In this class, we will cover applications of Autodesk CFD Simulation software for sustainable design in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. You will learn how Autodesk CFD is used in the AEC design process. We will cover case studies involving the following: energy-efficient ventilation design for a large sports stadium facility; indoor thermal comfort using energy-efficient displacement ventilation for a large convention center foyer occupied by people; wind-loading analysis to simulate wind pressure and resultant structural loading on an airport façade and roof; and optimization of storm-water roof-drainage design using free surface flow. You will learn how the air flow and thermal simulations capabilities of Autodesk CFD are used to demonstrate performance for sustainable design.

Feeling the pressure to deliver complex projects quickly while balancing Sustainable Design? The key to managing and reducing carbon emissions is accessible, connected, and useful data. Despite growing demand for Sustainable Design information, many face barriers in data consistency and reliability. Autodesk’s platform connects data across design processes, shares insights, and uses workflows powered by artificial intelligence (AI) for sustainable environments. The new Sustainable Design Data API links customers with trusted third-party Sustainable Design data sets at all design stages. The Insight and Sustainable Design Data APIs partnered up to support additional embodied carbon databases, providing essential data for analysis. This integration equips designers with tools to measure embodied and operational carbon, visualize reduction opportunities, and track environmental impacts. Learn how to use Revit Insight software for sustainable design and use the Sustainable Design Data API to connect more data sources or build custom tools with Autodesk Platform Services.

Sustainability in construction is a complex issue. As the world becomes more environmentally focused, we’re wrestling with how to implement sustainability in practice. There are so many pieces to the sustainability puzzle, and technology like Autodesk's Architecture, Engineering & Construction Collection and Construction Cloud software are key pieces. Buro Happold is known for its technology-forward thinking, and has long been working toward an equitable and green recovery, adapting its business to mitigate climate change and the biodiversity crisis. The firm’s vision for the future is for a regenerative ecosystem—both natural and built—that provides suitable habitats for humans and non-humans alike. In this class, we’ll consider how implementing processes, documentation, and software can help support more sustainable and environmentally friendly design, and we’ll share lessons Buro Happold has learned regarding how to effectively use technology to achieve these aims.

Sustainable Design often feels overwhelming, entangled in complex metrics and elusive goals. This session unveils how Symetri’s Co-Innovation Lab (COIL) transforms that complexity into clarity. By rethinking traditional Sustainable Design workflows, COIL has developed streamlined, actionable strategies that empower design and construction teams to make immediate, meaningful changes.​ Through select client success stories—including innovative collaborations with firms like BamCore and Bernheimer Architecture—you’ll see how simplified, data-driven approaches can reduce carbon footprints, enhance design efficiency, and meet regulatory demands without added complexity. Attendees will leave with practical insights into COIL’s methodology and a fresh perspective on integrating Sustainable Design seamlessly into everyday practice.​

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming Sustainable Design strategies, helping companies reduce carbon footprints, optimize resources, and make more-informed decisions. But how does this innovation intersect with the tools companies already rely on? This panel will explore how AI-powered solutions are integrating with Autodesk technology to deliver Sustainable Design insights across industries. Experts from members of Autodesk’s Sustainable Design Tech Partner Program will share how their AI-driven platforms are using Autodesk software to solve real-world challenges. From infrastructure design Automation, Integration, & Customization to predictive water asset management and carbon-conscious manufacturing, the discussion will highlight tangible examples of AI’s impact. You’ll gain insights into how AI and Autodesk solutions work together to accelerate Sustainable Design goals, overcome adoption barriers, and shape the future of responsible design and engineering.

Artificial Intelligence are transforming sustainable design in the AEC—not just by assisting, but by accelerating and automating core environmental analysis tasks. Today, bespoke machine learning models can simulate complex climate factors like solar exposure, lighting performance, wind comfort, and embodied carbon with unprecedented speed—cutting simulation times by up to 99% compared to traditional methods. These AI-driven tools allow teams to run high-fidelity analyses in real time, enabling rapid iteration and better design outcomes from the earliest project stages. We’ll also look at how generative tools and intelligent code assistants are offering informed suggestions—optimizing building performance, ensuring code compliance, and integrating Sustainable Design seamlessly into daily workflows. Real-world case studies will highlight how these technologies are driving a fundamental shift toward smarter, greener, and faster decision-making across the AEC industry

