There are times when I despise nature.
When it’s snowing. When it’s sleeting. When there’s wind-chill.
Sometimes, I wouldn’t mind the idea of the earth getting a smidgen warmer.
Unfortunately, few construction companies and clients share my vision of eternal summer. In fact, they’re so focused on sustainability and green energy that the Association of Builders and Contractors have started giving away awards for the best green building projects.
If you want to be environmentally conscious too, there are green construction software options out there for you. Here are the four software solutions to help your firm go green and save the planet.
1. United Design ConstructionSuite Green
ConstructionSuite Green has LEED and NAHB National standards built right in, along with an EPA lead paint contract to help protect your business against pricey liability problems. They make it easy to follow Energy Star Guidelines and Standards. Furthermore, they provide 16 divisions and 74 categories of green specifications for most green conservation building standards.
What’s more is that the software makes it easy to calculate how much all this planet-saving is going to cost you with RSMeans Data.
Oh, and for the construction project manager? Look no further. ConstructionSuite Green offers Green Building Workflows, which helps build checklists with industry-standard green criteria, including energy efficiency, site selection, HVAC design, and environmental friendliness.
ConstructionSuite Green is an installed application that starts at $599.99—or $69 a month.
2. Green Wizard
Not sure what credits are counting toward Materials and Resources and Indoor Environmental Quality for LEED? Green Wizard makes getting LEED certification simple, with credit calculators, green-product data database, progress monitor, and easy LEED construction submission forms.
Project managers can use this software to easily monitor the status of all construction jobs, save time on building projects, and digitize master specification. Also, if your firm spans multiple offices, Green Wizard makes it easy to evaluate products and store that research into a digital library that anyone can access. The product consequently saves time from re-researching already recorded products.
Green Wizard operates in the cloud and has a variety of versions, running from free research materials to big-business options, which start at $1,999.
3. Autodesk Green Building Studio
Aiming for carbon neutrality? Autodesk’s cloud-based software makes it easy for BIM professionals. Integrating seamlessly into Revit, Autodesk Green Building Studio is ideal for architects and engineers looking to design new and retro-fitted buildings.
Using Revit, designers can use Energy Analysis to examine the building’s thermal properties and performance. They can also perform a whole building analysis, which breaks down how a building is using energy, and how it can cut its emissions.
Construction managers will also take advantage of GBS’s predictive analytical reporting, which tests building features and makes suggestions to improve energy efficiency. Covering over 50 variations of building parameter alternatives, GBS filters the best methods to make a building plan more sustainable and offers solutions in an easy, direct manner.
Autodesk Green Building Studio is a cloud-based service. It is free for students. For businesses, price varies depending on what other Autodesk software you own.
4. Greengrade
Developing for LEED isn’t easy, but Greengrade takes a lot of the hassle out of it. The LEED-centered software provides a cloud-based system that makes it easier for the construction team and subcontractors to communicate. They also offer a LEED scorecard checklist to make sure that the project at hand is on target.
For construction managers, Greengrade boasts an average 25%-30% reduction in administrative hours devoted to LEED—a huge money and time-saver. Greengrade also allows users to submit to LEED directly online and creates real-time reports for team updates. Greengrade’s price varies by business and project.
More?
It’s tough to find good green software solutions to reach LEED certification. What does your firm use? Has it been effective?