Arc Online Identifies Pros & Cons of LEED Certification

A new online platform, designed to compliment LEED and other green building rating systems was released at this year’s Greenbuild Conference that took place Oct. 5 through Oct. 6 in Los Angeles.

Arc, a software program designed to show building owners and their architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) teams the financial, social, and environmental returns from green building strategies and practices, according to a statement from Building Design and Construction.

Arc was developed by GBCI, an organization that administers project certifications and professional credentials and certificates for various rating systems. Arc is an open platform built to integrate the current and future building standards, guidelines, protocols and systems that enable a higher quality of life.

“What would have cost $250,000 for a custom analysis now costs virtually nothing, according to a statement from John Williams, CEO of Impact Infrastructure. “We’re filling the gap and showing value.”

Besides making green building assessments more available to everyone, the analysis can be completed in a few keystrokes, according to Williams, and AEC teams won’t have to wait months to see results.

“The LEED rating system revolutionized the design, construction and operations of green buildings more than 16 years ago,” said Scot Horst, the incoming CEO of Arc in a statement. “Arc’s goal is to transform green performance technology and bring data, mobility and the most disruptive technologies available today to support a holistic approach to building our future.”

Arc has an icon located at the top of the home page telling users what and exactly how much they gain from going the green building route. Arc can identify the value of sustainable water practices as well as how green building benefits the long-term health of occupants. Arc can also provide a dollar estimate that fluctuates as new data are introduced.

Some key features include the ability to help AEC teams visualize large amounts of data and convey information in a way that’s easy for everyone to understand. Arc also provides users with a detailed list of analytics that can impact an AEC’s team decision to go for LEED certification.

LEED-certified buildings can use arc to improve and benchmark against other certified buildings around them. Buildings that have not been LEED certified yet will be able to use arc to make incremental sustainability improvements and eventually achieve LEED certification.

In the future, Arc will be able to show project teams how LEED certification standards overlap to other certification systems around the world. Arc plans to launch at the end of 2016.