Retrofits: Building Awareness for Building Performance

When our daughter Stephanie was in 5th grade, she and her classmate Lisa Curtis won a Waste Management essay contest with their story entitled "Bobby and His Composting." Since then Lisa has not given up the fight for a greener world. As part of her college studies, Lisa spent months in Africa helping families replace burning forest wood with use of biogas. This summer as a White House intern, Lisa had a 30 minute conversation with President Obama - in Swahili no less. Lisa is in Copenhagen right now representing her college as world leaders meet to discuss an agreement to reduce greenhouse gasses. Recent polls show that as economic woes persist, public concern for climate change is dwindling.

• What if more people knew about the cost-effective opportunity in the building sector to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with better energy efficiency?

• What if decision makers understood how building technology can help accelerate improvements in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry and create a greener, more sustainable economy?

We created RETROFITS for this very purpose: to raise awareness about the benefits of greener, more sustainable buildings. The on-line game is the core of the program. See if you can make the leader board, then share it with your friends! There is also a short video (created in Maya) and an animated banner free for distribution to all. So here's where It's Alive in the Lab readres can help:

1. Check out the video on YouTube.
2. Host a banner on your sites.
3. Follow and retweet our own Twitter feed @Retrofits.
4. Visit www.autodesk.com/retrofits to play the game or download tools to share the RETROFITS message.

Doing our part to help Lisa in her quest is alive in the lab.