This year, HOK offices worldwide brought their own flavors to the table in celebration of Earth Day - below are highlights from the many and varied events!  (For more pics, check out our Flickr set.)

In Los Angeles, a week-long poster and email campaign posed thoughtful questions and delivered expert answers, inspiring some lively discussions around the office! 

The HOK Houston office sponsored the City of Houston Mayor’s Earth Day Breakfast and presented their commitment to sustainability along with the Dean of Architecture from the University of Houston and clients from Chevron.   

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Hi everyone!!
We all have heard the whole Earth Day, Go Barefoot Day, Lights Off day, etc.
Now… answer me with sincerity:
Are you guys tired of all these?
Do you feel involved or do you think more could be done!

Please, I’m so open to hear your ideas and feelings!! Together with your participation we can all improve and achieve things!!!
Can HOK help you? What do you think HOK and yourselves can do for the Earth?

Your participation is vital!!

Thanks so much!!

It turns out the 40th anniversary of the original Earth Day intersects with the 30th service anniversary of our very own Earth Mother: Mary Ann Lazarus.

We celebrated this sweet synergy with some delicious green and white cupcakes. Sharing guest-of-honor duties was the incomparable Joyce Saunders (MAL’s right-hand gal), who recently marked her own milestone (25-year) HOK anniversary.

This greened-at-the-hip duo has worked together to advance sustainability within HOK – guiding it from an intriguing idea, to a fringe movement, to a specialty group, to an integral part of our entire practice.

During a brief tribute, Vice …

Every year HOK holds an event (pending copyright, so it’s super official) to celebrate Earth Day. We call it “Go Barefoot Day” and it all revolves around decreasing your environmental footprint. I’m not going to spoil the update from corporate, BUT I will share the cool events that we have planned for “Go Barefoot WEEK” in Chicago. I would like to highlight the effort that we are having on Friday with other design firms in Chicago (Gensler, OWPP / Cannon, Goettsch Partners and Perkins and Will). Competitors on paper, but allies when it comes to the sustainable design movement around Chicago and the world.

Thanks to all the wonderful members of the HOK Chicago sustainable design group that made this upcoming …

In honor of Earth Day, I thought that it might be fitting to discuss a topic that many struggle with, including myself, sustainability and sacrifice. Like many New Yorkers, I don’t have a car. Only five months ago, I happily drove a 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee. What’s with the downgrade to the 1 Train? The short answer: Reality.

Here’s the long answer: As a native of the “Motor City”, I am more than attached to car culture and all of its benefits. Moving to New York (after DC) forced me to grapple with the actual drawbacks of having a car. The truth is, having a car in New York City is often times more of a hassle than its really worth. When …

This Wednesday, HOK people planetwide will rally around a shrinking pile of stuff. Fewer plastic bottles. Less packaging. A reduction in printed materials. 

It’s part of our second-annual “Go Barefoot Day,” which transforms Earth Day hype into simple, meaningful changes in each of our lives.   

Waste is the focus of this year’s challenge, with the goal of reducing the firm’s collective environmental impact. Covert waste audits have been conducted at each of our 24 offices to assess the amount of waste produced on a typical business day. On Earth Day, the entire firm will undergo a public waste …