green new deal for US public housing

Green New deal for U.S. public housing plan

Is it possible to combine an ecological solution to tackle climate crisis with a long-needed public housing upgrade for US communities? The Public Housing Green New Deal recently unveiled

An initiative that has recently been presented by Senator Bernie Sanders and NY Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could be the answer.

Following the evolution of the “Green New Deal (GND)” US legislation, which is currently being discussed and aligns with the Paris Climate Accord at international level, a new proposal to address the federal Public housing emergency has been released. A 172bilion dollar plan will be applied over the course of a decade to rehabilitate public housing and upgrade them to a more efficient, ecological and comfortable status.

According to dataforprogress, the visionary initiative will cover some crucial aspects:

  • improving health, safety and comfort in 1milion structures and consequently the living condition of nearly 2milion people
  • creating almost a quarter of a million jobs per year, across multiple sectors
  • increasing electrification, energy efficiency and renewable energy usage, thus reducing the amount of carbon emissions of more than 5 million tons (the equivalent emitted by more than 1 million cars)
  • reducing water and energy bills of public housing respectively by 30% and 70%

The Washington post reported that:

We need electrical workers. We need construction workers. And it doesn’t have to just be fossil fuel pipelines that create these kinds of jobs. … We can create millions of jobs in this country by actually rising to the challenge of addressing what this crisis is going to represent.

Public housing as the front line of Green New Deal

Assuming that this proposal will became operative, in the next ten years we can expect a revitalization of the whole AEC industry having a nationwide impact and representing a great opportunity for US architects, engineers and companies specializing in the latest technological developments within the industry.

AEC professionals should stay ahead of technological change not to miss this upcoming opportunity.

Key market characteristics such as a growing urban population and increased government spending pose a great opportunity for companies specializing in the latest technological achievements within the industry. Clearly, projects using BIM will have a greater chance of success and maximize effectiveness for every stage of the project lifecycle.

AEC companies are obtaining a remarkable increase of ROI thanks to the adoption of BIM. Therefore, BIM is considered an indispensable methodology for achieving innovation in the construction processes.

In our previous article we have provided an overview of the current level of BIM adoption in the U.S.A. showing how the adoption rate of BIM has gradually slowed down since its early implementation and highlighting the lack of requirements for BIM at a national level. However mandate or not, BIM is gaining popularity in the United States.

Needless to say that, collaboration and working with BIM methodology is key to success. Using  BIM technology to integrate the various design disciplines involved in the project while implementing other advantages, implies:

  • useful exchange of knowledge
  • an accurate real-time update of available information
  • reduction of errors
  • overall process improvement

Collaboration between sectors and people is possible thanks to free access to all the essential project data stored in a BIM model.

Hence the need for collaborative platforms based on open systems.

usBIM.platform by ACCA software has been designed to obtain the maximum operational support for client’s project, who can obtain two fundamental objectives thanks to this platform rather than with other technological solutions:

  • BIM model, visually navigate directly from the internet (#freeMDD)
  • creation and control of all design and works execution steps (#GATE)

usBIM adopts the IFC standard of buildingSMART, assuring the correct creation, management and sharing of data, documents and models among all involved stakeholders.

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