VDC, Design-Build, and Sustainability: The Ideal Project Lenses

TROY GATES: Hello. Welcome, everybody. So before we get into everything, just want to let you know this is a recorded session. So they are recording the audio, not video. So you don't have to worry about anybody seeing you. But they are recording audio. And since it is a panel format, when we get to the Q&A session, if you have a question, we will repeat it. So that we make sure it's on the recording. We're not going to pass around a microphone. OK?

So I'm Troy Gates, and this session is titled VDC, Design-Build Sustainability. But it's really about the Ideal Project Lenses. And so we do have a panel, and we're going to walk through and introduce ourselves. But before we do that, just to start out with a few of the learning objectives here.

So one of the first learning objectives is we really want to understand why there's an urgent need in our industry for sustainable design and construction. And I think that's a pretty easy question for us to answer now. But really digging into that is what we really want to do by having as we introduce ourselves some of these different ideals and parts of the industry, and talk about how we can continue to move forward with those sustainable needs for design and construction.

The second learning objective is really around technologies and workflows. So we are going to weave in technology and workflow. This is a technology conference. So we do want to make sure that we weave that into this because it really helps drive the sustainable effort, our VDC processes, and things like that. And then, the third objective is to give you some insights from what we've experienced from our projects, our different teams that we work with, and different things like that.

And then lastly, we do want it to be an open discussion. So we have put in about 15 minutes in it that we would like to have engagement with all of you, questions, comments, insights into things that is pertinent to the class today. So with that, let me get our PowerPoint selected here. Let me just close this out.

So we're going to start out with our introductions. So we do have four people here on the panel. I'll be the host or moderator of it. I'm Troy Gates. I'm the Director of Innovation with VinZero US CAD. Formerly, US CAD has now joined forces with a few other companies to become VinZero. And I'll give you a spiel at the end of that. VinZero is the sponsor of this session. So at the end, I'll give you a quick spiel about who VinZero is.

Next, we have Brian Skripac. So we'll just go around the circle here. So Brian Skripac is the Director of VDC. And he's with the Design-Build Institute of America. And then, we have Thesla Collier, which is a Senior Associate and the Design Technology Manager from Gensler. And then lastly, we have Bryan Novotny, also with VinZero US CAD. And he's a solutions consultant.

And so what we're going to do now, is we're just going to walk through and talk about some of our areas of focus, introduce ourselves a little bit more, give you some idea of our backgrounds, and what led us to wanting to do this session here together.

AUDIENCE: Make sure you use the mic.

BRYAN NOVOTNY: Perfect. Thank you. All right. Can everybody hear me? We good? We awake yet? Food good? Did everybody eat? I heard some no's. Who is no? Oh, that's a lot of no's. OK. I feel like we got a target on ourselves, now. Sorry about that.

Good afternoon either way. Welcome back to Autodesk University. My name is Brian Novotny. I'm a Solutions Consultant for US CAD for actually our architecture and engineering team. I have over 20 years experience within the entire industry. So that includes AECO plus M. I actually started off my career in the manufacturing space before switching over to AEC, and I've been there for over 15 years or so.

So it's been a long time, and I've really come full circle. I'm excited to be here today to talk about design technologies. As a solutions consultant for US CAD, I have a really unique responsibility, not only to our client base, but also to the industry as a whole. That's why I'm actually at US CAD.

I actually came from an architecture firm prior to US CAD. I've been here about a year. I was 4 and 1/2 years as a design technology leader at a very large architectural firm. So I played a very large part in their implementation and the adoption process overall. So I know firsthand probably something you're all very familiar with, and that's the struggles I'm sure everybody faces in this room with technology adoption implementation.

How many of you have the same conversations over and over again about technology and how it can improve our business every day, our processes? There's got to be more than that, higher, higher. Thank you.

