In response to AIA’s commitment to climate action, AIA Baltimore, AIA Chesapeake Bay, AIA Potomac Valley, and AIA Maryland are each introducing new sustainability questions to Design Awards Submissions.
Following the lead of AIA National, the Maryland Chapters of AIA will phase in measures from the AIA COTE Top 10 Toolkit, now the Framework for Design Excellence. This will begin in 2020 with 5 of the 10 measures: Designing for Integration, Designing for Energy, Designing for Equitable Communities, Designing for Water, and Designing for Resources.
When you submit a project, you will be given open-ended prompts to describe in a few sentences how your design achieves outcomes for each of the above measures. Projects are not required to address every measure; you should only address those measures that are relevant to your project. 
The goal is to promote the sustainable design work of our members and to support AIA’s Resolution for Urgent and Sustained Climate Action. 
Here are a couple of sample prompts. The full list of 5 prompts will be released with the opening of the 2020 Design Awards Submissions Portal:

Designing for Integration:
Describe the sustainable design and building performance strategies that are integrated within the project’s overall design goals.
Word Limit: 500

Materials:
Documentation of specific material choices to address the needs for indoor environmental quality and diversion of materials from the waste stream.
Word Limit: 100