Sustainability @Scale 2015 - Melanie Loftus
summary
Design decisions change carbon math: operational carbon falls as buildings go efficient so embodied carbon dominates new NetZero projects and reuse typically uses about a quarter to a third the carbon of new construction. Practical tools demonstrated include Tally (Revit plug-in) for per-material life‑cycle impacts, AskNature for biomimetic functions, an Autodesk red-yellow-green material meter and AutoCASE for triple‑bottom‑line valuation. Case work shows retrofit-first strategies and material substitutions (wood vs concrete, avoid halogenated foam) actually cut near‑term emissions.
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chapters (20)
- 0:00Introduction
- 2:17Melanies background
- 4:06Broken design system
- 6:12Addressing client beliefs
- 8:25Simplifying sustainability
- 10:33Materials and sustainability
- 13:17Biomimicry
- 15:23Building Health
- 19:16Health Materials
- 23:06Toxic Materials
- 27:54Tools
- 31:21Ask Nature
- 32:45Frameworks
- 36:54Feedback
- 37:26Continuous Improvement
- 40:09Questions
- 41:04Realtime data
- 44:48Feedback loop
- 46:46Tim Frank
- 51:59Question
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