So with that being said, this is a great topic because in the past year my conversations with our clients-- we have a ton. Not only am I hearing from the architects, but I'm also hearing from owners. I'm hearing from MEP, the structural teams, the GCs, the subs. The talk track is changing. A lot of the times we spend, what, 15, 20 years, maybe 10 years talking about, let's take the next step. Let's actually do the stuff we've been talking about at AU or all these classes that we go to.

So a significant shift that I found in the past year or so in talking with the clients, the shift is actually happening. I've got owners that will call now and say, oh, well, we want to control the process. We want to make sure we know what deliverable we're getting. We want to know how we can talk to our GCs and architects. And they're going to actually going to use the technology we talk about, not just say, hey, we can do it, and cross it off as a line item.

How many times do we just get a contract, we negotiate it, and boom, it gets sent off to an architecture team. And now they're just doing production documentation. What guarantee does that give to your owner? What guarantee does that give to the contractors that they can do anything with the data? They're going to get anything valuable out of it. That wasn't a very high topic in the past. I'll just call it 15 years.

So that shift is happening. We're educating people today on how to make that happen. And it's actually becoming something they're mandating now. So you can't sign a contract now unless you have the design software worked out that you're going to use. You can't sign a contract if you don't know how you're going to file a model share. And they even want to have a little line item in there about what's your method of collaboration.

You've got the software. You've got the technology. You've got your file model sharing. But how are you actually going to utilize that?

So in my experience, I think that's quite a large shift from just the typical let's talk about this. So it's interesting to see. We have probably-- I don't know the exact number, but a little over 10,000 clients. And I can tell you I'm on the phone with these people all day every day having these types of conversations. So this is becoming a reality. So it's time to be prepared for it.

And as we start to talk about all the different project delivery methods, anybody been part of IPD projects? Couple. How about design build projects? Awesome. Awesome. So I think we can all agree that the conversations that we need to have, that upfront mentality about how to actually take a project from negotiation to production, that upfront-- or excuse me, that upfront mentality, that needs to happen now.

Design build projects, anybody have a bad experience? Could that be perhaps because maybe people negotiating the contract really didn't have those items together? They didn't talk about design technology software. They didn't talk about how they're going to file document share even. They didn't talk about methods of collaboration. Exactly. It's a tough road ahead.

So these new project delivery methods, especially designed build and IPD, they require that upfront mentality. They require those conversations. And if you can get it on the contract, excellent. But at least have the conversation.

So with design build, we have an expert in the room. That's Brian Skripac. And I'm going to hand it over to him.

BRIAN SKRIPAC: Thank you, Bryan. Thanks for the lead in and about who had a bad design build experience, too. I appreciate that. As Troy and Bryan said, my name is Brian Skripac. I am the Director of Virtual Design and Construction with the Design Build Institute of America. This is a role that much like Bryan talked about his evolution in the industry, I've gone through myself.

I started out. I'm originally a graduate from the School of Architecture at Ohio State. I did practice in a traditional architecture role for probably about the first 10 years of my career. And really the last 17 of those I've spent focused in a BIM leadership or VDC leadership perspective. And my experience has always been one much more on the process side and the planning, and the execution, and driving that team collaboration of how we do things.

And that's really been the hallmark of where I spent my time. The last 10 years of my career was within a design build firm. We had a design-led design build effort where we were a large AE that had a small construction management GC component to it. So we had this really unique perspective of driving the early collaboration that Bryan just talked about and really seeing a lot of success in that.

Over the course of my career, the last 10 years, really, I had the opportunity to write the BIM project delivery standards for the Ohio State University. I got to collaborate with Troy on a really exciting project. That was the Kaiser Permanente Medical Office Building Center of Excellence program where we defined a collaborative technology environment. We used technology to build standards for the organization. We talked about how we collaborate in BIM 360, really being able to do a lot of things.

