Smart Design Is Sustainable Design

Having completed more than 2,100 projects over the past 20 years, we understand and recognize that the places we design often represent one of the largest investments our clients will ever make. PRAXIS3 has long advocated sustainable practices while demonstrating added value to our clients, and that those places should enhance the client’s enterprise.  We believe that promoting smart design for healthy buildings, healthy lives, and reduced energy consumption – when done right – makes good business sense, too. Our goal is to deliver sustainable solutions that also work within prescribed budgetary and programmatic requirements.

To this end, PRAXIS3 has developed a workflow to analyze our designs real-time for building performance.  We take every project and design the envelope to the code minimum, to have a baseline overview of initial cost and operating costs, then generate scenarios that demonstrate varying degrees of energy use reduction, long term savings, up front capital costs, and project payback durations available. 

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We look at solar orientation, glare, glass-to-solid wall ratios among other data points.  Our analysis tools provide our clients with a matrix of cost/benefit scenarios for various building assemblies and strategies. There is no added cost for this analysis - it’s an integrated part of our process.

Once we have these scenarios developed, we review with our clients’ potential paths that can speak directly to their bottom line, while showing ballpark projections for energy reduction targets.  We may find that measures to merely meet minimum code requirements are relatively inexpensive but represent a lower return on investment than some of the better performing design solutions we can offer. The client is then armed with the best information regarding where to spend their money for the greatest impact.

In our practice, we are always striving to deliver the best design we can for our clients’ specific needs.  Sometimes this means reducing initial  cost, but we have found and continue to find that sustainable design represents real value by providing return on investment through lower energy costs while maintaining good lighting, indoor air quality and occupant comfort.  

Simply put - smart design is sustainable design!