🌿 Sustainable Design Score
Enter a design's renewable energy, recycled materials, water efficiency, and green-design features to get a sustainability score from 0 to 100.
🔧 Score Your Design's Sustainability
What is a Sustainable Design Score?
A sustainable design score distills the key levers of green building — clean energy, responsibly sourced materials, water stewardship, and passive strategies — into one comparable number. It rewards designs that cut demand and impact rather than simply bolting on technology.
Use it to weigh trade-offs early in a project and to communicate intent with clients and collaborators. It is a directional indicator, not a substitute for a formal green-building rating.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How is the sustainable design score calculated?
The tool blends four weighted inputs — the share of renewable energy, the share of recycled or reclaimed materials, and the building's water efficiency — into a base score, then adds bonus points for design features like natural lighting, a green roof, and passive design. The total is capped at 100 and translated into a rating.
Why does passive design earn bonus points?
Passive design reduces the energy a building needs in the first place by working with orientation, shading, thermal mass, and natural ventilation rather than relying on mechanical systems. Because it cuts demand at the source — the cheapest and most durable kind of saving — it earns a meaningful bonus alongside natural daylighting and a green roof.
What makes a building water efficient?
Water efficiency comes from low-flow fixtures, rainwater harvesting, greywater reuse, drought-tolerant landscaping, and leak detection. The tool lets you rate this as low, medium, or high; a high rating reflects a design that meaningfully reduces potable water demand across fixtures and grounds.
Is this an official green-building rating?
No. It is an educational self-assessment to help you gauge and compare design choices early. Formal certifications such as LEED, BREEAM, or Passive House follow rigorous documented criteria and verification. Use this score to guide decisions, but treat it as a directional indicator, not an official rating.