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47-545: The global architectural firm Gensler designed the building. The building was a project of Trammell Crow Company, a real estate development and investment firm. The building was originally designed to house a number of wind turbines, but the turbines were removed in December 2010. This article about a building or structure in Texas is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Houston -related article

94-507: A carbon tax ) to discourage bad behaviour." Speaking at the 5th annual World Pensions Forum held on the sidelines of the COP21 Summit, Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs argued that institutional investors would eventually divest from carbon-reliant firms if they could not react to political and regulatory efforts to halt climate change: "Every energy company in a pension fund 's portfolio needs to be scrutinized from purely

141-556: A 2 °C target. Think-tanks such as the World Pensions Council (WPC) argued that the keys to success lay in convincing officials in the U.S. and China, by far the two largest national emitters: "As long as policy makers in Washington and Beijing didn't put all their political capital behind the adoption of ambitious carbon-emission capping targets, the laudable efforts of other G20 governments often remained in

188-630: A city” in Las Vegas), SFO Airport (beginning with the Central Terminal project in 1980 and continuing with comprehensive T2, T3, and T1 renovations), and Shanghai Tower (a 128-story mixed-use tower). In 2013, the 2,073-foot Shanghai Tower became China's tallest building, and the second-tallest in the world. In 2023 Gensler undertook the office-to-residential conversion of 160 Water Street in Manhattan's Financial District . The project

235-417: A dead planet". The location of UNFCCC talks is rotated by regions throughout United Nations countries. The 2015 conference was held at Le Bourget from 30 November to 12 December 2015. To some extent, France served as a model country for delegates attending COP21 because it is one of the few developed countries in the world to decarbonize electricity production and fossil fuel energy while still providing

282-554: A financial view about its future, 'Why is this [a company] we would want to hold over a five- to 20-year period?'... If we continue to hold major energy companies that don't have an answer to a basic financial test, we are just gambling. We have to take a fiduciary responsibility – these are not good bets." Some US policy makers concurred, notably Al Gore , insisting that "no agreement is perfect, and this one must be strengthened over time, but groups across every sector of society will now begin to reduce dangerous carbon pollution through

329-454: A global agreement, by 1 October 2015. These commitments are known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions or INDCs. Together, the INDCs would reduce global warming from an estimated 4–5 °C (by 2100) to 2.7 °C, and reduce emissions per capita by 9% by 2030, while providing hope in the eyes of the conference organizers for further reductions in the future that would allow meeting

376-519: A high standard of living. As of 2012, France generated over 90% of its electricity from zero carbon sources, including nuclear, hydroelectric, and wind. The conference took place two weeks after a series of terrorist attacks in the 10th and 11th Arrondissements of Paris, as well as in Saint-Denis . Martial law was declared and national security was tightened accordingly, with 30,000 police officers and 285 security checkpoints deployed across

423-555: A memorial to Donald G. Brinkmann, a gifted interior designer and former partner at Gensler. In 2007, the firm established its gServe community impact program. Gensler's Community Impact program encourages offices to dedicate at least 80 percent of their Community Impact resources to one or more of four themes: Housing and Homelessness, Health and Wellness, the Environment, and the Next Generation. In 2015, Gensler signed

470-530: A process evaluating the progress made on the Paris Agreement. The assessment exposed that the current attempts are insufficient to limit the global warming to the target of 1.5°C, highlighting the need for accelerated climate action. There were strong emphases on the need for more climate finance and collaboration to reach climate goals during the conference. The Agreement will not become binding on its member states until 55 parties who produce over 55% of

517-576: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Gensler Gensler is a global design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco , California. It is the largest architecture firm in the world by revenue and number of architects. In 2022, Gensler generated $ 1.785 billion in revenue, the most of any architecture firm in the U.S. As of late 2023, Gensler operated offices in 53 cities in 17 countries worldwide, working for clients in over 100 countries. Art Gensler founded

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564-765: Is expected to yield 588 residential rental units and has been applauded by politicians such as Mayor Eric Adams as well as activists concerned with the city's lack of housing. In 2005, Gensler debuted its first U.K. Workplace Survey, followed by a U.S. Workplace Survey in 2006, and the formal establishment of the Gensler Research program in 2007. The firm launched subsequent U.S. & U.K. Workplace Surveys in 2008, 2013, and 2016. Gensler's Workplace Surveys now encompass five continents, with surveys in Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Latin America,

