SUSTAINABILITY
We adopt a commonsense approach to sustainability and believe that doing the right thing doesn’t necessarily have to be showy and more expensive. We haven’t adopted these practices to win awards or collect points, but from a real commitment to reducing our impact on climate change, through more conscious building practices. We try to implement the following on all our projects:
Buildings and elements should be reused and repurposed to minimize landfill waste and reduce embodied carbon.
Any project can achieve net zero operating carbon or be net zero ready using standard details, passive solar design, and energy-efficient all-electric systems, enabling clients to purchase solar energy or install on-site solar panels.
Continued analysis of our building materials to evaluate embodied carbon and provide year to year reductions in carbon footprint for our projects.
Embodied vs Operating Carbon
Embodied carbon is CO2 from building materials. To reduce it, reuse buildings and select carbon-capturing materials like wood instead of energy-intensive concrete or metal. Operating carbon comes from electricity and fossil fuel heating. Achieving net zero operating carbon requires all-electric heating and cooling, reducing electricity use, and offsetting with solar or wind power. Minimizing both embodied and operating carbon increases our impact.
Reuse
Our founder, Gideon Stone, is passionate about building reuse and is a sitting Board Member of Ithaca Reuse, our local building recycling and resale organization. Gideon has brought this passion to Trade Design Build, and we look for projects where we can rehabilitate old buildings and spaces, or if a building must come down, look at ways to ensure the building is recycled, rather than demolished.
Energy Modeling
Trade Design Build uses Autodesk Revit for initial designs. Revit, a BIM tool, generates 3D digital models of construction assemblies. A Revit wall simulates real wall components and properties, such as structural and thermal attributes. Its integration with Autodesk Insight allows us to evaluate building system performance early, informing our design decisions.
Embodied Carbon
We leverage Revit’s assembly information to assess the embodied carbon footprint of our building systems and quantify the materials linked to model elements. Using Autodesk’s Tally plug-in, we associate real-world carbon data with these materials. This enables us to evaluate embodied carbon in various design scenarios during the early stages.