It’s the first disclosed venture capital round for the London-based software startup. Braemar Energy Ventures led the Series A round, in partnership with Dutch-based Chrysalix SET and UK-based Hermes GPE.

Sefaira was founded in 2009 with the idea of speeding up today's teeth-grindingly slow green building design process, CEO Mads Jensen said in a Wednesday interview. Today’s software can take hours to process changes in a complex model, he said, leaving engineers sitting around waiting for their own servers (or a consultant in another office) to crunch the latest set of new variables.

Sefaira takes that data processing load to the cloud, and has set a goal of performing the most complex calculations its customers can throw at it in 10 seconds or less, Jensen said. That changes a slow-moving design process into one that “helps you explore the data in an immersive way,” he said.

In late 2011, Sefaira rolled out the first version of its cloud-based “physics engine” to about 30 test customers, including architecture and engineering firms, ESCOs and efficiency retrofit companies, as well as a few utilities, Jensen said. While he wouldn’t name any customers, he did say that Sefaira hopes to bring a commercial product to market by mid-2012.  

Think of it as the SimCity-fication of green building design. Much like a video game, super-fast data processing allows engineers to play with designs on the fly, or salespeople to plug in customer questions — what’s the cost and energy difference for several choices of window glazing, on cloudy and sunny days? — and get results in near-real-time during presentations.

One of the startup’s early targets was Google SketchUp, Jensen said. Sefaira has worked closely with the 3D modeling platform, with the idea of extending its relatively simple analytical functionality to a scale that could support real, physics-based models of energy flow, water and waste usage, and other sustainability metrics.  

Faster modeling can also help in the build phase of a project, with different building materials and design choices plugging into the model to more accurately reflect reality. Sefaira is also working with some of its unnamed customers on assisting green retrofit design tools, or the software that helps utilities examine their customers’ building and energy data to target efficiency incentives at the most wasteful buildings, Jensen said.

While there are a number of software startups tackling discrete chunks of the building energy efficiency conundrum, Autodesk is far and away the leader in green building design IT. It’s been launching version after version of its sustainability design and analysis software, and also helps utilities with smart grid deployments.

But the kinds of performance upgrades that Sefaira brings to the table aren’t a threat to Autodesk, as much as they are an opportunity. We’re going to see a flowering of new IT to support the green building, renewable energy and smart grid industries, and one key set of challenges will be around handling the massive amounts of data these projects create, in a model as close to reality as possible. Speeding up that process should help everyone.

Go Green

In response to those controversies, major renewable energy projects got some not-so-great news from Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors in the last week of January. The Supervisors’ decisions threaten California Governor Jerry Brown’s ambition to obtain 33 percent of the state’s power from renewables by 2020.

NextEra Energy’s 200-megawatt Blue Sky wind project and Element Power’s 250-megawatt solar-wind hybrid project were both denied permits for meteorological towers by the Supervisors. Without the data that can be gleaned from those towers, those projects will not be able to obtain financing.

Developers are flocking to L.A. County’s Antelope Valley because of enormous wind and solar resources there and the sizable transmission system being developed by Southern California Edison (SCE). When complete, SCE’s lines will deliver thousands of megawatts of electricity generated by Antelope Valley’s wind and sun to California’s populous urban centers.

The controversies center on the ambiguous term 'mitigation.' It was originally associated with the impacts associated with the development of renewables. If harms could not be avoided, they might be mitigated by preserving adjacent portions of land for habitat, preservation and recreation.

More recently, 'mitigation' has come to also mean something like compensation to the communities being impacted by the projects. Neighbors of large projects contend that upheavals from construction and the interruptions of life as it was before development require this second kind of mitigation.

Silverado Power has a different approach, with which it hopes to minimize the need for both kinds of mitigation by being in touch with the community early and identifying the right sites.

Silverado was founded in 2010 by former executives of Recurrent Energy and Renewable Ventures. It is backed by Portugal’s Martifer Solar, which has recently been installing solar at the rate of 100 megawatts a year, according to Silverado Manager of Business Development Chris Wiedemann.

Silverado Power has 16,000 acres of land under site control and approximately three gigawatts of interconnection positions allotted to it across the U.S., largely in the Southwest. It has been granted 355 megawatts of use permits in the region and expects to soon have some 500 megawatts more.

Antelope Valley was one of the company’s first targets, Wiedemann said. But the company was aware of the mitigation controversies swirling around Antelope Valley Solar Ranch One, the 230-megawatt photovoltaic undertaking First Solar bought from NextLight in 2009 and is now building for Exelon, which it sold to last year. 

Drawing on the experience of “other players in the community who have had varying response to community outreach,” Wiedemann said, Silverado chose to aim for smaller, lower-profile projects. “Our focus in that region is between five and 20 megawatts” and is “interconnection-driven,” he continued.

