Web Helps Building Professions Get Green

More engineers, architects, contractors, and others in the building professions are taking “sustainability” into consideration when they design buildings and civil engineering projects, such as bridges, highways, and tunnels. Environmental impact, such as carbon footprint and water footprint, is becoming part of the project planning.

The Internet is becoming a critical tool in these efforts to build greener structures. Engineering and architectural firms are leveraging the Web to plan and complete projects.

When Flad Architects in Madison, Wisc., worked on a new environmentally friendly research lab facility for client Johnson & Johnson, for instance, it relied heavily on the Internet throughout the project.

In addition to email for correspondence, the firm used file sharing through FTP and Websites to exchange files, sketches, animations, etc.; a Web-based construction administration application to manage drawings, RFIs, meeting notes, submittals, and overall job communications; and online resources to research products and other information critical to the design phase.

“Overall, the use of the Internet has almost become an invisible tool in our day-to-day work,” says Craig Weisensel, a structural engineer at Flad. “The Internet [has] changed the way information flows, and allows for seamless sharing of all types of information.”

Increasingly, builders also are using modeling software to help them plan and collaborate on projects, and they share these models using the Web.

One key trend in this vein has been the emergence of software that deploys Building Information Modeling (BIM) as a tool to integrate sustainable strategies into engineering designs.

BIM software allows firms to generate and manage building data through the lifecycle of a project, including information on building geometry, spatial relationships, geography, and quantities and properties of building materials. BIM allows engineers and architects to collaborate on a project by using design models to meet their particular needs and then sharing the changes with others via the Internet to see what impact their ideas will have on the project as a whole.

Pricing for the software varies by discipline and level of features needed, but on average the cost is $3,500 to $7,000 per seat, including maintenance, according to vendor Autodesk Inc. , which offers BIM products.

BIM software providers, including Autodesk, also have begun offering their products as a service, another key use of the Internet in the industry.

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has been a big proponent of BIM and sustainable design, and Charles Matta, GSA’s public buildings service director, Strategic Programs and Professional Resources, agrees that the Web has become vital to the building process.

"The Internet provides the essential vehicle for architects and engineers -- regardless of distance, time zone, language, or platform used -- to collaborate and jointly and concurrently deliver an integrated design,” Matta says. Builders can benefit from the use of online collaboration throughout all phases of design, manufacturing, construction, and facility operations, he says.

Use of the Internet is leading to greater efficiencies in the industry, Matta believes. "The Internet allows the designer's BIM models to be output into shop documents and manufacturing templates for greater accuracy, efficiency, just-in-time delivery, and at considerably less manufacturing and construction waste."

Cloud computing is also playing an increasingly important role in the industry. Calvin Kam, a contractor representing Stanford University's contract with the GSA to provide support on BIM technology, says: "The construction industry at large can leverage cloud computing and service-oriented applications over the Internet to... deliver professional services at the best value and quality to the building occupants."