Discover how Mott MacDonald used Autodesk’s Sustainable Design Data API to augment the firm’s own internally developed low-carbon product, opening pathways to additional carbon data sets and widening its appeal to clients existing and new. By incorporating the Sustainable Design Data API, Mott MacDonald has been able to make these data sets consistently available across an increased number of platforms, allowing for new carbon insights in products such as Revit Insight and Autodesk Takeoff software. In addition, the use of the AEC Data Model has enabled a critical link between design data and carbon data, helping to drive more-sustainable design. In this session, we will share key technical lessons learned through our partnership with Autodesk, and detail how we overcame some of the challenges we encountered.

Join professionals from across industries for an engaging networking experience passionate about driving sustainable outcomes in the age of AI. Whether you're working on carbon analysis, sustainable design and manufacturing, preserving biodiversity, or water stewardship, this is your chance to connect with peers and explore the strategies and technologies changing the way we create a more sustainable future.

We’ll start with a brief welcome and a few conversation starters, like how Autodesk tools help you design more, guess less, and stay friends with the planet today. We’ll explore how the advent of AI is impacting your Sustainable Design strategies as both a challenge and a catalyst (because Sustainable Design, like AI, isn’t always straightforward). Whether you're here to exchange ideas, discover solutions, or build new connections, this meetup is designed to spark meaningful dialogue and collaboration.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe famously said, “God is in the details.” In sustainable architecture, the impact of thoughtful detailing is more critical than ever. While bold goals shape early design, it’s the resolution of assemblies, continuity of documentation, and firm standards that ultimately drive performance. This panel will bring together envelope experts and practice technologists from small, mid-sized, and large firms to discuss how workflows, standards, and tools are evolving to support sustainable outcomes. Panelists—including D.TO, architects, a BIM manager, and an Autodesk expert—will share real-world challenges, from inaccessible detail libraries to BIM limitations, and we’ll explore how technology is starting to close those gaps. We’ll examine how platforms like Revit software, emerging artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, and context-aware detailing tools are transforming envelope design—aligning performance, precision, and Sustainable Design through smarter practices and better delivery.

This class will take a pragmatic approach to designing for business-sustainability win-wins. Sustainable design practices can help your business improve product performance, save money, AND reduce your products’ environmental footprints all at once. Autodesk’s tools can drive better design decisions, saving time, energy, and materials, while making our products more durable and future-proof. We’ll explore key industry trends and illustrate how Autodesk’s products can help you achieve sustainability goals, delivering results that are good for both profits and the planet.

Despite the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions, many organizations are locked into Sustainable Design reporting processes that ironically generate carbon themselves. Manual data collection, countless spreadsheets, disjointed systems, and repetitive quality checks consume thousands of hours across project teams—a resource-intensive cycle that ultimately undermines the very goals these frameworks aim to achieve. This session will explore the paradox at the heart of today’s carbon reporting commitments, drawing on real-world insights from the collaborative effort of Autodesk and Stantec to streamline carbon workflows. We’ll unpack how the development of an open, automated data architecture—grounded in the ECHO schema—enables scalable, lower-carbon reporting that not only aligns with the AIA 2030 Commitment, SE 2050, and other programs, but actually frees up time and energy for deeper Sustainable Design work. It’s time to reduce the carbon cost of carbon reporting—and this session will show you how.

At the outset of a Revit project, it is crucial to define a clear process and workflow. This should encompass several key elements, such as accurately determining the building's location, shared coordinates, geodetic elevation, building design, and the materials to be represented. As we prepare to tackle the sustainability challenges of 2030 and 2050, it is imperative to integrate these factors into our workflow from the outset. Moreover, it is recommended that firms incorporate these processes and workflows into the creation of families intended for use in sustainable projects, ensuring that sustainability is woven into every aspect of the project. By doing so, we can ensure that we are setting a strong foundation for designing, constructing, and managing buildings that are in line with our sustainable goals.