And also, defining the process for how projects would be delivered for Kaiser, which was very similar to the exciting work that I found in what we did at Ohio State. Also, the last couple other projects that we did were the LAC USC Rehabilitation Center. So if anybody's familiar with downtown LA, that's a project that just opened pretty recently. But that was a modular and prefabricated project that relied very heavily on the fact that it was a design-build delivery model, being able to bring in all of those trades, early design assist, partnering, planning out. How does a traditional on site construction then marry up with the prefabricated construction that would be done offsite and come in to the site and have that seamless integration of those two ideas. So that's been my career.

At DBIA, it's been the last 10 months or almost a year, I should say. In October, it'll be a year now that I've been there. And being able to focus on best practices and how do we utilize VDC to integrate into that design-build mentality. So we talk about people, process, and technology. And we're very specific about using it in that order and getting out of that-- even though we're at a technology conference, getting out of that chasing the shiny object. Have an approach. Have an implementation plan of what you're trying to achieve.

And don't just say, oh, there's a new tool. I got to go grab that and take my eye off the ball. But really focus on that long-term opportunity. Where are you going to drive value for your projects? How do we achieve design excellence? How do we improve quality and productivity? And how do we have an impact on the lifecycle cost of the projects that we're doing?

So those are some of the big initiatives that we're focused on now. So it's great to talk about how technology integrates in that, and project delivery, and sustainability, and have this really perfect environment to drive success on projects. So next, I'll pass it off to Thesla.

THESLA COLLIER: Thank you, Brian. Good afternoon. This is Thesla Collier. I am Design Technology Manager at Gensler, Los Angeles. And I've been in the industry for over 20 years, AEC industry. I've been for the last two years focusing on sustainability, technology and sustainability, and looking for tools, workflows that can help our projects achieve our goal the year of 2030 carbon neutral.

So what tools are there available for operational carbon and embodied carbon? And also, implementing carbon offsets in our projects. So it's really important that we as a mission, as architects, as designers, maybe I can get a show of hands. Do we have any architects in the room? OK. Any engineers in the room? OK. Awesome. Contractors? Awesome.

So we're trying to see how can we democratize all these tools. It seems to be that there is a new tool for lifecycle analysis appearing every day. And like Brian was saying, pursuing that shiny object, sometimes you don't concentrate in what is the workflow to actually get things done. So we're here all to learn about how can we work together and make a better world through the power of design. Thank you.

TROY GATES: All right. So to wrap it up, I will just talk a little bit about myself, but through the lens of technology and innovations. Specifically, in construction now. Prior I, like everybody else, it seems like everybody now has 20-plus years in the industry. But I've always been around technology in our industry. So I started out as an engineer and quickly found that I was more interested in the technology a lot of the times than the actual projects. So I became a CAD manager, eventually BIM manager, and probably a few of you have gone through these designing technologies managers, those kinds of things.

But my last five years or so has been really focused on looking at the industry as a whole. Where are we? Where are we trying to go? And really looking at it again through a lens of technology and innovation. How can we as an industry and really as a community work together to achieve things? And I think that really wraps together the three different experiences that you've had from these three, which is from design, and design-build, and construction, and sustainability as a lens into that. How can we do all of that through innovation, through technologies?

And so that's my focus. And as we go through some of the panel questions that we have today, just really talking about what is available, or what is on the horizon that's out there because there are a lot of things. There's a lot of companies that are doing some amazing things, whether it is sustainability, or it's just design or in construction. But in construction I did want to highlight, I really think construction now is where the design side was about the last 15 or so years when BIM became very popular. And you had to change how your company you worked. You had to change how your people worked. And BIM became a foothold. But it enabled a lot of other technologies around it.

Construction now is in that same space now, where there's a lot of innovation in technology for construction. That's not necessarily having to do with the actual building of the facility or the structure or what they're building, it's more around collaboration, documentation. There's a lot of drones. There's a lot of 3D cameras now and LiDAR or 360 cameras. But there's constantly-- they're tracking where people are on the job sites.

