Atlanta, GA, April 25, 2006--The U.S. Green Building Council announced that it has partnered with Greenlight Strategies to make the company's popular ecologic3 software package available to USGBC members at a reduced price. That price also includes a revenue share with the USGBC.
Ecologic3, which systemically assesses the economic return of a green building investment, also announced today the availability of modules for all LEED Rating Systems, including LEED-NCv2.1, LEED-NCv2.2, LEED-CI, LEED-EB, and LEED-CS.
"Ecologic3 is the first tool I'm aware of that makes it easy to understand the financial implications of building green," said USGBC CEO Rick Fedrizzi. "We're very excited to have Greenlight Strategies as an active partner in our ongoing technology development."
"We're very excited about our partnership with USGBC. We believe our software will help create revenue opportunities for project teams based on optimizing the economic value to their customers while evaluating and working on green building solutions. By having a powerful and easy-to-use tool for web-based collaboration between all members of a LEED project team, those green projects will be easier to implement," said Al Kabus, partner at Greenlight Strategies.
For the architectural community, the ability to collaboratively develop a project in real time has proven to be a timesaving, money-saving proposition. For the owner/developer, the analysis capabilities of ecologic3 enable the design team to present a variety of "what if" scenarios that can balance various green design elements across the budget, giving the developer flexibility in decision-making without time-consuming re-dos. And manufacturers gain important feedback on how specific products are being used, their impact on green design and their ability to be incorporated into LEED projects.
"If we can provide the owners and developers the type of data they need to better understand the financial benefits of the LEED rating system, it will go a long way towards enabling the market transformation we've all sought," said Kabus. He noted that the price for USGBC members is $349.
Kabus noted that ecologic3 was developed by Greenlight Strategies co-founder Paul Shariari as a solution to a problem he was experiencing as a green building consultant. As one of the country's leading authorities on the application and implementation of sustainability to the real estate, design, and construction industries, Shariari was frustrated by his inability to quickly and succinctly demonstrate a relationship between the short-term cost and the long-term payback on projects designed according to LEED specifications. It was his deep understanding and lengthy experience in actually working on more than 30 LEED-NC projects, as well as working on LEED-CI, LEED-EB, and LEED Retail pilots, that led him to develop ecologic3.
