Invited to be a Judge for Sustainability Awards at the Bentley BE Conference

I recently was invited to be a judge at "BE Conference 2008", sponsored by Bentley Systems. The categories I will be judging are "Sustaining Society" and "Sustaining the Environment". The BE conference typically covers innovative use of technologies in GIS, CAD, visualization, and collaborative project management; in verticals such as water, mining, process manufacturing, transportation, and federal government. This year's conference is focusing on "Best Practices in Sustainable Infrastructure"; the awards session will include submissions from a number of services and end user organizations who have demonstrated innovative technology applications within the broad sector of sustainability.

The conference will be held in Baltimore MD on May 27 - 30 2008; registration link is here. Read more!

GSA's BIM Program, and application to Green Building Technologies

A primary driver of BIM (Building Information Modeling) adoption is the US federal government. The GSA (General Services Administration) has created the National 3D-4D BIM Program, designed to allow for advanced and superior cost effective management of federal buildings and facilities. Currently, GSA has over 35 projects utilizing BIM, and has mandated that every new facility and major modification project should utilize a BIM model for spatial validation.

Along the lines of green technologies, GSA's Office of the Chief Architect is currently encouraging, documenting, and evaluating the implementation of Building Information Modeling (BIM) technologies to assist energy performance analyses and operational practices.

Executive Order 13123 is a national initiative to reduce the average annual energy consumption of the GSA’s building inventory. With the use of BIM, more complete and accurate energy estimates earlier in the design process, improved life-cycle costing analysis, increased opportunities for measurement and verification during building occupation, and improved processes for gathering lessons learned in high performance building should result. In general, advancements from BIM may increase the role energy modeling and alternative materials play during both design and building operation, leading to an overall reduction in energy consumption by GSA buildings.

Patrick Suermann of the NBIMS has conducted a number of BIM projects for the USACE. “They have allocated approximately $24B in military construction (upgrades and new facilities).” The USACE also will spend additional monies of $15-20B for upgrades and base reconstruction efforts; creating a broad market for BIM adoption, and as a consequence, BIM – add on applications in the green tech area.

Why should green tech vendors monitor the GSA’s BIM program as well as other agencies such as the USACE? As Suermann states:” Federal agencies have to compete against each other to be the most efficient constructor and manager of assets, which lead to higher budget allocations from Congress. Cleantech firms should pitch to both agencies and their prime contractors to assist them in successful deployment of BIM”. Read more!

Visualization Solutions to Leverage BIM / 3D Modeling

Have had the chance to discuss market opportunities with a couple of visualization solution vendors recently. I think this type of solution (integrated hardware / software, advanced optics, interactive displays) is close to the 'tipping point' in terms of market acceptance and use, in the engineering design, environmental / sustainability, and building construction industries. These solutions have already been effectively deployed in energy development, life sciences, and educational & museum sectors; where there is a strong need and interest in viewing 2D and 3D environments in an 'immersive' setting.

With the advent of 3D modeling and BIM (Building Information Modeling) throughout the E&C industry, there is now a greater demand for presentation solutions to fully leverage the collaborative and insightful nature of these technologies. There are a number of technology firms that are innovative solutions, including Mechdyne, Perceptive Pixel, and Elumenati, that have already developed visualization centers for energy, engineering design, and other infrastructure projects.

Some of the advantages for AEC firms for adopting use of these visualization solutions:

• Optimize collaboration between disparate workgroups, especially during design phases
• Faciliate stakeholder input, and thus minimize potential miscommunications and scheduling issues
• Opportunity to differentiate their brand and provide a competitive advantage on bids
• Display and leverage the power of 3D Modeling technology in CAD systems
• Complement the trend towards centralized engineering design centers

One E&C executive I spoke to recently mentioned that visualization technology was a critical component to their strategy of centralizing engineering design:

"We are moving towards a 'service center' approach for design engineering, where we can not only deliver services, but also work collaboratively with clients"

Read more!