Our first newsletter.
V-Quest are excited and nervous about writing our first news letter. What do you want to read, do we have enough content, can we spell, are these my feet? We'll make mistakes, we'll try to laugh them off but feel free to make fun of us, tell us what we are doing wrong and generally keep us on our toes.
Thank you for reading this far, please subscribe to our newsletter, or don't. Up to you really!
What can you expect? A monthly update from us on what is or isn't happening in the carbon reduction ecosphere, what's happening in our SaaS world and hopefully some content around our wins along the way. If you have any suggestions or feedback, we'd love to hear it.
If you want to know more about us, visit www.vquest.io
What is V-Quest?
V-Quest is a design API Plugin. It works with Revit, ArchiCad & SketchUp. It integrates to your existing design process, analyses your design and gives you useable data feedback on cost, carbon and building mass, or as we call it Carbon Cost Intensity.
Armed with this info, you can investigate alternatives, reduce carbon and maintain your project budget. It helps you find the carbon reduction sweet spot and the easy wins.
It also automates Carbon Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and certification tools such as GreenStar and LCAQuick. It removes hours, if not days of manual quantification, linking materials to EPD and manual tool input.
V-Quest doing its thing!
Sounds great right, but does it actually work.
Well, we had a developer come to us that had a development ready for council consenting. Design finished. Five apartment blocks, five stories high, steel and concrete frame, 16m deep piles.
They also had one eye on the upcoming MBIE Carbon legislation roadmap and with a plan to build many more of these buildings around NZ, realised there was a future portfolio risk. They wanted to know what that risk was.
V-Quest imported their design, embedded it with carbon and cost data and completed a dynamic carbon cost intensity analysis for their design. We then investigated alternative build methodologies using various materials, such as mass timber and hybrids.
Our analysis showed that had they designed it as a hybrid steel frame with CLT floors, along with other more minor changes, they would have achieved:
So major carbon reductions (including Bio-genic) and would have been cost neutral. Too late for these ones? The design already complete! Nope, 1,000,000kgs of mass reduction, allowed for the removal of the 16m deep piles and facilitated the potential for two extra floors. No brainer. Design shelved, redesign started. Reduced costs paid for redesign, two extra floors - extra yield.
Our Journey.
V-Quest started as an idea to improve the way Quantity Surveyors measure and price materials. We developed a methodology for the combined analysis of cost, carbon, and building mass. We realised early on that combining all three data metrics was useful as it allowed us to identify the carbon cost intensity of different materials and methodologies. It made the identification of achievable carbon reductions far easier.
The methodology we developed was good but it took time, a huge learning curve and a completely new way of thinking. Great but unusable by anyone else.
At the time we were working as consultants with the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) on the New Zealand Mid Rise Wood Construction Programme completing carbon accounting. We showed them our methodology and the results of the dynamic carbon cost intensity analysis. MPI and an Angel Investor backed us and we built V-Quest. A tool that integrates into Designer's software, Sketchup, Archicad & Revit and allows them to analyse their design and automate Carbon Whole of Life Cycle analysis. It integrates cost and carbon analysis directly into the design process. Allowing them to identify achievable ways to reduce carbon and stay on budget as they design.
Like wizardry but real!
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Since then, we have been backed by Callaghan Innovation and transitioned through the brilliant Ministry of Awesome startup incubator and won the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) award for Innovation, also achieving the status of the first Carbon tool to become an RICS Tech Partner.
V-Quest is now ready for use in New Zealand and will soon be ready for the Australian Market. Get in touch if you want a demo or early access.
EARLY ADOPTERS
In March and April and May we will be running an early adopter programme.
This programme will give architects and engineers an opportunity to use V-Quest for free. You will get exclusive access to:
So if you are keen to see what it does, get in touch with us and we will get you onboarded.
Our New Office
Man are we excited to be working with at the amazing 231 High Street.
At 231 High St, their mission is to cultivate a vibrant and inclusive community space where collaboration, innovation, and positive impact flourish. They are committed to fostering an environment where people from diverse backgrounds come together to share knowledge, ideas, and resources. Their core principles are built on the belief that collective effort can drive meaningful change.
Mr. G at 231 has been an incredibly important resource, mentor and general all-round legend for V-Quest. We are delighted to be working alongside him and his team. Check them out if you are a start up and need some advice, cost effective office space or just need a great place to host an event.
We're are so bloody excited about the next few months and years, deeply grateful to our team, investors, industry partners, and users as we launch ourselves at the SaaS start up market.
Get in touch if you ever have a question about carbon, measurement or just want to rant about global carbon emissions.
Over an out!