CO2 calculation
with Revit
with Revit
Tips on how to make your pharmaceutical production building more sustainable.
With Autodesk Insight for Revit, we can calculate the carbon footprint of a building (works for Revit 2023 and 2024). However, we can only calculate the construction phase, i.e. the carbon embodied in the materials of the building “Embedded Carbon Emissions”.
Production of materials and recycling of buildings (LCA) is not included.
Recommendation: Carry out these calculations as early as the concept phase. This way you know your numbers and can start to reduce the impact of your project.
Workflow
- Define ceilings, walls and windows and use the right material with physical and thermal properties.
- In Revit click on View / Carbon Insights Analysis
- …and read off the C02 emissions
Play with it. Change structures, layouts or materials in Revit and compare the impact on CO2.
Embedded Carbon is now the decision parameter with the highest value in the design process.
At least that should be the case for you.
For this case study, we compared 2 options: one with concrete walls and the second with concrete blocks. Only the effects of the walls on CO2 are considered.
OPTION 1
Image 2, screenshot of the Autodesk Revit Insight interface
embedded CO₂ emissions:
per volume 100 m3 = approx. 40 tons CO2e/m3
Material for walls, ceilings, and roof is “Ready-mix concrete” with 387 kg CO2 emissions per m3.
In this example concrete walls are responsible for 40% of the project’s carbon footprint.
Image 3, Ready Mix Concrete
Image 4, Share of concrete walls in the CO2 balance
OPTION 2
The walls made of concrete block masonry:
Image 5, concrete unit masonry
embedded CO₂ emissions:
per volume 100 m3 = approx. 32 tons CO2e/m3
Reduction of 8 Tons less CO2 with concrete block masonry.
So if you live in the USA, you are guilt-free for half the year.
*The average American was responsible for emitting 14.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide (tCO₂) in 2022.
Conclusion:
I find this tool very, very useful.
You can test the design options in the planning process very quickly and it could help you make sustainable decisions in the future. It’s something that you could do in Excel as well, but it’s a good start for BIM workflow and saves you time instead of exporting data, creating your own formulas in Excel, etc,
Autodesk understands the 2030 climate goals and #Insight will definitely evolve and hopefully not end up in the drawer like many other #Autodesk products.
This is a part of the study made for VTU Group Vienna. CSA (Civil, Structural and Architectural) department where Igor Mitric Lavovski works at the moment.
Pharmaceutical industry
Green Engineering, CO2 Calculation
