Google, USGBC collaborate to promote green development

Google and the U.S Green Building Council (USGBC) have launched a new initiative to develop collaboration on sustainable construction.

The Harmonization Task Group will develop a common language, new tools to increase manufacturer, designer, and non-government organisation collaboration to improve human health in association with sustainable building.

The announcement was made at Greenbuild 2014 on Thursday and the creation of the Application Programming Interface (API) will be the first deliverable under the grant.

The API will increase uniformity of data shared by manufacturers and simplify distribution of it to a range of certifiers and other NGOs in the green building space.

A study by McGraw Hill, the AIA, CBRE, US Green Building Council, United Technologies and a host of other partners was also presented at the event which suggests that around 47 per cent of building owners cut their healthcare costs for employees in facilities with green building features such as day lighting and natural air circulation.

Autodesk, who develop software for architecture, engineering, construction and manufacturing, debuted several sustainable design apps including three to help building teams cost-justify sustainability strategies and two that better integrate Building Performance Analysis (BPA) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) workflows for Autodesk Revit and Autodesk FormIt,  a mobile conceptual design application, Metal Miner reports.

Hanley Wood launched Greenbuild University, a free, online learning platform designed to educate and train sustainable design professionals with best-in-class content focusing on LEED.

The event also saw LivingHomes launch the  2014 Greenbuild LivingHome, designed and developed in partnership with Make It Right.

The LEED Platinum net-zero home is a prime example of how cutting-edge sustainable building techniques can contribute to affordable housing.