Sustainability and Impact: Expediting the Design Technology Journey to a Net-Zero World

RAVI CLARENCE WOOD: Welcome, everyone to AU 2023, and we are here. I really appreciate all of you guys who are coming to watch this presentation. This is going to be fabulous. And with that note, today, I just wanted to get you guys started on the presentation. The topic of the presentation is sustainability and impact. How can we expedite to a net-zero world together using design technology? And what that journey looks like, that's what we'll be talking about.

With that note, we'll get moving, and we'll get to the next slide, a safe harbor statement from Autodesk. Just wanted to make sure that we go through this. Moving on to the next one-- as I said before, today, we'll be discussing how we can expedite the journey to a net-zero world using design technology. And wanted to thank a couple of my collaborators Vaishali Aggarwal and Clinton Giles. They have been instrumental on this presentation and wanted to convey my gratitude to them.

A little bit about me-- I'm going to bore you guys to death for the next 30 minutes or so, so you might as well know a little bit about me. I just wanted to say thank you again for joining me here. I was also-- I've been a speaker at AU for the last eight years. I was a top-rated speaker in 2019. Will give you a glimpse of what that presentation looked like as well.

Also, the top 10 article in AU '21. I've also spoken in Hong Kong BIM. I've also been a speaker at RICS IFMA in Sweden in 2017. I was also a speaker mentor for the last three years at AU, so it's a very elite group. We help other speakers as well to be successful. And I really enjoy helping others and mentoring others. Also being a BIM manager and being in this field for the last 15 odd years.

With that note-- but that's not the real me. The real me is somebody who likes to have fun with my pet, my family pet. And his name is [INAUDIBLE]. And I also like to be as good for the community as I can. I'm really, really passionate about working with Knights of Columbus, Saint Jude's, Humane Society, and so forth. So anything that I can serve or help you guys, just let me know.

Why I chose this topic is pretty important because it's very close to my heart. I come from a small town in India originally. And the only thing that people know that town for is-- the name is Bhopal. And if you Google it, the only thing that will come up is there was a gas tragedy in 1984.

And luckily, our family was on the other side of the town, so we got saved. But I just wanted to bring the why of what we are trying to achieve today in understanding net-zero world and sustainability is when things are not done right, they can go horribly wrong.

The tragedy killed almost 50,000 people in a single night. So we want to do things right. We want to progress with technology. But we want to make sure it's sustainable. And this is the why that I wanted to present today.

With that in mind, I wanted to turn the leaf and basically, turn the page and take us to what we are trying to share together in terms of learning objectives. I'm going to learn something from you guys as well. And hopefully, all of us can learn from each other because that's what AU is all about-- learning from each other. That being said, the next slide is probably one of the favorite things I like to talk about is we'll be talking four chapters at length. And each of them-- I call them the RAVI process.

To give a little bit of background, in 2019, I gave a presentation. And I had-- it was about how to make BIM more efficient and profitable. And it had four chapters. The first one was R for reconnaissance, second A for automation, V for visualization, and I for innovation. And that class, I didn't expect that it became a top-rated class. So I thought, why not this year do a Ravi 2.0 for sustainability. And with that thought in mind, I came up with some chapters and some learning points, hopefully, some take home messages for each one of us.

The first thing we'll try to go through is about renew. It's about how we can learn to develop a life cycle of carbon credit vision. Basically, how we can set up a strategy of net-zero world together. I often use this word "together" because there is-- we are all in this together. And I really believe that any success only comes from collaboration.

That being said, the second chapter or the second part of the presentation would be learning the workflows and the processes and how we can streamline them to evolve a sustainability impact program. That I have called A for articulate-- how we can articulate our thoughts, how we can articulate our processes to achieve the maximum success. So that's articulate.

And then the third is V for virtualize. This is probably my favorite for this presentation because we are going to talk a lot about AI in this part of the presentation and how it impacts us today because we are all in this time where everyone talks about artificial intelligence and where we are going towards in the future. We are going to try to learn how using AR, VR can help build a strong, better future for all of us.

