Buildings create nearly half of the greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. And AEC firms are challenged to accurately calculate how their designs will impact the performance of a building before construction or renovation begins.
On March 28, a Kansas City-based startup company called PlanIt Impact launched a web application that allows users to determine the environmental and economic impact of a new or renovated building during the design process.
The cloud-based app does this with a 3D assessment tool that incorporates four key aspects of sustainable building design: energy, stormwater runoff, water consumption, and transportation access.
The tool creates a sustainability score for designs by drawing upon open data sources such as U.S. Census, the Department of Energy, City-Data.gov, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Walk Score, which now publishes statistics regarding proximity to amenities like parks, retail, and libraries.
The goal is to make it easier for AEC teams to collaborate, gather real-time information, and model materials costs and the impact of a physical attributes the building and the site.
Dominque Davison, AIA, LEED AP, an architect with DRAW Architecture +Urban Design, is CEO of PlanIt Impact. She concedes that AEC teams could find these data sources on their own. “But the time and energy that would take are considerable. What we’re providing is a low-cost and simple solution that allows teams to work together.”
She went on to say that the platform—which DRAW and its partners have been refining since 2013—“works from a project’s inception to complete. It gives building designs great options to consider all possibilities, and to know the impact of those decisions.”
PlanIt Impact Energy Model scores also translate into energy optimization points for LEED. The tool takes input from any direction and updates its scoring dynamically. PlanIt Impact supports leading software tools, including SketchUp, Rhino, and Revit.
Here’s how it can work: the team designs a building in SketchUp using the PlanIt Impact Palette. The model is imported into PlanIt Impact’s platform, and the user answers a few other questions about the project. Step 3, the user can see and manipulate the results of the sustainability scoring, and compare those results to earlier design versions. And the scoring and designs can be shared with the project’s shareholders.
DRAW Architecture developed this platform with funding from the National Science Foundation/US Ignite (which leverages networking technologies to build the foundation for smart communities), the Mozilla Foundation, and Digital Sandbox, a Kansas City-based firm that provides entrepreneurial financing.
According to PlanIt Impact’s website, a $68 monthly fee gives one user full access to the platform and a SketchUp extension. For $750 per year, one user gets full access plus one hour of training. For $2,000 per year, three users get full access and three hours of training.
Davison says that right now, PlanIt Impact is being marketed directly to AEC firms. And the company is interested in striking relationships with utilities, municipalities, and property management firms.
Related Stories
| Feb 15, 2011
New Urbanist Andrés Duany: We need a LEED Brown rating
Andrés Duany advocates a "LEED Brown" rating that would give contractors credit for using traditional but low cost measures that are not easy to quantify or certify. He described these steps as "the original green," and "what we did when we didn't have money." Ostensibly, LEED Brown would be in addition to the current Silver, Gold and Platinum ratings.
| Feb 14, 2011
Sustainable Roofing: A Whole-Building Approach
According to sustainability experts, the first step toward designing an energy-efficient roofing system is to see roof materials and systems as an integral component of the enclosure and the building as a whole. Earn 1.0 AIA/CES learning units by studying this article and successfully completing the online exam.
| Feb 14, 2011
More companies willing to pay extra for green office space
New CoreNet Global/Jones Lang LaSalle survey shows real estate executives forging green strategies that balance environmental, financial and workforce issues.
| Feb 11, 2011
Sustainable features on the bill for dual-building performing arts center at Soka University of America
The $73 million Soka University of America’s new performing arts center and academic complex recently opened on the school’s Aliso Viejo, Calif., campus. McCarthy Building Companies and Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects collaborated on the two-building project. One is a three-story, 47,836-sf facility with a grand reception lobby, a 1,200-seat auditorium, and supports spaces. The other is a four-story, 48,974-sf facility with 11 classrooms, 29 faculty offices, a 150-seat black box theater, rehearsal/dance studio, and support spaces. The project, which has a green roof, solar panels, operable windows, and sun-shading devices, is going for LEED Silver.
| Feb 11, 2011
Kentucky’s first green adaptive reuse project earns Platinum
(FER) studio, Inglewood, Calif., converted a 115-year-old former dry goods store in Louisville, Ky., into a 10,175-sf mixed-use commercial building earned LEED Platinum and holds the distinction of being the state’s first adaptive reuse project to earn any LEED rating. The facility, located in the East Market District, houses a gallery, event space, offices, conference space, and a restaurant. Sustainable elements that helped the building reach its top LEED rating include xeriscaping, a green roof, rainwater collection and reuse, 12 geothermal wells, 81 solar panels, a 1,100-gallon ice storage system (off-grid energy efficiency is 68%) and the reuse and recycling of construction materials. Local firm Peters Construction served as GC.
| Feb 11, 2011
Justice center on Fall River harbor serves up daylight, sustainable elements, including eucalyptus millwork
Located on historic South Main Street in Fall River, Mass., the Fall River Justice Center opened last fall to serve as the city’s Superior and District Courts building. The $85 million facility was designed by Boston-based Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc., with Dimeo Construction as CM and Arup as MEP. The 154,000-sf courthouse contains nine courtrooms, a law library, and a detention area. Most of the floors have the same ceiling height, which will makes them easier to reconfigure in the future as space needs change. Designed to achieve LEED Silver, the facility’s elliptical design offers abundant natural daylight and views of the harbor. Renewable eucalyptus millwork is one of the sustainable features.
| Feb 10, 2011
Zero Energy Buildings: When Do They Pay Off in a Hot and Humid Climate?
There’s lots of talk about zero energy as the next big milestone in green building. Realistically, how close are we to this ambitious goal? At this point, the strategies required to get to zero energy are relatively expensive. Only a few buildings, most of them 6,000 sf or less, mostly located in California and similar moderate climates, have hit the mark. What about larger buildings, commercial buildings, more problematic climates? Given the constraints of current technology and the comfort demands of building users, is zero energy a worthwhile investment for buildings in, for example, a warm, humid climate?
| Feb 9, 2011
Fortune 1000: Despite moral obligation to sustainability, cash is still king
Eighty-eight percent of Fortune 1000 senior executives feel business has a moral responsibility, beyond regulatory requirements, to make their companies more energy efficient, according to a new poll released today by Harris Interactive and commissioned by Schneider Electric. At the same time, the vast majority (61%) of respondents say that potential cost savings are their biggest motivator to save energy at the enterprise-level, outranking environmental concerns (13%) or government regulations (2%).
| Feb 9, 2011
Businesses make bigger, bolder sustainability commitments
In 2010, U.S. corporations continued to enhance their sustainable business efforts by making bigger, bolder, longer-term sustainability commitments. GreenBiz issued its 4th annual State of Green Business report, a free downloadable report that measures the progress of U.S. business and the economy from an environmental perspective, and highlights key trends in corporate culture in regard to the environment.
| Feb 7, 2011
President Obama cites PPG glass, coatings in Penn State speech
President Barack Obama yesterday acknowledged PPG Industries as a leader in the development of high-performance glass and coatings for energy-efficient buildings during a visit to Penn State University that kicked off the U.S. government’s “Better Buildings Initiative.’
