Nov 8 2007
At the 2007 Greenbuild Expo, Autodesk, Inc. and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) presented an update on their ongoing collaboration to expand the use of technology to facilitate adoption of sustainable design and green building. Autodesk also showcased a technology concept for a new sustainability analysis dashboard that could be used in combination with the Revit platform for building information modeling (BIM) to provide architects, engineers and designers with real-time graphical feedback about the impact of their design decisions on the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating of a project.
"As we've worked closely together over the past year, it is clear that USGBC and Autodesk share a vision of using technology to drive the mainstream adoption of green building practices," said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. "We're very excited about the sustainability analysis dashboard concept, and look forward to continued cooperation and new technology developments that will accelerate green building practices globally."
Autodesk's proposed sustainability dashboard concept, showcased during the opening plenary session of 2007 Greenbuild Expo, could facilitate sustainable design and LEED certification by, for example, enabling architects and designers to continually calculate such factors as use of energy and municipal water, storm water runoff, recycled material content, carbon footprint, daylighting and potential LEED rating. The dashboard could also be used to track LEED points through the design process to help achieve additional points that would increase the overall LEED score. The dashboard was presented by Autodesk and the USGBC as a technology concept, but it is not a commercially available product.
At the USGBC's Formal Education Committee's Educator Summit, Autodesk also launched the first version of the new Autodesk Sustainable Design Curriculum. Now available for free to post secondary educators worldwide through the Autodesk Student Engineering & Design Community Faculty Lounge, the Autodesk curriculum will enable educators to promote sustainable design practices and integrate BIM techniques and technology into the classroom and studio.
As part of its ongoing initiative to increase awareness of sustainable design as an important solution to global environmental challenges, Autodesk is sponsoring the documentary series e2 (The Economies of Being Environmentally Conscious), produced by kontentreal and releasing on PBS this fall. The USGBC and Autodesk are co-hosting the premiere of season two at Chicago's Field Museum, followed by a panel discussion of industry leaders about the practice of sustainable design featuring Ed Mazria of Architecture 2030, Rick Fedrizzi, Phil Bernstein of Autodesk, Sadhu Johnson, Commissioner of the Environment for the City of Chicago and moderator Susan Szenasy, Chief Editor of Metropolis magazine.
"As the world's leading provider of design software to the building industry, Autodesk is committed to helping the industry design and build greener buildings," said Phil Bernstein, FAIA, LEED AP and Vice President of Autodesk AEC Industry Strategy and Relations. "We look forward to continued collaboration with the USGBC to develop technology and education solutions that achieve this goal."