Autodesk Eduction Community

Autodesk® Sustainability Workshop offers free online resources that teach the principles and practice of sustainability in engineering and design. This site was created to help educators teach and students learn the broader context and importance of sustainability in the engineering and architecture profession. The videos and tutorials aim to make it easy for anyone, anywhere to learn sustainability strategies that can be incorporated into the design process. Our goal—develop sophisticated, yet easy-to-use learning tools that will be used, for free, by educators and students alike to create a more sustainable world.

A Site for Students, Educators and Others

This site is geared toward post-secondary architecture, engineering and design students, but the content is free and accessible to anyone. We hope that it will also be useful to professors, professionals, graduate students, and high school students in a range of disciplines. Students can view our strategy videos, and then explore the tutorials, case studies and other resources to learn how sustainable design applies in practice. Educators can use the various videos, lesson plans and other materials in their coursework. Visit the Educators Page for more information.

Working through the tutorials will require Autodesk software, which you can download for free if you’re a student, or faculty member, in the Autodesk Education Community <note hyperlink>.

For more information on Autodesk’s efforts in sustainability education and how students and educators can use this site, please see the Sustainability Workshop FAQ page. For more information about what Autodesk is doing more broadly around sustainable design, please visit www.autodesk.com/sustainabledesign.

About the Creators

Autodesk® Sustainability Workshop was created collaboratively by a team of people who strongly believe in the power of education as a means to create meaningful change. With a mission to make learning about sustainability in design and engineering easy, accessible and free to educators and students, the team listed below developed this site.

Dawn Danby  Dawn Danby’s design projects have ranged from a tree-covered pedestrian bridge to closed-loop manufacturing strategies and furniture design. She currently works with Autodesk’s Sustainability team and was recognized by Fast Company in 2009 as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business. She has an industrial design degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MBA from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute.

Adam Menter  Adam supports Autodesk’s sustainable design program on projects related to product development, strategy, and education. He has worked as a design strategist at Jump Associates and holds both a mechanical engineering degree and an MBA from Vanderbilt University. He is a LEED accredited professional and a leader of the San Francisco Net Impact chapter.

Jer Faludi  Jeremy Faludi (LEED AP) is a sustainable design strategist. He teaches green design at Stanford and is the sustainability researcher for Project Frog. He designed the prototype of AskNature.org for the Biomimicry Institute, and has contributed to five books on sustainable design, including "Worldchanging: A User's Guide to the 21st Century".

Free Range Studios  Free Range works with non-profits, political campaigns and socially responsible businesses to help transform society through the innovative use of digital media, storytelling, graphic design and strategy. Autodesk has worked with Free Range Studios on the creation of this website and content.

Our Featured Customers

The following companies are Autodesk customers whose work are featured in the Sustainability Workshop videos, tutorials and case studies to illustrate the practical use of sustainable design principles using Autodesk software.

Anderson Anderson Architecture

Anderson Anderson Architecture is a respected, award-winning design firm that specializes in innovative construction techniques, pre-fabrication and sustainable design. A leader in Building Information Modeling (BIM) and simulation, their net-zero energy classroom project is designed to produce four times the energy that it uses. Their use of Autodesk software to meet net-zero energy goals is documented in the net-zero energy building case studies.

Jim Kor / KOR EcoLogic

Jim Kor is the president and chief technology officer of KOR EcoLogic, and senior designer and project leader for the Urbee, a two-passenger hybrid car designed to be incredibly fuel efficient and easy to repair.  Autodesk Inventor, Showcase and Alias Design were used to design the Urbee, and Autodesk worked with the Urbee team to highlight in a case study and videos on how a vehicle can be optimized for energy effectiveness.

Marin Bikes

Marin Bikes offers a comprehensive line of bikes and has earned reputation for its high performance mountain bikes. Marin Bikes uses Autodesk Inventor for bike frame design and optimization. The company provided example design files and bikes for use in educational content.

Oklahoma University Sooner Racing Team

The Sooner Racing Team participates in Formula SAE, an international student engineering competition that challenges students to design, manufacture, and race a small race car. The Sooner Racing Team uses Autodesk Inventor to design and optimize their car – and has provided their design files for use in tutorials.

Utility Scale Solar, Inc

Utility Scale Solar (USS) supplies utility-grade sun tracking systems to the worldwide solar industry. USS is a part of Autodesk’s Clean Tech Partner program, which supports early-stage clean tech companies by providing access to software. Autodesk worked with USS to create software tutorials that demonstrate how Digital Prototyping can be used to optimize designs.