So there's a lot of technology innovation in construction now. And I think we're seeing that it's going to go. Just like the design side did where technology is going to go for the next at least 15 years. And there's going to be a lot of improvements in innovation on the construction side. And then lastly, I think where it's really having a big impact, but it's also a very awareness now is owners.

Owners are really starting to get involved in the technology and innovations that are happening on their projects. And you're starting to see them drive that and work with the contractors and the design teams to make sure that the project is very successful, again, through that technology lens.

So that's some of our backgrounds. And hopefully you have an understanding of who we are now. And so now, what we'd like to do is just have a panel discussion. We have some questions that we've prepared. But then, we'd definitely like to get some involvement from all of you. Ask questions, and again, we can communicate through those. And again, like I said, we don't have a mic to pass around. So make sure you speak up. And then, we'll repeat it for the recording that's happening. If you want to pass around one, too, we can, too.

And I will apologize. I'm not checking my phone for emails and stuff. I have our agenda and questions on here. So yeah, so don't mark us down if you're grading us because I'm on my phone. So we're going to start out with starting on sustainability. It is a very important topic. But it is also a very trending topic over the last few years. Even though as an industry we've had sustainable efforts for a long time. But there is this renewed focus. A lot of it's being driven by government agencies that are setting mandates, whether there are certain dates or just certain level of carbon emissions or things like that.

So it is very-- we thought very pertinent and topic-focused. So the first question is going to go to Thesla. And really, how is Gensler that you're with and your partners and subcontractors, how are you approaching sustainability within your company? And what outcomes are you seeing from those on your projects?

THESLA COLLIER: Thank you, Troy, for that question, very interesting. At Gensler, being the biggest architectural firm in the world, we actually have a call of action. Our co-CEO, Diane Hoskins, promised in the United Nations in 2019 to be carbon neutral by 2030. And that is a big challenge. That means every single project, every single person, every single-- everything we touch now should be with a carbon or a sustainability lens.

So out of that, our company did send letters to call for action to major players in the industry, contractors, clients, and manufacturers to actually ask for them to help with this effort because we cannot do it alone. Really, it's a collective effort to do it. The emissions are coming from materials. It's coming from the operation of the buildings that we have.

There's so many places that we could improve, and each of you have the power of changing just your own little world to make that happen. And that's what we're trying to do at Gensler. In terms of technology, we broken down. We created a hub. It is a SharePoint in which we call G Planet. And in this SharePoint site, we share with all our users all the tools that are available through Gensler because some of them are third parties. Some of them are in-house developed. And just let the users know what do they have on their fingertips to either explore and embody carbon, or operational carbon, and making sure that there's clear path directions in each of the regions to learning opportunities.

So then, this can be applied in every single project because knowledge is one of the things that we're lacking. We all want to do the right thing, but where do we start? It's something that we all puzzle. But how do you eat an elephant? You eat it piece-by-piece. So change one tiny little thing today. It could be just changing one material. It could be just the carpet, just the ceiling, and then you'll explore another material. And it's a ripple effect.

So that's what we're doing. We're having implementation of technologies, both from the operational side and both in embodied carbon. And we're trying to make sure that we have renewables in every single project if possible. And we're trying to involve our clients. They have global commitments, and we're tapping into those. So that's how Gensler is doing it these days.

TROY GATES: So next, hand over to Brian, the other Brian. Brian in the design build industry. Can you talk more about what Thesla was talking about? About how you're seeing companies are starting to approach sustainability and design build.

BRIAN SKRIPAC: Yeah, I think one of the big things that design build can contribute to that is that early whole team approach from the outset of the project. And we talk a lot about getting the right people on the team at the right time to contribute their experience. And I think that's a big area that we can do that in. And it's really a start to finish approach that can really be taken advantage of.

So you start to-- an owner doesn't have to procure the project and that traditional design bid build delivery where you're very siloed and separated. You have the opportunity for innovation to have early bid packages and bring those trade partners on in a more unique and collaborative fashion. So somebody may have an opportunity from a previous project to contribute. Hey, I know trying to do this. But what about this idea? What if we take an approach to this material? What if we use this system? What about this facade material? Have you thought about using this anything.