611-443: Is launching new green specifications that focus on reducing high-carbon materials. Gensler's “Impact Through Design” report, launched in 2016, explores strategies for architecture and design to play a greater role in global climate change strategy and mitigation, reinforcing this commitment to sustainability with the firm's subsequent “Impact by Design” reports in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. In 2023, Gensler announced

658-766: The American Institute of Architects . In 2009, Gensler became the first firm inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame. Gensler received the AIA Institute Honor Award for Architecture for the HyundaiCard Air Lounge in 2012 and the Jackson Hole Airport in 2014. For the third year in a row, Forbes included Gensler among “America’s Best Midsize Employers” in 2018. Gensler received

705-610: The Bonn Climate Change Conference, 19 to 23 October 2015, which produced a draft agreement. Global carbon dioxide emissions by country in 2015. According to the organizing committee of the summit in Paris, the objective of the 2015 conference was to achieve, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, a binding and universal agreement on climate. Pope Francis published an encyclical letter called Laudato si' intended, in part, to influence

752-529: The EU suggested INDC is a commitment to a 40 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 compared to 1990. The agreement establishes a " global stocktake " which revisits the national goals to "update and enhance" them every five years beginning 2023. However, no detailed timetable or country-specific goals for emissions were incorporated into the Paris Agreement – as opposed to the previous Kyoto Protocol . A number of meetings took place in preparation for COP21, including

799-568: The Global Climate March organized by 350.org (and other events such as Alternatiba, Village of Alternatives ). Paris had a ban on public gatherings in the wake of recent terrorist attacks ( state of emergency ), but allowed thousands to demonstrate on 12 December against what they felt was a too-weak treaty. There was also an illegal demonstration in Paris, including violent clashes between police and anarchists; ten policemen were injured and 317 people arrested. On 30 November,

846-449: The #1 ranking in 2023. For the 42nd consecutive year, Gensler received the highest ranking on Interior Design magazine's “Top 100 Giants” list in 2023. In 2023, Gensler maintained the top position on Architectural Record’s Top 300 Architecture Firms for the 12th consecutive year. The AIA honoured Gensler’s repositioning of Willis Tower with the 2023 AIA National Interior Architecture Award and awarded adaptive reuse project 633 Folsom

893-652: The 2023 AIA National Architecture Award. The Center for Active Design awarded Gensler with as the company with the “Most Ambassadors” (All Time), as the company with the most Fitwel Accredited staff, in the 2023 Best in Building Health Awards. For the ninth consecutive year, Gensler received the #1 rank overall in Building Design's 2024 World Architecture 100 rankings. 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference , COP 21 or CMP 11

940-536: The Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, UPCycle, and Etsy headquarters for integrating design excellence and sustainable performance. Gensler received the #1 rank overall in Building Design's 2021 World Architecture 100 Rankings. For a decade, Gensler has topped Architectural Record's annual list of the Top 300 Architecture Firms in the U.S. For the third year, Fast Company named Gensler among

987-536: The Gensler Experience Index, which quantifies the direct impact design has on experience, followed by industry reports in the Education, Healthcare, Residential, Retail, and Hospitality sectors. In 2020, the firm launched Gensler's City Pulse Survey, surveying residents in four cities during lockdown due to COVID-19, followed by another City Pulse Survey in 2021, surveying 10 cities to see how

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1034-619: The Middle East, U.K., and the U.S. In 2010, Gensler's research program secured a registered trademark for its Workplace Performance Index (WPI), a trademarked pre- and post-occupancy tool. In 2017, Gensler celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Gensler Research Program (now the Gensler Research Institute) with the publication of Gensler's Research Catalogue, Volume 2. In 2017, the firm launched

1081-604: The Paris Agreement are implicitly "predicated upon an assumption – that member states of the United Nations , including high polluters such as China, US, India, Canada, Russia, Indonesia and Australia, which generate more than half the world's greenhouse gas emissions, will somehow drive down their carbon pollution voluntarily and assiduously without any binding enforcement mechanism to measure and control CO 2 emissions at any level from factory to state, and without any specific penalty gradation or fiscal pressure (for example

