PROJECT BRIEF
Building operations, materials, and construction contribute to almost 40% of all carbon emissions globally. As stewards of the built environment, we have a responsibility to design spaces that have a positive impact on its occupants and our ecology. However, designing sustainably is a complex puzzle: understanding the full picture of our impact and how to mitigate our carbon footprint is often not an intuitive ask.
The Problem
To address the need for reducing our carbon impact, we identified the following key problems in our industry’s approach to sustainable design:
We are generally carbon illiterate: Measuring and reducing carbon is key to achieving a more
sustainable tomorrow, however, architectural designers are generally uninformed about the
basics of carbon impacts, their magnitude, and mitigation strategies.
sustainable tomorrow, however, architectural designers are generally uninformed about the
basics of carbon impacts, their magnitude, and mitigation strategies.
There is no early phase carbon tool: While there are some tools and resources available for assessing carbon impact, none present a comprehensive picture of a project and outline actionable outcomes at the beginning of a project.
Usability matters: All data needs to be presented in a compelling and intuitive format to drive conversations and deliver real impact.
The Proposal
A web-based, accessible tool that gives designers a preliminary picture of their project’s life cycle emissions based on embodied, operating, and transportation impacts. It will take very basic project information to present and guide users through a project’s carbon journey while driving literacy around carbon emissions and project impacts.
