Communities across the United States are facing the devastating effects of more frequent and severe extreme weather events. Our nation’s annual catastrophe losses now average $106 billion—about 8% of all the construction put in place in an average year. We can lower our disaster costs by preparing in advance for future disasters and by incentivizing resilient construction and sharing resources among private and government stakeholders.

If there is one thing we have far too much of in the building design and construction industry, it is siloed information and a lack of understanding for the challenges our trade and design partners face. In this session, we cover a new approach to training in architectural engineering programs to educate new engineers with a holistic approach to building design and construction.

Decarbonizing the Built Environment is a research project that explored the utilization of GIS tools to evaluate building forms and passive energy strategies for sustainable design and urban planning. By creating digital twins of the built environment, from individual buildings to urban scale, this research investigated the impact of building form and solar orientation on energy consumption and carbon production.

To meet today’s affordable housing crisis head-on – we must challenge the assumptions that sustainable, high-performance products drive up building costs and that affordable, multifamily housing detracts from residential communities. Neither of these need to be true.

This session will focus on the newly released NBIMS-US Version 4, a significantly updated version with a focused new organization and new sections. Learn ‘why’ having a U.S. Standard for BIM is important and how it aligns with other international BIM standard efforts such as ISO 19650 and the Industry Foundation Classes.

This presentation will discuss where we stand and where we are heading, and give guidance on actions required by practitioners, code bodies, and the importance of making this a much deeper focus. The speaker will discuss actions needed today in education at all levels, design, existing buildings, thought changes needed for storm changes, and other environmental impacts. They will guide us towards a future that will only be achieved through actual actions, rather than the slower pace we are currently on as compared to our planet.

The U.S. built environment has yet to realize the full benefits of digital transformation. NIBS is leading the development and dissemination of next-gen practice standards and processes for the built environment. The U.S. National BIM Program will provide a step-change in capacity, creating a platform and community to support the next phase of digital innovation.

Wildfires have long been part of the American landscape and are prevalent in many parts of the world. In recent years they have become more frequent and intense, often spreading into the built environment where the economic losses and human suffering are significant. The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) has spent years in both the lab and in the field studying how flames and embers ignite structures during a wildfire and have identified mitigation actions to reduce the chance of ignition.