That approach, Wiedemann noted, reduces the need for mitigation of the first variety through the selection of land “that has been previously disturbed: retired farm grounds or properties that are being actively dry-farmed or grazed.” This avoids “major mitigation hurdles” and “major backlash” from community groups, Wiedemann explained, and “takes the controversial issues out of the picture.”

An indication of the soundness of Silverado’s strategy, Wiedemann said, is that that company was "awarded 100 megawatts of PPAs [power purchase agreements] from SCE in the 2010 bidding for under-20-megawatt projects.”

Initially, Silverado has narrowed its focus to three L.A. County projects, Central Antelope Dry Ranch (52 megawatts), Lancaster WAD (5 megawatts) and Silver Sun Greenworks (20 megawatts).

They have received three conditional use permits (CUPs) from the City of Lancaster and one from the City of Palmdale, Wiedemann said. But those cities welcome renewables developers. The prickly and passionate stewards of L.A. County’s high desert are another matter.

“One of the biggest hurdles facing these projects right now is permitting,” Wiedemann said. “We’re putting a lot of time and energy into the L.A. County approval process” and “working very closely with County planners” so as to move ahead with development and the “jobs and investment” it will mean for the region.

As to the second type of mitigation, Wiedemann said, “Our approach has been to get out there early, meet with these groups, present the projects, address concerns in the earlier stages of development and not do an eleventh-hour outreach approach. We see ourselves as long-term community members and participants, and the only way to validate that is to get in front of these folks early and listen to the feedback.” Silverado, he added, has been in contact with “a majority of the town councils in the region.”

Demonstrating the challenge developers face in the Antelope Valley, a local Town Council member’s comment on the vigorous Silverado outreach was, “You better tell them to get their asses over here.”

Wiedemann is nevertheless cautiously optimistic. “Our hope is to maintain a strong relationship with the local groups and interests,” he said. “What we hope will not happen is being [viewed as] guilty by association with some of these other projects that are sited in less optimal areas. That’s the larger risk. Our process and our siting strategy will hopefully prevail: Smaller projects, lower profile and siting away from sensitive biological and cultural resources and local landmarks.”

Silverado, Wiedemann said, intends to be “a long-term partner in these communities, not a fly-by-night developer that comes and goes.”

Go Green

Traditionally the homeowner, you, approaches an architect who designs the home, based on your descriptions, ideas, dreams and wishes.

The finished design is then distributed to several general contractors for bid.

The general contractor in turn contacts his/her subcontractors to get bids from them for framing, roofing, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, excavating and foundation work, landscaping, interior finishes.

The bid prices are based on the interpretation of the drawings by each contractor. Rarely do the subcontractors talk to each other during the bid process. Rarely is the architect contacted with questions. Almost never is the homeowner, you, contacted.

The contractorrs’ final bids usually include a list of exceptions and/or a contingency allowance, which might never be used, but is paid for by you anyway.

Homeowners most often accept the lowest bid. Why not? Unless you are familiar with and know the construction business, know the contractor’s quality of work, what other criteria could you apply?

The procedure outlined above often results in considerable construction cost increases, dissatisfied homeowners and sometimes lawsuits.

Huge resources are being neglected and missed when homes are remodeled and built the traditional way: Experience and trade-specific expertise, which could save you time, money and headaches.

The Green Process To Building A Home

Building a green home must be a systematic approach and done as a team. The project must be looked at as a system, in which each component is connected to and depends on the other components. For example:

- Location of the home on the property will determine the amount of soil disturbance, excavation and landscaping

- Location, size and types of windows will impact the heating and cooling requirement

- Type of heating and cooling equipment will impact space requirements for furnace, heat pump, solar collectors, piping, ductwork, etc

- Choice of exterior wall will impact first cost versus installation cost versus insulation values versus appearance

You get the idea

Teamwork is required to make it all come together. The folks who design and build your green home, will be working with you and with each other for weeks or months. These are some important questions to ask when assembling your green building team:

- Do all of the team members agree on the importance of building green and are they committed to it?

- Do architect and contractors have experience in green building and if not, are they willing to learn? The majority if the team should have some experience in designing or building green homes

- Do you like and respect them? Can you see yourself interacting with each of them frequently and maybe work through some challenges?

- Do they like and respect each other?

- Do they take pride in high quality work?

- Can they accept input about their trade from other trades?

Don’t underestimate the importance of your team getting along and working well together. There will be times during the construction when tempers flare, tensions are high, pressure is on. And this could be just when the insulator has to do some very meticulous work to seal all leaks, while the electrician is breathing down her neck to hurry up so he can get his work done.

