We no longer have the luxury of ignoring the daily impact our lives have upon the world around us. Nor can we simply “wish away” the woes of the world as we continue to experience the global effects of climate change. One thing that is known is how our carbon usage has accelerated changes in our climate, leading to devastating results across the globe. There may not be many in our field that are aware that buildings are responsible for approximately 40% of total global carbon emissions. This statistic shows buildings and construction of buildings to be the single biggest contributor to changes in our climate. However, much can be done in the design and construction processes to reduce this drastic impact.
This is where the Autodesk Insight – Tech Preview for Carbon Insights comes in. Tech Preview for Carbon Insights is a pre-release, cloud-based feature which is now available starting with Revit 2023.1. This FREE plug-in provides architects with useful insights on embodied carbon impacts in early-stage design. Information such as this has become ever more important as building designers need to address both embodied carbon and operational carbon as part of their overall design process.
But just how necessary is the ability to control embodied carbon to your design practice? 1,200 AEC professionals were asked, in a World Green Building Trends report, to provide actionable approaches to improving sustainability within five years. The things that topped the list were creating net-zero buildings and controlling embodied carbon. So, clearly this mentality is something that is going to become an ever more important facet to the industry
Currently, this plug-in is in its infancy but is growing quickly thanks to user feedback, and it’s arrival could not be better timed as the focus of how changes in the building industry can help reduce the more frightening changes we are already witnessing in our climate. But, with this plug-in for Revit, architects and engineers can quantify and evaluate carbon impacts, with tools for optimizing their projects for greater carbon neutrality.
In a crucial step forward, Tech Preview provides an analytical tool which enables designers to better understand the initial carbon impacts from material and construction choices represented in their Revit building model. The Tech Preview is openly available to everyone, as opposed to a closed Beta, so that everyone is involved in the solution’s early stages, and stay engaged as it grows in capability. Further, Autodesk will be providing regular updates to this feature as it progresses.
To access the Insight Tech Preview: Carbon Insights, you can find it in your Autodesk Account. Look under the Product Updates tab, or under the All Products and Services tab, click the Revit Card and look under Extensions. Once installed, you can find the Add-On under the Analyze tab, as the new Carbon Insights panel.
The Insight Tech Preview: Carbon Insights is available in your Autodesk Account. After install, it can be accessed under the ‘Analyze’ tab in Revit.
As a Cloud service, updates to Carbon Insights are made automatically, without need for a version upgrade.
The analysis methodology uses Revit’s Energy Analytical Model. This configures and structures Revit data in preparation for computations and analysis. For embodied carbon insights, it leverages material embodied carbon data from Building Transparency’s EC3 dataset. If you wish to find out more, you can refer to the recording of the Autodesk University class on Total Carbon Data Analysis and Insights.
Early phase iteration and design analysis, such as energy modeling and embodied carbon analysis, is an important process to mitigate the environmental impacts of design decisions and decarbonize the built environment.
Carbon Insights for Autodesk Insight provides architects with an analytical tool for assessing embodied carbon, a key contributor to Global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Architects can make better informed decisions around carbon impacts when selecting construction types and materials, supporting more sustainable design directions and project outcomes.
With tools such as Autodesk Insight – Tech Preview for Carbon Insights at our disposal, as professionals and leaders in our industry, we can start making the necessary changes to secure a more earth-friendly and economic approach to building.
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