs refinements to the fundamental measures themselves. Your feedback is incredibly helpful for continuously improving the resource. Contact cote@aia.org.

How to use the Toolkit

The Toolkit provides an in-depth exploration of measure in the following tabs:

Focus topics: These are the broad topics covered by each measure
Best practices: Tactical advice for how to integrate focus topics into your design
High impact strategies: If you can only do one (or a few) things – these are the most powerful concepts behind each measure
Resources: Use this tab to take a deeper dive into the research behind the metrics.
Projects: Links to case studies of top ten recipients that demonstrate exemplary performance within each measure
Super spreadsheet: Interactive spreadsheet that demonstrates how to quantify the measure across a number of relevant baselines and benchmarks