Notebook / Carbon Tracking
September 18, 2024
At Saida Sullivan we’ve been interested in carbon tracking for a while. We previously investigated the EC3 calculator, and then recently learned in an Autodesk webinar about new ways for low carbon design with Forma and carbon tracking with Revit Carbon Insights. That was when we committed to a limited in-house study to try out the software. We did this with the goal of being shovel-ready when the next fitting project comes along to possibly deploy the new tools and integrate carbon tracking into our typical project development set up.
Our take-away from this quick limited low-risk dive into carbon tracking was generally positive: We found enough encouraging results to give Carbon Tracking with Revit Insights our green light and decided that we want to try it out with the next fitting project coming along.
Below is a summary of our initial study and a few takeaways. Our intent is to encourage anybody interested to do the same and possibly be better prepared to take these initial steps.
We became aware of Autodesk’s new carbon tools through the Autodesk Webinar “Carbon analysis for architects in design” (May 21). Carbon Insights is a new Extension for Revit 2025. We downloaded Revit 2025 which we hadn’t used on any of our projects and installed the extension. Both Revit 2025 and the Carbon Insights extension are included in our Autodesk subscription. We upgraded Revit models from standalone copies to Revit 2025 and ran “Analyze / Carbon Insights / Analyze”. Just from the data that was previously included in our Revit model Carbon Insight the extension calculated the data on the dashboard in the image below.
Our take-away from this quick limited low-risk dive into carbon tracking was generally positive: We found enough encouraging results to give Carbon Tracking with Revit Insights our green light and decided that we want to try it out with the next fitting project coming along.
Below is a summary of our initial study and a few takeaways. Our intent is to encourage anybody interested to do the same and possibly be better prepared to take these initial steps.
We became aware of Autodesk’s new carbon tools through the Autodesk Webinar “Carbon analysis for architects in design” (May 21). Carbon Insights is a new Extension for Revit 2025. We downloaded Revit 2025 which we hadn’t used on any of our projects and installed the extension. Both Revit 2025 and the Carbon Insights extension are included in our Autodesk subscription. We upgraded Revit models from standalone copies to Revit 2025 and ran “Analyze / Carbon Insights / Analyze”. Just from the data that was previously included in our Revit model Carbon Insight the extension calculated the data on the dashboard in the image below.
Test run of Revit Carbon Insight on one of our projects, a renovation of a residential building for Seniors in Oakland, CA
The 3D image shows the “Revit Energy Analytical Model”, the columns next to it display Total Carbon, Embodied Carbon, Operational Carbon, and Annual Energy Use Intensity.
At this point we got a good idea already of what is possible to achieve with this tool. And we saw that you have the next task cut out for us: The next step is to go through the data displayed and check that it is all correct and makes sense. We figured out how to change the building type from office to residential. We played with the building Lifespan toggle (options are 1 year, 10, years, 20 years). Now why are these the only available life span options available? We couldn’t immediately understand, as our projects are typically built for a much longer lifespan than that.
There were a few other questions like that, but we had reached a stopping point where we couldn’t get answers within the limited amount of time we budgeted for this initial trial.
Our next step is to commit and make carbon tracking part of the next fitting project and we’re looking forward to that.
Eckart Graeve AIA architect at Saida Sullivan Design Partners
Modulus is our BIM consultant.
At this point we got a good idea already of what is possible to achieve with this tool. And we saw that you have the next task cut out for us: The next step is to go through the data displayed and check that it is all correct and makes sense. We figured out how to change the building type from office to residential. We played with the building Lifespan toggle (options are 1 year, 10, years, 20 years). Now why are these the only available life span options available? We couldn’t immediately understand, as our projects are typically built for a much longer lifespan than that.
There were a few other questions like that, but we had reached a stopping point where we couldn’t get answers within the limited amount of time we budgeted for this initial trial.
Our next step is to commit and make carbon tracking part of the next fitting project and we’re looking forward to that.
Eckart Graeve AIA architect at Saida Sullivan Design Partners
Modulus is our BIM consultant.
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