The contractor and architect from the Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design—which is striving for full certification of the Living Building Challenge—will explain how Autodesk tools were used during the pursuit, award, design, preconstruction, construction, and post-construction activities. They will cover lessons learned from the most interesting and challenging aspects of the project related to the high standards of regenerative design and the 20 Design Imperatives for the Living Building Challenge. The team used Revit software, Assemble software, Navisworks software, and BIM 360 software to identify and work through solutions. The presenters are not software experts; however, they are experts in project management, regenerative design and construction, and systems coordination, and they are excited to share how Autodesk software contributed to the project.

Digital models are the key to unlocking improved sustainability and lower costs in product design. This session will explore groundbreaking techniques for using 3ds Max and Maya software to create realistic 3D assets that designers can trust and rely on, eliminating the need for physical samples. Discover how physically based rendering (PBR) extensions generate assets with an accurate and tactile appearance. Learn how to render PBR assets consistently across various contexts for seamless collaboration. See how to maximize reusability by creating asset variations for other departments once the design is complete. Based on real-life examples from major retailers, this session demonstrates the compelling advantages of digital design: significantly reducing waste, eliminating delays, and cutting costs throughout the design process. Revolutionize your product design workflow with 3D assets that replace the real thing.

What are new emerging methods for tackling large and complex challenges such as sustainable design? More specifically, what might happen when we combine technology from one industry and apply it to another? Further, how can designers leverage these experiments in "convergence" to inform the future of design-and-make? Inspired by an Autodesk Technology Center resident, this case study explores the sustainable implications of converging industrial design tasks with "procedural modeling" tools (a Media and Entertainment technology). This talk shares the results of both practical hands-on experiments and conceptual thinking on how procedural modeling tools could influence higher performing design decisions applied to product-design and manufacturing. Experience the convergence of industries as the Technology Centers explore what it means to continuously reshape and adapt objects to meet functional and performance requirements.

Contemporary shifts in technology and environmental concerns are changing the circumstances of building performance. Integrated teams that employ interdisciplinary design and construction personnel are responding to this changed set of conditions. The foundation of interdisciplinary architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) practices begins with the education of the next generation of AEC practitioners. In this class, we will discuss how students engaged in an iterative design and learning process build knowledge and communication skills toward an integrated design-build studio. This integrated design-build studio uses a series of assignments housed in dedicated design labs where students solve realistic design problems. Faculty-implemented Building Information Modeling (BIM) technologies and established ecological accounting methods increase interaction and innovation in the interdisciplinary design-build studio.

As pressure grows to deliver climate-conscious buildings faster and with fewer surprises, structural engineers are being asked to lead with precision and foresight. In this session, Autodesk and Qnect will share a joint vision for how structural engineers can deliver smarter, constructible, and lower-carbon steel models—directly from design. See how Revit software’s modeling workflows combined with Qnect’s intelligent connection engine enable early QA/QC, reduce RFIs, and reveal Sustainable Design opportunities long before detailing begins. This session will showcase how connected modeling, early optimization, and intentional design handoff can transform steel delivery across the project lifecycle—from design to fabrication.

The current pressing issue of sustainability in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is changing the way buildings are designed and made. The basis of a sustainable project is the design and engineering principles that are used to achieve specific sustainable-development goals. But it's not always clear how we can meet sustainability goals with the use of specific technology. In this class, we'll focus on a piece of the technology landscape that Autodesk offers in the AEC industry, called Generative Design. We'll show some practical sustainable-design use cases that are solved with Generative Design in Revit software, going from architectural concept through building engineering to fabrication optimization. At the end of this session, you'll have some fresh inspiration on how to solve your own sustainable-design challenges with the use of automation and generative design methods.

With the new functionalities and plug-ins for Revit software—such as Lighting Analysis for Revit software, Green Building Studio web-based energy analysis service, the Tally app, and the Dynamo visual programming language extension—new potentials have emerged during the last year. These developments have not only led to much easier workflows, but also to a more holistic analysis of the building performance and urban comfort studies. In this lecture, these new potentials, workflows, and methods for visualizing simulations are shown based on various consultancy tasks and a research project that seeks to add knowledge to architects' design processes as supported with simulation tools. The research project also included a workshop where participants tested methods on unskilled architectural students. We will wrap this all up in the lecture and relate it to model detail levels, instead of the typical schematic design process related to design phases. In many cases, this does not reflect the actual design process. Design development is done in various detail levels at the same time, especially in the early design phases.