Architects and builders aspire to create sustainable buildings. Yet accurately measuring pre-construction performance in the design process has proved largely impossible due to a lack of integration with software tools and not having access to real time data. PlanIT Impact addresses this challenge with a flexible, subscription-based cloud service that delivers real time data.

Today PlanIT Impact announced its building sustainability scoring system that is purpose-built expressly for the design phase. PlanIT Impact's 3D planning tool and the PlanIT Impact Score™ makes it easy for architects and builders to collaborate with multiple teams and constituencies, gather data inputs in real time, and more accurately model material costs and the impact of physical attributes of the land/geo-location and structure based on federal and commercial data sources. The PlanIT Impact assessment tool incorporates four key aspects of sustainable building design: energy, storm water run-off, water use, and transportation access with Walk score.

The demand for sustainability and efficiency associated with new construction is higher than ever, as monthly energy costs constitute a clear majority (80%) of total building lifecycle expenses. This makes sustainable construction practices promoting “Net Zero,” building designs essential. PlanIT Impact makes sustainable design affordable, accessible and achievable.

The start-up was founded by experienced architects and funded by the National Science Foundation/US Ignite, the Mozilla Foundation, and Digital Sandbox, Kansas City.

“PlanIT Impact is the industry's first and only cloud platform that helps designers achieve sustainability through a multi-faceted scoring derived from a large pool of open data. The platform works from a project's inception to completion, and all the points in between,” said Dominique Davison, AIA LEED APtm, CEO of PlanIT Impact. “Best of all, we take an integrated approach that dovetails sensibly with existing LEED efficiency initiatives. This gives buildings designers great options to consider all possibilities and know the impact of those decisions.”

Taking an early LEED:

PlanIT Impact Energy Module scores translate to Energy Optimization points for LEED, the benchmark for building performance. PlanIT Impact makes early, data-driven decisions that track to LEED projects while integrating into the web of interaction between differing project teams. The tool takes input from any direction and dynamically updates scoring so that architects know exactly how decisions impact the score. For uninterrupted workflow, PlanIT Impact supports leading software tools, including SketchUp, Rhino, and Revit. PlanIT Impact currently indirectly supports several LEED categories/credits.

Benefits:

• All relevant project/design data unified into a single view, where multiple measurements and variables can be input and considered holistically.

• ROI insights help define ProForma: estimated cost of building performance, simple payback

• Leverages open data with easy, dynamic retrieval of key data and pulls geometries from model

• Informed and holistic approach to resource allocation

Leveraging Open Data:

PlanIT Impact takes advantage of the Open Data Movement to contribute geo-specific, accurate data into the pre-construction score. Open data sources include federal government entities and private companies. US Census Data is used to understand local drive times, and NOAA is providing local rainfall/weather data. WalkScore is now publishing statistics regarding the precise proximity of desired resources, such as parks, stores, libraries and businesses.

PlanIT Impact In Action:

The Millhouse development, in Kansas City benefited from PlanIT Impact by helping the developers to better understand operational costs that would make affordability more attainable for future tenants.

“This doesn't feel like an energy modeling tool – it's very intuitive, providing the flexibility and full breadth of data sources required for accuracy and timely efficiency scoring,” said Graham Still, Senior Designer for DRAW Architecture.

For more information, visit http://www.planitimpact.com.

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