The last part is the impact. All that we do and all that we try and do, what kind of impact it will have on the future, how we can build a better future together for our future generations. So that being said, I've also placed a link of the class from 2019, which was a top-rated class, the Ravi 1.0, if I may. And this is Ravi 2.0. So with that thought in mind, we'll get started.

So, R for renew and how to have a net-zero carbon footprint. The first thing to understand is what is net zero? I mean, we've all heard this term. We all know zero comes from an innovator in India. So what is net zero? I mean, the real-- the numerical 0 comes. The net zero, simply put, refers to the balance between the amount of greenhouse gases that are produced and the amount that's removed from the atmosphere.

We all have learned this in school. So it's how we can basically-- what we give as waste or what we do wrong to the-- and harm to Mother Earth, how we can make sure that we do an equal amount of good. Essentially, if we do equal amount of good as much as we do harm, that's the net zero for us.

So with that thought in mind, a lot of companies these days talk about 2030 vision, 2050 vision, and it's like the same principle applies to making sure that there is a balance on Earth and making sure the carbon footprint that we leave behind is minimal. And at the same time, we are doing enough good to Earth as well. And why is it important? We have all seen how horrible things can go wrong if they are not done the right way.

With that in mind, the next slide talks about-- yes, we are going to talk about net carbon and net zero. But how does BIM and how does design and how what we do-- we are all like cogs in a big wheel if we put together this whole world. And with that thought in mind, how can we play our part in this? There are so many things happening all across the world. What is our value addition to the society when it comes to net zero?

The first things-- I believe today this presentation is going to reach out to a lot of architects, engineers, designers, BIM managers, technologists, IT managers. And all of us are trying to build and construct.

And the key thing is if we can have designs that are energy efficient, not just for today but tomorrow and 10 years from now, maybe 30 years from now, that's our contribution to the future. We can also make sure we help decide on the right materials. And we'll go more in depth about this in the coming slides.

How can we optimize the material selection and reduce waste? We're also going to talk about life cycle analysis of sustainable materials, making sure what we choose is for long period of time. Any building, it's not when it gets built or it gets handed over. Building has a longer life if we see. It's for 20, 30, 40 years. The bridges that we cross are hundreds of years old.

So that's the operations and maintenance part of what we build. And if we don't make sure that we are being efficient in the design process for the future, for the operations, making sure that stakeholder is taken care of, that's the key to being a good designer, a good architect or a good BIM person or good engineer. We're also going to see how we can integrate with the renewable energy sources so that we are using cleaner energy rather than fossil fuels.

All right, with that, we'll move to the next slide. Essentially, there are multiple facets of net zero. But when you're going to try to have that net-zero vision, it will always talk about reducing the carbon intensity and improving the energy efficiency. Because in a building, the amount of energy bills that we get, it's really a big component of our footprint that we leave behind or how we interact with the Earth and environment in general.

With that, the last part is going to be about sustainable technologies, how we can use different-- raise improvements in our technology as well as current strategies that we are using. How can we make it better? So we spoke about the efficient design part of things-- making sure at the onset of design itself we start using the right processes, the right materials.

Just to give you an example what efficient design means, let's say we are putting together a building, and it's going to be a glass facade. It's a high-rise glass facade building. And it really matters if it is in Phoenix or if it is in Alaska or if it is in New York or any other part of the world because the environment is different in each location. The design can play different in different parts of the world. So how we can harness and harbor on what resources we have available to make an impact? That's key.

Because we might be able to use the right glass material and reduce the energy consumption over the next 20, 30 years. Just by reducing the U value of the glass facade, it could really make an impact on how energy is being saved and consumed over decades and generations to come. So that's the first part that we will try to understand, as well in more depth as we go along.

But the second thing is reduce. We all want to believe in the lean part of design, lean part of construction. But it's always good to be less wasteful, I would say. Or it's best to be frugal. When I say frugal-- a decade ago, a couple of decades ago, construction industry was mired with construction errors. There used to be times when construction errors would cost 15% to 20% of the construction cost.

When we see that and when we see buildings or churches that were built 200, 300 years ago, which are still standing, what was being done different? I mean, those designs have stood the test of time. Those buildings look strong. When we go there, it's an experience in itself. So there is something they were doing correct in terms of design and construction that we need to reinvigorate amongst today's design processes.

