JV:SVN Sustainable Buildings Initiative: Electronic Plan Check & Permitting

At the end of October, I attended the Sustainable Building Initiative launch event presented by the Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network (JV:SVN).

I received an email this week indicating that they have posted all of the presentations on their website: www.jointventure.org/programs-initiatives/sustainable/index.html.

I was especially interested in the Electronic Plan Check & Permitting Initiative. (I use to be a mechanical engineer in a past life and can remember actually doing drawing with a t-square and triangles on large sheets of vellum and making numerous copies to distribute, so this was all very cool.)

The presentation was very well given by Doug Rider of CSG Consultants. (Click on the title to go his presentation.) The slides aren't as good as his live presentation, but it will give you a good idea of the process and benefits.

If you're wondering what this has to do with Sustainable Buildings, here's something to think about. Getting plans approved and permits issued typically involves printing 6-7 sets of plans weighing as much as 20 pounds each. Additional sets are required each time the plans are modified. A typical Silicon Valley city consumes around 12,000 pounds of paper per year in this process.

They have appeared to have gotten off to an excellent start with their project concept. It will be interesting to continue to monitor their progress.

Your comments are always appreciated. Thanks for reading.