Locally sourced materials are a good thing. Buildings that use local materials can qualify for a LEED credit. For example Regional Materials: “Increase demand for building materials and products that are extracted and manufactured within the region, thereby supporting the use of indigenous resources and reducing the environmental impacts resulting from transportation.”

But what is locally sourced materials worth? This is a problem we have been wrestling with at ii Research as is shown on the whiteboard:

You’ll see the results of our thinking in AutoCASE for Buildings (coming soon to the industry leading building design software that is built for Building Information Modeling). By integrating triple bottom line analysis into the workflow for architectural design, MEP and structural engineering, and construction, AutoCASE will allow architects to make decisions about the benefit of regionally sourced building materials relative to other design alternatives.