So being able to capture all of those ideas early become really critical. I also think it's important that when we look at the full life cycle that starts to bring in prefabrication opportunities. So now, you have the opportunity to reduce waste in the production process. And you have that on site assembly, as opposed to that traditional stick construction that we're all used to. And we also think about the lifecycle improvement costs. So while the design team, the engineers, and the architects may be thinking sustainably, how does the owner take advantage of that down the road? Or how does the commissioning team take advantage of that information?

And you start getting into this larger idea of a digital twin, and the internet of things, and capturing data about how a space functions, and now calibrating that back to what did the design team intend, or how was this building supposed to perform. And an owner starts to look at their utility consumption, and say, we're nowhere close. Why is that not the case? And how do we bring it back within a normalized range to get to what we were trying to achieve?

So having a model can start to inform those decisions and being able to round trip that information. But again, not being able to define that from the outset is difficult. And I think another interesting factor of design-build is the owner can just set that performance expectation. But then, they can take advantage of the project team to say, how are you going to deliver that? I'm not going to get into the weeds of saying use this system, use this, do this, and this. Bring to me your expertise on how you're going to assemble yourselves together to deliver this outcome or exceed it.

TROY GATES: And that's a great point. And we're seeing that on a lot of the projects where like I said, the owners are getting more aware. They are getting more involved. And they are still relying on the experts, the design team, the contractors are who have used these technologies in these platforms. So there are owners that are going to want to say this is my platform of choice, or this is my communication tool of choice or whatever. But they do lean on the experts, which are the contractors and the design team.

And to tie on to that, Bryan, what are you seeing with the design teams and construction teams when it comes around collaboration and how they coordinate together?

BRYAN NOVOTNY: Thank you. That's a good question. It is on? Can you hear me? OK. Thank you. No, it's a good segue because what we're going to talk about ties into sustainability. It ties into VDC. It ties into the entire process from the beginning. Everybody in here pretty much raised their hand when we talked about who has been part of a design-build project. I was going to say VDC.

So I'm going to give a direct answer to that. And then, we'll backfill it with some information. And my direct answer is to how can people work together. What are some collaboration methods? And I truly believe, and I know a lot of people do, as well, that the implementation of the Autodesk Construction Cloud has completely changed the way we all work today.

We talked about getting the owners involved. We talk about the architects getting a contractor involved. Traditionally, you have to rely on emails. You had to rely on handshake, information, phone calls, text messages, even. What happens today if you start integrating the Autodesk Construction Cloud? What's the typical setup for architects? I'm sure everyone's familiar with that.

Architect's got a folder. They throw a model up there. It can be conceptual. It could be DD process. And they may or may not have consultants in on that Construction Cloud projects. They might just be collaborating with it internally. So you take that to the next step. So the next step is, well, I hope everybody is doing this. But now, you've got the architect controlling the hub. And then, you've got your MEP, your structural equipment. All those people start to get added into the project.

A lot of us I'm sure have early adopter syndrome. What was that process like in the past? We were setting up FTP sites. We were dealing with mail. We got Ignite, Box, Dropbox, whatever the case may be. So that's several methods of communication. That's platforms you have to manage and control, and you've got to distribute that information. So I call it early adopter syndrome because no one really had a great experience doing that.

How many people in this room like doing a file, save as their model, cleaning it up, and then sending out to somebody? Anyone? What about on the receiving end? How many people loved receiving 20 models, having to clean them up, throw them on your network, tell everybody where it's at, and they'd have to link to it? Not a lot of insight there. It's really just hey, this model lives there. Go and use it.

So that's what I like to call is the early adopter syndrome. So if you start incorporating the Autodesk Construction Cloud, and you start to expand the services of what is included with that platform, you can bring these people on with a click of a button. Your project hub now becomes architect MVP structural. But then, expand upon that. Now, you've got a contractor folder with subfolders underneath it.