I think one of the things that we'll also try to understand is the LC analysis. The life cycle of a material doesn't end when we build it or construct it. It's a life cycle across the next 20, 30 years as we looked into. And we'll also look into the operations part of things.

All right, so how can a net vision look like? Or what goals could somebody have as some designer in this field? A lot of corporates have tried to have 2030 vision. I think everyone has to define what it looks like for them, what they want to contribute into it. We want to be better designers. How better we want to be-- I believe-- these are the numbers that I believe that one should really strive for if you're a BIM manager.

From my perspective, I want to make sure that any building that I'm part of or a cog that I'm the cog in the wheel for, make sure that the construction error is less than 1% and that sustainable materials are being used. And operations-- there are no redundancies in the operations.

All right, that being said, this is a more interesting part for me. This is more practical stuff than the theoretical because here, we are going to talk about Autodesk Insight. This is a new program that Autodesk has. And what it really helps in is to do a building performance analysis. It will help us to discover intuitive, outcome-driven insight into energy and environment optimization from design to operation. It gives us real-time feedback. It helps us visualize and interact with key indicators-- performance indicators, factors and ranges to help make better design choices.

It's a complete integration of the workflows. It will help analysts-- the power to design from inception to the handover and beyond. It also helps capture the whole building energy. When you talk about building energy, it's not just what goes into the construction of the building.

But there are so many other facets to it-- how we can simulate with daylighting, how we can use the heating and cooling loads analysis to make sure that we are designing for the optimal goals that we set up. And Autodesk Insight I personally felt is a great tool for that. And I really recommend if you are trying to do that analysis, this is a great tool.

One of the other things it can do is energy modeling. With Insight, can help attract an energy storage experts to achieve sustainable goals. So I would highly recommend to go and look for Autodesk Insight.

That being said, the next slide talks about sustainability and design technology. And we saw a part of the Insight part, where a design of a building should be driven by location, the resources. The design options should be generated and generative. The key thing for me is any building should be resilient. It should-- often, life gives us very limited choices. We get restraints. But the true essence is about looking at challenges as opportunities in design too and making the most of those opportunities.

We'll also look into the data-driven part of design. This is really cool because we live in an age which is all about data mining. There's so much data everywhere as well. If data-driven architecture concepts is a distinct approach of developing and designing and constructing applications, that omits the conventional rigidity that we can just build for aesthetics. Now, we are more relying on function than the form itself.

With that being said, what is the data that we can get? It can be multiple-faceted, multiple-pronged data that we get. And how best we make use of it is critical. It goes from the phase of BIM modeling to clash detection, what kind of things are going wrong, and once we get that data, how we can pivot to do the right thing.

If we are getting too many change orders, that means that there's something being missed in the initial design. So we pivot. We do the right thing on the next opportunity. If clash detections are giving us a particular kind of clash on a repeated basis, that means we need to take the next step and go to the root cause and fix it.

The last key thing a design should achieve is efficiency, so it should be insightful. It should be data-driven. But the efficiency part is the key because it really impacts the bottom line at the very core of it.

All right, that being said, I think that was the first part of the presentation. We spoke about renewing our commitment to the net-zero world, to doing the right things. And now, we are going to go into how we can achieve that. There is a process with everything. There's a workflow.

But with these workflows and processes, what could happen is things can get confusing at times because everyone has a different style, their own way of doing things. But if we can harmonize it, standardize it a little bit, it really helps because then we are all on the same page together.

On that note, I hope you guys are with me together. And we'll go to the next slide, which is about the EC3 tool Life is all about choices we make. We can end up-- our choices decide a lot for us. So the right choice can make all the difference. The construction industry is the number one consumer of raw materials and is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.

The EC3 calculator is basically a tool that has been developed by architects and engineers, different stakeholders so that we have a whole glossary of materials, and we can make informed choices, basically, selecting the materials with the lowest climate impact.

If we get two kinds of different concrete, but they can all do the same thing, but one of them has a lower footprint, why not do that? Let's do the right thing. Instead of looking for short-term monetary gain, one should kind of look into the long-term aspect of things-- how we can avoid the next tragedy the humanity kind of thing.

