169
little bit of time, a whole Rhino model can be translated to Revit and then interfaced
with any of the available LCA plugins. Furthermore, just like Dynamo, it gives the
user the ability to set up fully parametric Revit models, which makes it quick and
easy to test different design and material configurations, and then get LCA results
for these steps. Overall, Rhino.Inside.Revit opens up a whole host of new opportunities to easily integrate Revit-specific LCA studies into Rhino workflows, which
was not previously possible. For more information, please visit https://www.rhino3d.com/inside/revit/beta/.
8.7.2 NIST BEES and BIRDS
Among the software released by NIST, BEES and BIRDS stand out as sustainability
solutions for architects and designers. Both of these tools aim to take a more holistic
approach to sustainability and incorporate elements of life cycle costing, indoor
environment quality, and operational energy in addition to LCA (Kneifel and
O’Rear 2018). The two tools differ in terms of their object of study and evaluative
criteria but are both provided as free web-based tools. The BEES framework
addresses environmental and economic impacts of individual building products,
while BIRDS provides a framework to evaluate whole buildings across environmental impacts, economic impacts, indoor environment quality (IAQ), and operational energy.
BEES is a tool that can help designers compare individual building products by
environmental and economic impacts. The interface is simple with a very small
learning curve and is designed to be able to be used without a lot of background
knowledge on LCA (Kneifel and O’Rear 2018). Building components with available information are organized by building component groups and type according to
the UNIFORMAT II standard (Kneifel et al. 2018). The user has the ability to select
various criteria to evaluate the product on, including commercial versus residential
applications, the LCIA method used, how much material is being used, and the
discount rate for the LCC component. From an available list of building products,
the user picks one to set as the benchmark and other products to evaluate against the
chosen benchmark. The advantages of an LCA study, as discussed, are the ability to
evaluate across impact categories to look for true reductions instead of burden shifting. This can be challenging to do, though, as the different impact categories are not
comparable. For more information, please visit https://www.nist.gov/servicesresources/software/bees.
BIRDS is a whole building sustainability framework also developed by
NIST. While BEES focused on just two evaluative criteria at the scale of an individual product, BIRDS aims to tackle all of the sustainable criteria defined by NIST
and the tradeoffs between them. There is a strong link between operational energy,
embodied environmental impacts, and total cost that BIRDS attempts to tap into
(Kneifel and O’Rear 2018). In order to do this, BIRDS is limited in the ability to
customize the inputs. After selecting either a commercial or single-family detached
8.7 Other LCA Tools
little bit of time, a whole Rhino model can be translated to Revit and then interfaced
with any of the available LCA plugins. Furthermore, just like Dynamo, it gives the
user the ability to set up fully parametric Revit models, which makes it quick and
easy to test different design and material configurations, and then get LCA results
for these steps. Overall, Rhino.Inside.Revit opens up a whole host of new opportunities to easily integrate Revit-specific LCA studies into Rhino workflows, which
was not previously possible. For more information, please visit https://www.rhino3d.com/inside/revit/beta/.
8.7.2 NIST BEES and BIRDS
Among the software released by NIST, BEES and BIRDS stand out as sustainability
solutions for architects and designers. Both of these tools aim to take a more holistic
approach to sustainability and incorporate elements of life cycle costing, indoor
environment quality, and operational energy in addition to LCA (Kneifel and
O’Rear 2018). The two tools differ in terms of their object of study and evaluative
criteria but are both provided as free web-based tools. The BEES framework
addresses environmental and economic impacts of individual building products,
while BIRDS provides a framework to evaluate whole buildings across environmental impacts, economic impacts, indoor environment quality (IAQ), and operational energy.
BEES is a tool that can help designers compare individual building products by
environmental and economic impacts. The interface is simple with a very small
learning curve and is designed to be able to be used without a lot of background
knowledge on LCA (Kneifel and O’Rear 2018). Building components with available information are organized by building component groups and type according to
the UNIFORMAT II standard (Kneifel et al. 2018). The user has the ability to select
various criteria to evaluate the product on, including commercial versus residential
applications, the LCIA method used, how much material is being used, and the
discount rate for the LCC component. From an available list of building products,
the user picks one to set as the benchmark and other products to evaluate against the
chosen benchmark. The advantages of an LCA study, as discussed, are the ability to
evaluate across impact categories to look for true reductions instead of burden shifting. This can be challenging to do, though, as the different impact categories are not
comparable. For more information, please visit https://www.nist.gov/servicesresources/software/bees.
BIRDS is a whole building sustainability framework also developed by
NIST. While BEES focused on just two evaluative criteria at the scale of an individual product, BIRDS aims to tackle all of the sustainable criteria defined by NIST
and the tradeoffs between them. There is a strong link between operational energy,
embodied environmental impacts, and total cost that BIRDS attempts to tap into
(Kneifel and O’Rear 2018). In order to do this, BIRDS is limited in the ability to
customize the inputs. After selecting either a commercial or single-family detached
8.7 Other LCA Tools