So what does that mean? That means in precontact, that means in the sustainability side of things early on, depending on how early you're doing that kind of work. You can start to invite these different parties in. And with all the granular level of control with the Autodesk Construction Cloud, you can make sure that people are accessing information as soon as you want them to. And you can even control what they do with the data.

There's a ton of permissions in the Construction Cloud that let people maybe just view a model. Maybe you allow them to link to the model. So for very early on in design, how great is it to have the architectural MEP structural team? Have a model in place. All you're doing then is adding the contractor folder. You're adding their users. And now, they can start to link in your file.

So they can build a construction file off of your design model. And what does that do? That's going to give you direct insight. They're going to let you know that's not constructable, or it is. Or they're going to give you advice. You're going to find this stuff out way earlier on than you traditionally would. And I think that circles around to limiting RFIs and change orders in the field. That's the golden egg I think the industry has been after forever. Well, I think this is a step in that direction.

So if you're currently using the Autodesk Construction Cloud, I encourage you to start adding your consultants on there very early on. Add the GCs. Give them access to it. Git a call today. GC, hey, I want to see our architect's model. What should I do? Would you talk to them? No? OK.

Then, I'll get calls from the architect. The architect will say, the GC wants our model. What do we do? I literally have this phone call every day. Architects are literally afraid to share their model with their contractors. Again, early adopter. I'm sure plenty of people have been through this.

So start utilizing the Autodesk Construction Cloud. Invite them in. Allow them to link your design intent model into their construction model. And now, you can have a lot more clarity with preconstruction estimation, constructability is going to be a big one. And then, let's not forget if you're hosting the hub, and you're controlling these permissions. Let's say you are the architecture firm hosting it. How about just directly linking their construction model into your design intent model?

Has anybody done that? No? Scary thought? How many people are afraid of giving their model to a contractor? So we've got one in here.

So yep, that's your digital disclosures. That gets worked out in the contract, and that leads to the conversations that you have early on. I think we're moving past just handing documentation over to people. I think in our experience anyway, the relationships are being built with the contractors now. It's not just architects saying, hey, we're going to hand you a set of PDF documents. Good luck. That's what we're going to do. That's the design concept.

AUDIENCE: But the problem with that is that most models have been made today are not made with the degree of precision and accuracy and data tidiness this is required for another party that's going to build something that's going to rely on it contractually. So I think that needs to evolve, too. The contracts need to evolve to address that.

And we need to also evolve how we as architects and engineers develop that data revision and review it before-- it's not just, oh, the model I'm making today. I'm just going to throw it up in BIM 360. And everything's going to be fine. That's a recipe for disaster.

BRYAN NOVOTNY: And you've answered your own question. So that stuff needs to be negotiated in your contract. There needs to be a clear, understandable method about what you're doing in the communication because you're right. That will happen. The last thing you want is them to build off your design intent model. It happens. It's happened a lot, actually.

But again, that goes back to the relationships that we're building. It's not the same environment. They want to reach out. Our architects want to have a relationship with their GCs as much as possible and vise versa. So if you start utilizing the Autodesk Construction Cloud, that early adopter syndrome can quickly go away. You're adding models to one environment. You're sharing files and documents in one environment. And then, you're controlling everybody's access.

Even if that access doesn't directly allow them to link your files interchangeably, at least putting it in a viewer only mode, that will allow them to at least walk the space. And get an understanding of what they're going to be building. That can help them with estimates, as well, constructability methods. Anything is better than the traditional methods, I think.

And then there was one more point I was going to make.

TROY GATES: We'll come back to you. All right. We'll come back to you.

To kind of extend on what Bryan was saying that I thought was good to highlight is he talked about some models, some data. Data is something that directly ties in to sustainability when you're looking at how a project is run. So it's not necessarily the sustainability of the project itself, or the design, or constructability. But when you're looking at a traditional job site, how much paper is on a job site that are being printed out constantly, clipboards with safety forms, and checklists, and things like that.

