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Embodied Carbon, Walkable Cities, and the Climate Lawsuits That Could Change Everything

AIA CES program ID: GMGG.0010

Approved LUs: 1.0 LU|HSW

Prerequisites: None

Program level: Entry

Advance learner preparation: None

Who gets to decide whether climate risk becomes a legal reality with consequences, or stays a permanent argument that never has to change anything?

This course session follows the power path that sits upstream of climate outcomes: the donor networks, legal strategy shops, and political operators shaping courts, agencies, and the public story about climate risk. You see how Leonard Leo’s dark-money infrastructure functions as an influence pipeline for judicial nominations and coordinated legal pressure, then how that kind of machine shows up in real stakes like the Honolulu climate liability case and the organized efforts by Republican attorneys general and allied groups to block similar lawsuits nationwide.

You then zoom into Project 2025 and the Heritage agenda as a practical blueprint for deregulating energy, shrinking the EPA, and stripping climate language out of federal agencies, and you connect those institutional moves to the physical world architects and communities have to live inside.

The session grounds that urgency in the 1.5°C threshold and the idea of overshoot, then turns to where leverage actually exists in emissions sectors and the built environment, including the difference between operational and embodied carbon and the real toolkit of net-zero buildings, low-carbon materials, and walkable communities. It lands on civic engagement and day-to-day professional choices as the hinge point between a future organized around liability avoidance and a future organized around public health, safety, welfare, and planetary stability.

Program Description:

This episode examines how powerful conservative legal and political networks are shaping United States climate policy, the courts, and public perception of climate risk, and then contrasts that influence with the urgent need for collective climate action. It traces the rise of Leonard Leo and his dark money infrastructure, describing how his organizations fund judicial nominations, legal strategies, and political campaigns aimed at protecting fossil fuel interests and weakening environmental regulation. The conversation highlights a major climate liability case in Honolulu against oil companies, the coordinated effort by Republican attorneys general and allied groups to block such lawsuits, and the broader stakes for similar climate cases across the country. It then unpacks Project twenty twenty five and the Heritage Foundation’s agenda to roll back climate policies, erase climate language from federal agencies, deregulate the energy sector, and drastically shrink the Environmental Protection Agency. Finally, the episode zooms out to explain why the one-and-a-half degree warming threshold matters, outlines key emissions sectors and built environment impacts, showcases global and architectural solutions such as net zero buildings, low-carbon materials, and walkable communities, and closes by emphasizing civic engagement and the personal and professional choices that will determine whether we prioritize profit or planetary health.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe how conservative legal networks, dark money organizations, and Project twenty twenty five seek to influence United States courts, federal agencies, and climate policy.
2. Explain the significance of the one-and-a-half degree warming threshold, the concept of overshoot, and the associated health, environmental, and societal risks.
3. Differentiate between operational and embodied carbon in the built environment and identify strategies such as low-carbon materials, net zero buildings, and walkable communities that reduce emissions.
4. Assess how civic engagement, policy choices, and design decisions at multiple scales can either accelerate climate risk or protect public health, safety, and welfare.

HSW Justification

This content qualifies for Health, Safety, and Welfare credit because it directly connects climate policy, legal structures, and design decisions to the health, safety, and well-being of building occupants and communities. The episode explains how weakening environmental regulation and dismantling climate policy would increase exposure to heat, humidity, pollution, sea level rise, and extreme weather, all of which threaten public health and life safety, especially in vulnerable communities. It addresses multiple acceptable HSW topics, including programming and analysis through discussion of emissions data, climate thresholds, and risk assessment; planning and design through the exploration of walkable communities, transit-oriented development, and urban form; development and documentation through consideration of operational and embodied carbon, material selection, and performance targets; and construction and evaluation through examination of how building practices and infrastructure choices influence long-term environmental outcomes.

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AIA CES Provider statement

Gābl Media is a registered provider of AIA-approved continuing education under Provider Number 10024977. All registered AIA CES Providers must comply with the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. Any questions or concerns about this provider or this learning program may be sent to AIA CES ([email protected] or (800) AIA 3837, Option 3).

This learning program is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

AIA continuing education credit has been reviewed and approved by AIA CES. Learners must complete the entire learning program to receive continuing education credit. AIA continuing education Learning Units earned upon completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request.

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