Vancouver, B.C.— In a decisive step towards making infrastructure more sustainable, Bentley Systems announced the launch of its new Carbon Analysis capabilities at the Year in Infrastructure Conference. The enhancements, available in the iTwin Experience platform, are aimed at simplifying carbon impact assessments, enabling engineers to systematically integrate carbon analysis into their design processes. The new features promise to streamline the traditionally complex task of carbon reporting by automatically aggregating data, integrating carbon metrics, and offering 3D visualizations of carbon impacts.
Chris Bradshaw, Bentley’s Chief Sustainability Officer, unveiled the Carbon Analysis capabilities at the conference, underscoring their role in addressing a critical aspect of global emissions—embodied carbon. “Given that up to 80% of today’s greenhouse gas emissions are linked to infrastructure, it’s essential that we find ways to significantly reduce the carbon impact of new construction projects and renovations,” said Bradshaw during an interview. “Our new capabilities help engineers visualize carbon data and make informed decisions early in the design process.”
Tackling Embodied Carbon
Embodied carbon refers to the greenhouse gases emitted during the construction of an asset, accounting for everything from material extraction to manufacturing. These emissions represent a significant portion of infrastructure’s environmental impact—often well before an asset is even put into operation. As Savina Carluccio, executive director of the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure, highlighted, “By 2050, embodied carbon from new infrastructure could account for nearly half of the world’s carbon footprint.”
Bentley’s Carbon Analysis capabilities provide a “cradle-to-gate” assessment of embodied carbon, offering a more comprehensive understanding of an infrastructure project’s environmental cost. The system simplifies the integration of carbon data by linking Bentley’s iTwin platform with third-party carbon assessment tools, such as EC3 and One Click LCA. This approach allows users to dynamically visualize carbon impact changes across different design iterations, facilitating real-time decision-making.
The Year in Infrastructure Conference, hosted by Bentley Systems in Vancouver, became a stage for showcasing the future of digital infrastructure, with a compelling keynote from Patrick Cozzi, founder of Cesium and now Bentley’s Chief Platform Officer. Cozzi took attendees on an in-depth journey through Cesium’s path from a visualization tool for aerospace to an industry-defining, open-source geospatial platform now powering Bentley’s ambitious vision for infrastructure engineering.
Cesium, known as an open-source platform for creating highly detailed 3D applications, has made significant strides since Bentley’s acquisition, demonstrating a groundbreaking approach to digital infrastructure. Addressing a full auditorium, Cozzi highlighted Cesium’s evolution and Bentley’s vision to create a world where digital twins, geospatial data, and 3D models work together seamlessly, all powered by Cesium’s robust capabilities.
It is an interesting time to be working in the AEC industry, and I feel grateful for having experienced the past 25+ years immersed in it from an editorial perspective.
Predictions for the coming year are shaped by history and the current moment, and where we see the future unfolding. Both Adam Klatzin, vice president, Business Development for the iTwin Platform at Bentley Systems and Allison Scott, director of Construction Thought Leadership, Autodesk Construction Solutions, write about what realities have shaped catalysts for current and future development.
Much of 2021’s important news had to do with response to climate change, coupled with the Covid-19 response for businesses. Technologies have been in place for many years to respond, but the time is now, and actually the time is yesterday, to respond to these critical social and environmental issues. Digital twin technology and artificial intelligence are front and center in addressing these challenges. Reducing the world’s carbon footprint is a major priority for most organizations and technologies are being lined up to address this priority.
This year’s online Bentley Year In Infrastructure Conference has a somewhat different format, with the emphasis being on the awards distributed from the get-go, rather than at the end of the event. Replicating the experience of finalists’ presentations and speaking to the finalists in person were part of a tradition at YII. Not to mention an awards dinner that we all used to look forward to in person pre-pandemic, in such exotic locations as Singapore, London or Amsterdam.
CEO Jensen Huang presented the keynote at the recent GTC21 NVIDIA Conference, November 8-11, sharing with the audience the importance of accelerated computing and much more. The announcements were so prolific and not all pertinent to the AEC industry, thus I will share those that would be of most interest to our audience. One of the most profound announcements came at the end of the talk, wherein Huang announced that they are building a digital twin of the earth.
This past week NVIDIA announced the NVIDIA RTX A2000 at SIGGRAPH 2021, a redefinition of the mainstream, professional GPU, which expands access to the power of NVIDIA RTX and represents an expansion of the NVIDIA Omniverse.
Recently, Bentley Systems presented a webinar entitled, “Using the Power of Digital Twins to Reimagine the Future of Infrastructure” at the EFCG Tech Leadership Conference online.
Presenters Steve Cockerell, Industry Marketing Director, Transportation, and Kat Flesh, Senior Director Transportation, both of Bentley Systems, spoke on their findings from working with some of Bentley’s most visionary users.
Kat Flesh, Bentley Senior Director Transportation
They provided an update on what has been achieved so far, and what is being planned by owners and supply chains of assets that support nearly every aspect of our lives today. For example, roads, rail and transit, bridges, water systems, and smart cities. Cockerell and Flesh also explored the innovative ideas that are shaping the infrastructure business for a better tomorrow.
Steve Cockerell, Bentley Industry Marketing Director, Transportation
“Population growth rates vary across different regions, but we’re still talking about 2 billion additional people on the planet in the next 20 to 30 years,” Cockerell said. “The United Nations predicts that the future of the world’s population is urban. Today, over 55% of the world’s population live in urban areas, but by the middle of the century that number will go up to 68%. In America, the number is already 80%, and I think this will place a huge strain on our infrastructure assets. Most of the impact will be on our roads and railways as these networks are the only way to keep our cities and countries moving.”
While Bentley Systems has had an Academic Program for some time, it has been reawakened, according to Katriona Lord-Levins, chief success officer at Bentley. “It has been brought into the times we’re in, and to meet the needs that we have to create a talent pipelines for our customers and ourselves,” said Lord-Levins. “Not only do we want to help students develop their engineering skills that will help them in the real world, but we also want to get people excited about the possibilities of the future.”