So looking at data itself and being able to use the current innovations. And he mentioned Autodesk Construction Cloud. There's a lot of cloud platforms now that allow data to replace traditional methods of working. And it really allows us to start reducing our carbon footprint on projects just to build these projects. So when you think about trying to innovate in your own companies or in your own projects, look to innovate around data because you can start cutting out those wastes that we typically have on these projects.

And some of the great ones, RFIs, and things like that being purely digital. But having that collaborative environment is the first step to getting all your data to where they can either talk to each other or be housed in a central place, things like that. So that's definitely something that we want to highlight is you guys can start doing that now. There are platforms out there for you now to start reducing carbon emissions, and waste from things like paper, and stuff like that.

Let me go to my next question. And you'll probably remember, or did you already remember?

BRYAN NOVOTNY: No, I already remembered. So I just wanted to make a little bit more of an emphasis on the Construction Cloud. A lot of people I talked to today also just say, yeah, that's a place where we share our models, and that's the end of it. I don't know how deep you've gone into the platform and all the modules, really. That's another part of the integration about the entire ecosystem that I'm seeing a lot more of.

You don't necessarily need to start a model on Autodesk Construction Cloud. You can start a project environment there. Start sharing docs. I mean, it's completely file agnostic. So your Word documents, your Excel, your PDFs, current sets, and information that you have, that can all live in a project. It doesn't have to be a Revit model to start. So when we talk about streamlining our processes and all the cloud software, we can almost boil all that down to just the Construction Cloud. And at any stage that that project is ready to advance, that's when you can turn on your BIM Collaborate Pro and start the engagement on the Revit file side of things.

And as you start to move down the line, then you can hit a switch and turn on the build module. So the build module is going to help you with all your RFI submittals, photo sheets, and field information. So this stuff can be used interchangeably throughout the entire process with one software. And I think that's the ecosystem, the development of it. I'm seeing it being put to a lot greater usage than I personally have seen in the past. So it's encouraging to see.

I like when people come back to us and say, wow, we moved to one platform, and everything's here. Someone needs something, and it's there. We don't have to share it. We don't have to use all these different folder or file systems. It's all available to you. So if you don't have-- if you haven't played around with the system, I encourage you to. If you have an AEC collection, Autodesk Docs comes with your AEC collection.

A lot of people don't recognize that or realize it. You have software today that can completely replace your File Exchange and data center, if you will. So if you've got an AEC collection, check it out. If not, you can go ahead and purchase a ASCETA docs, as well. Question?

AUDIENCE: We don't have the bridge functionality that AEC has now? Is that a detriment to collaboration?

BRYAN NOVOTNY: No, oh, you got it?

TROY GATES: I was just going to repeat the question. So the question was-- mainly, I'm repeating it for the recording. So the question is around the bridge capabilities of the Autodesk Construction Cloud.

BRYAN NOVOTNY: So I think Bridge is an amazing tool now. I talk about starting your project in Docs. I've been moving, actually, a lot of companies off of their internal network systems, and on to Docs because it almost acts as the same thing. You have folders, subfolders. You've got permissions that can be controlled at all levels. You just have to be careful with federal projects, of course, and information like that.

So if I'm building out my company in that state where I've got marketing, sales, project folders, when I move projects to a close one, I actually start a brand new project hub. And that Bridge feature allows me to just teleport all that data over there without having to download it or upload it. And then, once you move on to the construction side of things, Bridge actually has a tool called Automation built into it. So if you publish a sheet set to, let's say, a contractor, you can actually set the Bridge to automatically send any new revision data to the contractor.

So as you update your sheets, slip sheet, addendums, things like that, anything you re-upload there will automatically bridge to that project and share the information without you having to do it on your own. So I think it's an awesome tool. You don't have to download stuff anymore and re-upload. You can just simply bridge information from one project hub to your project, or another project hub, even.

