Recollective Consulting, in collaboration with Holland Barrs Planning group, developed a Policy Framework and Implementation Strategy for the City of Albuquerque to meet the 2030 Architecture Challenge.

The 2030 Architecture Challenge is a voluntary standard for all new buildings, to reduce the fossil fuel consumption and be carbon-neutral by 2030 (using no fossil-fuel GHG-emitting energy to operate). The resolution calls for an immediate 50-percent reduction in fossil fuel energy consumption in new and renovated buildings, and it seeks to eliminate fossil fuels from new construction by the year 2030. In other words, within 25 years, cities that manage to meet the 2030 Challenge will not use oil, natural gas, or coal in the heating, cooling, lighting, or construction of new buildings.

Recollective defined several constraints that would help to shape the recommendations, including awareness of market conditions, peak oil, climate change, public and administrative inertia, and building code cycles.

Among the recommendations, a primary focus was to integrate three strategies: (1) Define changes to the building bylaw, (2) use financial and regulatory incentives and pilot projects, and (3) the need to develop an ongoing feedback mechanism that would allow the strategy to meet the 2030 timeline while evolving within context.