Sustainability Workshop Blog Feed

On The Importance of Calculations

Adam Kenvarg — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 17:24:49 +0000

By Adam Kenvarg, Autodesk Sustainability Education Fellow

When doing design work, some people (engineers included) gloss over initial, basic calculations. Some see it as needless, others are intimidated. With such powerful software tools, why do we even need to do initial calculations? The main reason is ensuring that you can actually build what you propose.

Announcing the winners of the "Design for (Your) Product Lifetime" Student Challenge!

Adam Kenvarg — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 19:25:51 +0000

In this design contest, Autodesk, Core77 and iFixit challenged students from around the world to design a smart product that can be easily repaired and will stand the test of time, even if some of its components need to be replaced. Participants used the “improving product lifetime” resources on the Sustainability Workshop to learn design for repair, upgrade, disassembly, recyclability and durability strategies. For First Place, there was a tie: The Easy Access LCD Monitor and the Infigo Microwave.

CFD Analysis and Energy Efficiency

Adam Kenvarg — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 18:21:44 +0000

By: Len Whitehead, Autodesk Simulation Team

Fluids are all around us. From a simple chair in a room to a sophisticated datacenter hosting cloud computing services, fluids interact with and affect the performance of nearly everything we create, use, and occupy. It takes energy to move these fluids, travel through them, and change their temperature.

Sustainable Design with Intent: A Toolkit for Designers and Engineers

adammenter — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:06:50 +0000

How can a designer’s intention lead to a more sustainable world by improving the environmental impacts of user behavior?

Personal Fabrication for a Self-Sustaining World: Webinar Recording

Dawn Danby — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 08:10:27 +0000

It’s easier than ever to make real, physical things from scratch. As Autodesk has released free, easy to use software like our 123D tools, we’ve been enthusiastically exploring sustainability in personal fabrication and the maker community.

It’s always fun to collaborate with Jesse Harrington Au, Autodesk’s Maker Advocate. During this webcast conversation, he and I talked about ideas as diverse as local manufacturing, sharing networks, and material choices in 3D printing.

CAE Simulation for Sustainable Design: Webinar Recording

adammenter — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 15:34:22 +0000

Last week we hosted a webinar on the basics of CAE simulation tools, and how they can be used for sustainable design. (Thanks to Shakeel Mirza, Autodesk Technical Consultant, for joining us on the webinar!)

Autodesk’s Simulation products can help analyze heat transfer, fluid flows, and mechanical stresses. When used well, they can help you create designs that use energy and materials more effectively.

Simulation for Sustainability: Fewer Prototypes, but more Prototyping

Adam Kenvarg — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 21:35:10 +0000

By Shakeel Mirza, Technical Consultant Autodesk

While thinking about examples of simulation applications to produce more environmental friendly products, I had this revelation: “Simulation itself is environmental friendly by nature” independent of the application.

Designing for Durability: iPhone 5

Adam Kenvarg — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 18:20:37 +0000

The iPhone 5 came out just this past weekend, and in the first three days Apple sold about 5 million of them. This sounds like a great success, but is there a problem with the durability of the new product? What do we even mean when we talk about durability?

Energy Modeling Workflow Maps: A Tool to Improve Architecture Practice

adammenter — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 01:20:48 +0000

We at the Autodesk Sustainability Workshop are trying to influence architecture and engineering practice through education. One exciting thing we’ve been delving into recently is workflows for high performance building design.

Webinar Recording: A "Behind the Scenes" look at the Autodesk Green Building Certificate Program

adammenter — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:13:27 +0000

Today Adam Menter, Stephanie Egger, and Glenn Katz gave a "behind the scenes look" at the Autodesk Green Building Certificate that we're currently developing. (This program has been renamed to the Autodesk Building Performance Analysis Certificate)

It is an online course that teaches the use of Autodesk building performance analysis tools, and focuses on providing a foundation in building science and design-process.