Did you have any issues or problems that you saw with it?

AUDIENCE: We haven't been able to convince any of the contractors to use it so far. They're all too afraid of it. That we're going to have too much data in too many different places.

BRYAN NOVOTNY: So that's where I would say bring it back down to one location if you can.

TROY GATES: Another idea is to get your owners involved. The owners can have a bridge of their own, too. So being able to have them get that insight would helpfully push the other portions of the teams to start using it, too. So to move on just to drive on. I don't know if you have follow ups. And then, we can move on to the next question.

BRIAN SKRIPAC: It looks like you're coming to me anyway.

TROY GATES: Yeah, I was going to you anyway. I was just going to say Bryan is-- Bryan and Brian. So Bryan has already talked about where he thinks the industry is and where it's heading as far as the Autodesk Construction Cloud and things like that. Where do you think the future is for design build? Any insights that you can share with where we're headed?

BRIAN SKRIPAC: Yeah, I think that's what I would want to follow up on what Brian was talking about in the question from in the front there. Those challenges that we have, the traditional design bid, build, siloed, three parties, two contracts, the architect and the contractor. There's no privity between the two of them. So what happens when we get in the scenario that was mentioned by the gentleman in the front?

Well, we've all done it. Get guilty here, too. Well, the model was only built to deliver a two-dimensional set of documents to the owner, which was our contract at deliverable. What's the first thing that happens after the drawings go out to bid and the contract's awarded? Can I have the architect and engineers model? No. Why? Because it wasn't in my contract.

That's the inherent-- everybody's laughing because we know it's true. That's the inherent frustration that our industry has. So that's what's excited me about my transition from practice and into the DBIA. Here now, you have two parties in one contract. The owner contracts with a design builder to deliver both the design documents and the construction of the building.

And now, everybody below there, there's a flow down. So now, you have a design and construction team in place that can properly set the expectation. So we found a huge value in my previous firm when we did that to say, well, if the contractor is asking for something, what information do you need? You can plan that up at the beginning. It's not an afterthought. It's not-- 9 out of 10 times when somebody asks you for information, it's a response.

It's not, oh my gosh, this is going to take me 8 hours to do this. No, it's information and data that you probably already inherently have in the model that you just need to query and share. Or it's a share. And then, that starts to allow all the things that Bryan was just talking about of using that Autodesk Construction Cloud BIM 360, being able to share that information. Now, you have a contract structure that's set up and predicated on teaming collaboration integration, and you don't have those siloed barriers. I'm not supposed to share that information with you.

And I think the other fun thing about that is the early planning. We all talk about a BIM execution plan, but that often becomes a paperweight. Now how do we start integrating that into our contracts? The new AA docs came out with that. The Design Build Institute of America, we're going to be revising our contract language to be more inclusive of having more of a right or reliance on that model. How do we get to that stage?

I know one of the most frustrating things when I was in architecture was the amount of time we spend detailing and dimensioning stuff. We had a project. And I'll always remember it was about 150,000 square foot health care project, medical office building, all outpatient services. We delivered it, designed deliver, and it was 22 months. And our drawing set went from this to this.

And we set up an environment of sharing at the beginning. And I remember my boss was top-down approach. He's like, if anybody asks me for a dimension set of drawings again, I'm going to turn this table over. They're like, it's in the model. You can trust it. We built that reliance on it. We told you you can do it. It's in your contract. You don't need us to waste time dimensioning stuff.

So that frees us up to be designers, focus on constructability, focus on sustainability. Let's get in a collaborative teaming structure, so we can do all the things that we want to do, not all the stuff that we get stuck doing at the end of the day.

TROY GATES: Thank you. So the same question for you. There you go. With Gensler, you do have an initiative with a date for sustainability. Where do you think, though, that the industry-- where's sustainability going in the industry, even say, by 2030?