Now, with that being said, the next slide is going to talk about this program, which can help integrate BIM with the EC3 tool. And as you see, it's going to have it embodied within the program. So it's great. I really like it. And the thing is, this tool, what essentially the process is, when we have a BIM model for a building, we can do quantity takeoff. It can be at any stage of the project, even at the nascent stage.

We take the materials. We then go through the process of deciding what material has to be selected, and we get this glossary of materials. But we evaluate them based on the carbon footprint. And this is a great tool.

The way it works is we multiply the quantities with the carbon footprint that each element has. And then we'll get a total amount of carbon that is going to embodied in the building. That brings us to this aspect. What is embodied carbon, and what is operational carbon?

So we have been talking a lot about choosing construction-- we put bricks together, mortar together, everything. That's embodied carbon. But over the next 30, 40 years, that building is going to breathe and live and host life, and it's going to bring joys and great things to the future.

But during that time too, the building is operational, and it has a carbon footprint then too. So it's about the embodied carbon as this illustrates as well as the operational carbon. And the total carbon is sum of the two. So the intent of that database is when we are going to have so much material selection to be done, why not have the best material data available so that someone can make a good, judicious decision?

With that being said, this is how it looks like. This is actually a offshoot of the LCA tools that's available in ACC as well. And then it's an add in. And what we can do is we basically do the initial analysis. We take the quantities from the model. We multiply it with the footprint of each material, and we come up with the total carbon footprint. It's just like doing the cost of a project. But in terms of-- instead of dollars, here we are looking at what is the price we're going to pay for carbon footprint.

So essentially, that's what we saw. Take the material quantity, multiply it by embodied carbon per material, which is the EPD, and then we get the total. How we can utilize it effectively is basically, we can compare different materials and make sure that we are using the right one.

That being said, this is kind of a quick run through of EC3, but there's so many other tools available in the market. As well as, there's so much in-depth analysis that can be done. But the idea today is just to give you an overview that this is a possibility, and why not explore it. When we are-- because going that extra step might just make a big difference to the future.

So that being said, let's move to the next part, which is my favorite part, and it's about virtualization. So V for virtualization is going to be-- a lot of talk about AI is going on these days. AI, machine learning, we hear these buzzwords. But what it actually means for us-- what it means to the designers and how can we do it better, or how we can utilize it for our benefit, rather than getting behind the curve on that.

So AI models actually can simulate the results of a proposed change in a design or what impact a change or a design option can have, so we can make judicious decisions evaluating-- basically, AI can run all of that for us.

The system can make recommendations to correct, upgrade, or modernize, and offers advanced simulation capabilities. That's the great thing about it. Because a lot of computing-- even as designers, if you're going to take 10 months to do something and by use of AI, that design can come up with a more efficient design in two months, we might be saving a lot of effort.

The next thing-- this is more towards the operations part of things. But I did want to go in depth on this one a little bit because this is how can we use dynamic-mode monitoring and get those inferences through AI of the traffic volume. Let's say we have an airport, and 200,000 people go through the airport every day-- that kind of traffic volume. Or it could be a restaurant. How much would-- how many people are coming and going.

So that can decide a lot of energy consumption requirements for that place. So essentially, if all is driven by dynamic monitoring, we won't be having to do manual calculations and stuff. So AI models and machines learning can predict network traffic and adjust shut down times dynamically to extend savings windows compared to static schedules.

This is key because here, sometimes some of this doesn't get noticed, but AI is going to help first gather that huge amount of data using RFID sensors and different kinds of sensors. It will churn out the numbers, and then it'll give us the results of where we could pivot to make the most impact.

It can also help us focus on the outliers. When we get this bulk of data, we are not only just going to make insightful decisions, but we are going to leverage the data. It is also going to help us understand what are the outliers, what are the things we end up spending too much energy in which do not require that much focus?

One of the biggest thing people say is in construction time is money. Anyway, time is money. And we are all here spending time. But the time, in terms of construction, is about the scheduling part of the time as well. If a project gets done on time, it's profit. If it's not on time, then it can really mess up the things. So AI and ML can offer a range of benefits for construction scheduling, such as data analysis and integration.

