The Right Tools for the Job

Perkins Eastman's Sustainability Tools Library

The decisions we make throughout design and construction significantly impact building performance and occupant experience. Understanding how different design choices affect outcomes is essential for the creation of a high-performance project. The best decisions are made at the intersection of expertise and data. However, countless analysis tools are available and selecting the right one to inform design (and when to use it) is a constant challenge for practitioners.

Diagram of our performance-analysis tools

To address this, we created our Sustainability Tools Library, an interactive database that provides an overview of all in-house performance analysis tools. It includes valuable resources such as a list of key questions each tool helps answer at different design stages, case studies, training materials, and step-by-step instructions for running project analyses.

To develop the database, we used a rigorous process to evaluate performance analysis tools on the market, deciding which were the most valuable to answer different design questions and grouping them into categories: envelope analysis, daylight and views, climate analysis, urban design and landscape, wind analysis, embodied carbon, and iterative design. Our work is ongoing; we will continue to update the Sustainability Tools Library as new analysis tools become available.