PHOENIX – ecoScorecard, the technology platform that helps building product specifiers evaluate environmental attributes of products, recently revealed the new ecoScorecard plug-in that works with Google SketchUp™ and provides a critical link between popular BIM (Building Information Modeling) tools and important environmental rating systems such as LEED®.
The new integration will enable users to easily access environmental product attributes and rating system calculations for ecoScorecard enabled products that are in the Google 3D Warehouse™, resulting in faster and more accurate rating system documentation for Google SketchUp users.
"The BIM process is built on the concept of coordinated information, and ecoScorecard takes that process a step further by providing an immediate to link to environmental product attributes and rating system calculations,” explains Martin Flaherty, president of ecoScorecard. "Users can now pull data from ecoScorecard enabled products directly into the model and use that information throughout the design process."
Introduced in 2007, ecoScorecard provides product specifiers with the ability to search and evaluate products based on environmental characteristics. The program does the calculations necessary for rating systems such as LEED, GGHC Labs 21, CHPS, and the NAHB Green Home Building Guidelines and includes and accounts for other third-party product certifications. The tool also produces the product documentation necessary for inclusion in the submission process. ecoScorecard is free to users and is supported by manufacturers interested in making the specification of green products easier for both their customers and their salespeople.
“Our original mission for ecoScorecard was to help make the specification of green products easier, and that has not changed,” explains Paul Shahriari, CEO of ecoScorecard. “Now, parallel to the growth of the green building movement, BIM is changing the entire building process. Never before has there been a single system that could provide context to all parties thinking about building. And the ecoScorecard technology platform is perfectly poised to link environmental product attributes and rating systems to BIM tools.”
ecoScorecard’s initial BIM integration was designed for Google SketchUp because of the accessibility and popularity of a Google tool. Plug-ins for other BIM tools such as Revit are slated for release next year, according to Shahriari.
For more information, visit http://ecoscorecard.com.