1128-625: The Paris Pledge for Action at the COP21 conference , pledging to reduce carbon emissions to limit climate change to less than 2 degrees Celsius. At the U.N. Climate Action Summit in 2019, Co-CEO Diane Hoskins announced the Gensler Cities Climate Challenge (GC3), which challenges the architecture and design industry to eliminate all greenhouse gases associated with the built environment. To further that pledge, Gensler

1175-511: The U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s and then overseas in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1972, the firm established an office in Houston to provide interior design services for Pennzoil Company's 600,000-sq-ft corporate headquarters. In 1979, the firm opened its New York office to provide interior design and production services for Mobil Oil Corporation's corporate headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. In 1988,

1222-413: The amount will be voluntary. There will be neither a mechanism to force a country to set a target by a specific date nor enforcement measures if a set target is not met. There will be only a "name and shame" system or, as János Pásztor , the U.N. assistant secretary-general on climate change, told CBS News , a "name and encourage" plan. Some analysts have also observed that the stated objectives of

1269-469: The closing briefing at the 2012 Doha conference : "The current pledges under the second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol are clearly not enough to guarantee that the temperature will stay below 2 °C and there is an ever increasing gap between the action of countries and what the science tells us." During previous climate negotiations, countries agreed to outline actions they intended to take within

1316-448: The conference. The encyclical calls for action against climate change: "Humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produce or aggravate it." The International Trade Union Confederation has called for the goal to be "zero carbon, zero poverty", and its general secretary Sharan Burrow has repeated that there are "no jobs on

1363-485: The cost would be borne by French firms such as EDF , Engie (formerly known as GDF Suez), Air France , Renault-Nissan and BNP Paribas . Sponsors were among others BMW , Avery Dennison , Carbon Trade Exchange, Cool Effect , The Coca-Cola Company , the Climate Resources Exchange and Vattenfall . Around the world, 600,000 took part in demonstrations in favour of a strong agreement, such as

1410-462: The country until after the conference ended. The European Union and 195 nations ( see list in reference ) were the participating parties. The overarching goal of the Convention is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the global temperature increase. Since COP 17 this increase is set at 2 °C (3.6 °F) above pre-industrial levels. However, Christiana Figueres acknowledged in

1457-424: The firm celebrated its 50th anniversary. After serving as Co-CEOs for nearly 20 years, Cohen and Hoskins became Gensler’s first Global Co-Chairs in 2024, and the firm named Jordan Goldstein and Elizabeth Brink as the new co-CEOs . As the firm's global footprint has grown, Gensler has launched megaprojects such as CityCenter (Gensler served as Executive Architect of the 67-acre, 18 million-square-foot “city within

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1504-796: The firm in 1965, along with his wife Drue Gensler and their associate James Follett. They originally focused on corporate interiors, for newly constructed office buildings including the Alcoa Building (1967) and the Bank of America Building (1969), both in San Francisco. The firm has since diversified into numerous forms of architecture and design, including commercial office buildings, retail centers, airports, education facilities, entertainment complexes, planning and urban design, mission-critical facilities, consulting, brand design, and other areas. Gensler grew rapidly with offices opening around

1551-765: The firm launched its first overseas office in London, followed by new offices in Tokyo and Hong Kong in 1993. In 2002, Gensler opened an office in Shanghai, establishing a permanent presence in China. By the early 2000s, Gensler was the largest architecture and design company headquartered in the U.S. In 2005, Gensler's board of directors extended the firm's collaborative leadership structure by naming Andy Cohen , Diane Hoskins, and David Gensler as executive directors/Co-CEOs. Cohen and Hoskins continue their tenure as Co-CEOs. In 2015,

1598-407: The framework of this agreement." As is usual before such major conferences, major NGOs and groups of governments have drafted and published a wide variety of declarations they intend to seek a consensus on, at the Paris conference itself. These include at least the following major efforts: The conference was budgeted to cost € 170m ( US$ 186.87m at the time). The French government said that 20% of

1645-534: The highest ranking on Interior Design magazine's “Top 100 Giants” list. Gensler was included among Glassdoor's Best Places to Work 2020. The National Center for Employee Ownership named Gensler the 21st largest employee-owned company in the U.S. on the NCEO 2020 Employee Ownership 100. The AIA Committee on the Environment named three Gensler projects winners of the COTE Top Ten Awards, recognizing