It can help us plan for scenarios. It can help create mitigation plans. It can also run simulations of when, how, or option A, option B kind of thing. It can also collect, process, and integrate a large amount of data from various sources. That's key because at certain point, that amount of data gathering from a human perspective can get too cumbersome. And for AI, it's much more easier. It can also help analyze the data too from risk perspective and making sure we can avoid those risks.

That being said, we'll go to the next one. This is how it can all work when-- this is how it can all come together. If a project-- we have a [INAUDIBLE] schedule or we have a timeline for a project, then AI can actually-- if we give the constraints, that day is not far when it will start churning out the timelines for that for us. And we can monitor it like this person is doing on a giant screen and getting all that data, making inferences, making good, solid decisions.

For me, one of the things that I learned very early, and if you are going to a construction site, the primary thing, the first objective of the day is to make sure that everyone we go with goes back home that evening. And EHS, kudos to the health teams who work day in and day out on construction sites. They do a fabulous job. They are the ones who keep the place running and going and making sure that everyone is safe and gets to go home in the evening.

That being said, AI can really help in this aspect as well. It can do real-time safety monitoring. It can do predictive analysis for safety. It can do predictive maintenance for machinery, automated reporting if there's an incident. It's a near miss incident. It can all report in. And with that data, it can give us the inferences what needs to be done. It can also help us have prompt emergency responses.

So I really feel that having this artificial intelligence at the right places at the right times can really automate our safety alerts. We can also predict and make sure that we can prevent accidents. If we can do behavior analysis, we can do that too. It's a hazard detection in play, and it's better to be safe than sorry.

All right, that being said, we are on to the next slide, which is about circular construction. And basically, it's the circular aspect of our economy. We reuse. We refuse materials that are not-- which are like fossil fuels. We will reduce the consumption of things that we do not need.

We kind of stay minimal, and we reform, we reuse. We make sure that we recycle. And think those things really help because we're kind of making sure that we are staying on course for sustainable future for all of us and not being selfish and just doing it for ourselves.

It is key because we are all-- we all know about global warming. We all know that there the more hurricanes and tornadoes now. So why not do the right thing? And also, I think there's a lot of work being done in this field to harness the power of AI to generate data, which can help us predict climate changes, prioritize diversity, and making sure our air is cleaner and water is better.

So that being said, we come to the last part of our presentation, which is the impact. And I know we spoke a lot. We looked into a lot of things. I did wanted to go over one other thing before we go further on this [INAUDIBLE] reducing our footprint. One key example, we all are using so many gadgets and laptops and phones these days. And it is important. We are going to throw them off. We are going to get new ones.

But the key thing is I hope someday, we can, using AI and blockchain, create an environment or have a blockchain where people who are looking to change their phones or iPads or computers can provide it to someone who is in need and who is not able to afford that probably in the third-world nation, maybe in Africa and India. That blockchain can help provide the used electronics rather than those going into waste, which will take generations to be recycled. I think that's a good way to live in being minimal and reducing our footprint.

One of the other things I wanted to showcase is that this is a great slide because it talks about if we do the things wrong, we'll be in the bottom right corner where it says if everyone is for themselves, we could be barren and arid, and it will be not a pretty sight, I'm pretty sure. And then if we do minimum things-- we just get by-- we may or may not have a better future.

We may, if we really do the right things and we're talking about sustainability, it will be great, but we may not have great progress. But I think if we do it in a planned way and we can have a sustainable-- it's a race for sustainability-- as well as in a planned way that we do not compromise on the progress, then we might have a win-win situation from all sides. So I think that will be a great thing to happen.

So on the same note that we started, our role is to make buildings. And if we do these things, and hopefully, we all can use design technology to make better buildings and make better infrastructure for all of us. Hopefully, it will all contribute to making a better Earth and more sustainable future.

On that note, I just wanted to give a big thank you to my mentor, Deepak Mani, everyone-- all my friends and colleagues who I work with, a big thank you to Matt Murphy and especially to Janice Miller Kellerman from Autodesk. I really appreciate the entire AU team. On that note, I just wanted to say thank you, and have a great day ahead. Thank you.