Architecture schools should update the curriculum to teach future designers how to respond to the crisis of climate change says Jesse M Keenan, a professor Tulane School of Architecture.

This fall, the Tulane School of Architecture became the first design school in America to sign on to the US Architects Declare initiative. This initiative is by led by a vanguard of domestic practitioners who have sought to re-centre the profession in recognition of parallel crises in climate change, biodiversity and social justice.
Architecture bears a certain responsibility for its footprint in the world
This is not a collective act of advocacy as much as it is a recognition of facts, and the facts suggest that the world is changing faster than most schools can keep up with. Across nearly every economic sector, there is a huge demand for skilled practitioners who possess not only a literacy of climate change science but also the substantive skills necessary to face climate change head-on. Architecture bears a certain responsibility for its footprint in the world ? namely its contribution to almost 40 per cent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. For architects, training in energy and environmental modeling has long been a part of a core curriculum in building science. But architects are now being asked to evaluate the lifecycle of materials, optimise supply chains, and design within the parameters of a predetermined carbon equivalent footprint.
As carbon taxes become more widesp...