Member - Rapiere Software Limited

Our concept is a game changer in sustainable architectural thinking and building design for a low carbon future: Currently design teams focus only on operational energy and cost of a building, and often only the operational utility costs at that. In financial analysis no one would approach a business decision this way; the cost of the loan and the revenue must be considered together. Our tool brings this approach to the construction sector addressing embodied as well as operational carbon and cost for truly intelligent carbon and energy decision making. Issues such as waste, responsible sourcing of materials and health and well being are also not addressed in a unified manner. They are usually carried out in a range of independent analyses' that often come too late or are too time consuming to have any impact on any direct design decision. Consequently, they become more of a rubber stamping exercise, seeing if BREEAM points can be achieved with little scope to change the specification. ECCOlab allows simulation of all these impacts at the point at which they are useful. ECCOlab allows rapid intelligent analysis by bringing the model into a single web environment where cloud simulations of the cost, energy and carbon aspects of the project take place, allowing optimisation between them. The model is attributed with materials from the vast ECCOlab material database allowing detailed data to be rapidly added to the BIM model. This allows intelligent decisions to be made at the most beneficial point; at the concept design stage. ECCOlab also a collaboration tool and operates similar to Google Docs, in that all members of the team can work live on the same model. This eliminates the current silo analysis approach where consultants go off for two weeks at a time and carry out often divergent analysis, often on an out of date model. ECCOlab is already being actively used by the consortium members and has been instrumental to achieve the landmark project The Enterprise Centre at the UEA (www.uea.ac.uk/adapt/home/-/asset_publisher/aDG3ZnzNYZ3T/content/uea-wins-prestigious-cibse-award-for-the-enterprise-centre?inheritRedirect=false), which is the winner of over 30 sustainability and design awards, including RIBA and CIBSE national awards. Notable projects also include a report demonstrating the lifecycle carbon/cost approach for Construction Excellence in Wales / the Welsh Government and the refurbishment of a building for the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership are just a few of the projects where ECCOlab has, and is, enhancing projects through its unique ability to rapidly optimise lifecycle impacts.