1692-707: The launch of the Gensler Product Sustainability (GPS) Standards. Starting in January 2024, the standards will be required for all Gensler projects in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. At COP28, Gensler partnered with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to jointly expand low-carbon building certification and access to green finance. Gensler was awarded the Architecture Firm Award in 2000 by

1739-704: The method for reducing greenhouse gas. In the 12-page document, the members agreed to reduce their carbon output "as soon as possible" and to do their best to keep global warming "to well below 2 degrees C". In the course of the debates, island states of the Pacific, the Seychelles, but also the Philippines, their very existence threatened by sea level rise, had strongly voted for setting a goal of 1.5 °C instead of only 2 °C. France's Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius , said this "ambitious and balanced" plan

1786-436: The organizing committee at the outset of the talks, the expected key result was an agreement to set a goal of limiting global warming to "well below 2 °C" Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. The agreement calls for zero net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions to be reached during the second half of the 21st century. In the adopted version of the Paris Agreement, the parties will also "pursue efforts to" limit

1833-584: The pandemic has reshaped urban life. In 1990, Gensler established Gensler University, the firm's chief platform for leadership development. Subsequently, the firm established the Diversity Scholarship, a juried program that recognizes emerging talent among African-American college students enrolled in an accredited architectural program, and the Gensler Brinkmann Scholarship Fund, which was established in 1999 as

1880-735: The realm of pious wishes. Things changed for the better on 12 November 2014 when President Obama and General Secretary Xi Jinping agreed to limit greenhouse gases emissions." President Obama insisted on America's essential role in that regard: "We've led by example ... from Alaska to the Gulf Coast to the Great Plains ... we've seen the longest streak of private job creation in our history. We've driven our economic output to all time-highs while driving our carbon pollution down to its lowest level in nearly two decades. And then, with our historic joint announcement with China last year, we showed it

1927-440: The temperature increase to 1.5 °C. The 1.5 °C goal will require zero emissions sometime between 2030 and 2050, according to some scientists. Prior to the conference, 146 national climate panels publicly presented a draft of national climate contributions (called " Intended Nationally Determined Contributions ", INDCs). These suggested commitments were estimated to limit global warming to 2.7 °C by 2100. For example,

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1974-566: The text of which represented a consensus of the representatives of the 196 attending parties. The agreement was due to enter into force when joined by at least 55 countries which together represented at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions., a target reached on 4 November 2016. On 22 April 2016 ( Earth Day ), 174 countries signed the agreement in New York, and began adopting it within their own legal systems (through ratification , acceptance, approval, or accession). According to

2021-565: The world's greenhouse gas have ratified the Agreement. There is doubt whether some countries, especially the United States, will agree to do so, though the United States publicly committed, in a joint Presidential Statement with China, to joining the Agreement in 2016. Each country that ratifies the agreement will be required to set a target for emission reduction or limitation, called a "nationally determined contribution", or NDC, but

2068-561: The “World’s Most Innovative Companies 2021” as one of the 10 Most Innovative Companies in Architecture. Fast Company ranked Gensler among the 100 Best Workplaces for Innovators in 2021, recognizing the firm's new proprietary NFORM Ecosystem. Engineering News-Record ranked Gensler as the #1 Top Green Design Firm for six consecutive years, from 2016-2021. The firm was second in the latest ranking in September 2022. The firm regained

2115-561: Was an "historic turning point" in the goal of reducing global warming. However, some others criticized the fact that significant sections are "promises" or aims and not firm commitments by the countries. On 4th June 2024, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) opened in Dubai, marking an important event in the timeline of the Paris Agreement. The conference concluded the global stocktake,

2162-642: Was held in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015. It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol . The conference negotiated the Paris Agreement , a global agreement on the reduction of climate change ,

2209-451: Was possible to bridge the old divide between developed and developing nations that had stymied global progress for so long ... That was the foundation for success in Paris." Harvard University published a case study on one aspect of the negotiations, focussing on the protection of forests. On 12 December 2015, the participating 196 countries agreed, by consensus, to the final global pact, the Paris Agreement , to reduce emissions as part of

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