It is important to include as many of the trades as possible during the design phase. Decisions about choices in materials or heating system can then be done by all involved parties from a fully informed perspective. For example:

Someone mentioned to you the advantages of using structurally insulated panels (SIP), and that is what you would like to use for your green home. Preliminary investigations show that these panels would have to be shipped from hundreds of miles away. The general contractor suggests using insulated concrete forms (ICF). The factory is only 50 miles away, his team is very experienced with this system and he knows that he can do it cheaper than with SIP. The architect supports this idea, because she also knows that homeowner insurance rates are sometimes lower for homes built with ICFs, due to their resistance to termites, wind and fire.

OR

General contractor, architect and HVAC contractor work closely together to determine if your green home should use solar collectors or a geothermal heat pump system for hot water and heat. They contact the wood truss manufacturer to help determine the impact of the heavy solar collectors on the roof frame. A call to the local geothermal heat pump specialists reveals that your future neighbors down the street installed a geothermal heat pump system two years ago and are very satisfied with it. With all this information, you can now make an informed decision.

When the time comes to put the final cost for your green home construction project together, you can be assured that unexpected costs will be minimal. You will know that you and your green building team are all pulling in the same direction.

Addressing and optimizing key factors up front with the whole team will result in a smoother construction process, lower costs and a much better green home for you and your family.

One program that offers green building certification is the LEED for Homes rating system. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a certification that you can receive when building a green home. The LEED for Homes Green Building Rating System is a measurable tool that is evaluated by a third party in regards to sustainability and performance. The four different levels of green that you can achieve include: certified, gold, silver, and platinum levels.

One of the benefits of building green is that it reduces the building’s environmental footprint on the planet. U.S. homes account for 21% of carbon dioxide emissions, 22% of energy use and 74% of potable water consumption and therefore are a huge contributor of emissions that damage the earth.  Building green can help reduce the causes of climate change by reducing our emissions, energy use and water use.  In the LEED program some of the criteria include building with solar orientation in mind to capture as much sunlight as possible in addition to using durable products to reduce the need for replacement. The program also awards points for placing a home near community transit as well as using landscaping that lessens irrigation demand.

There are many health benefits to building green. The LEED program gives points for building with non-toxic materials such as zero or low VOC paint and soy-based insulations. By building with these materials, the owners reduce the chance of having health issues as a result of living among toxic building materials. The LEED program awards points for other measures to avoid health problems such as flushing the property prior to occupancy, prohibiting exhaust fans in the garage so to not vent harmful fumes into the house and building with radon-resistant construction.

Another benefit to building green is that it can save you money. Compared to traditionally built homes, green homes use an average of: 40% less energy and 50% less water. They are also built with non-toxic building materials that lower exposure to mold and mildew which could lower health care costs. Another monetary factor to consider is your homes re-sale value. If a buyer can save money on water, energy and health bills by buying a green home versus a standard home, the buyer may be willing to pay more to purchase the green home.

The list could go on in regards to the many reasons to build green, but what seems to be clear is that the green train is coming and the real estate industry appears to be on board.

Such success inspired builders, architects, and property managers to use innovative design concepts to pave the way toward a more environmentally sound future.

Green design was suddenly the rage. Builders used smarter methods, architects focused on sustainability, and owners and renters sought alternative ways to heat, cool, and keep their properties clean.

The green trend is not limited to real estate. Everyday products, food and water supplies, and automobiles began rolling out cleaner, smarter products.

A wonderful new trend was now a thriving reality. Or so we thought. The one thing, the one secret people knew but did not want to address, was that going green was expensive.

By working with green technology, companies and organizations put to good use their increased budgets. That was fine when things were good. But now, well, things aren’t so good. And that has stalled green technology and the movement it inspired.

The real estate market is especially vulnerable to the ups and downs of the economy. Unable to sell homes, builders and realtors must find ways to produce cheaper properties. Thus green building is abandoned for techniques that are considerably more affordable.

Despite the current slowdown, green technology and green building is not going to disappear. It is undoubtedly taking a hit. It is difficult to justify spending more when money is tight. But the benefits and necessity of it is undeniable. Green building and green technology is the future, and businesses must understand this. It will be interesting to see the creative ways realtors and builders implement new ways to build sustainable properties while at the same time conserve money.

The Dallas Morning News ran an article that discussed green trends in real estate.

While some developers might view green building as just a marketing gimmick, industry studies show that these construction techniques will explode during the coming years.

Green building has already risen by five times since 2005 and totals close to $50 billion annually, according to a recent report by McGraw-Hill Construction.

And the outlook is for green construction starts to triple by 2013.

While that news is promising, the article delivers a knock out blow in the next paragraph.

The credit crunch and economic recession have put the brakes on commercial construction starts around the country.

And residential building has plummeted more than 50 percent.

So that means fewer projects – green or otherwise – will be coming out of the ground.

This demonstrates the need to be creative, to employ foresight, and use resourceful materials—the very things green technology is based on—to find our way out of our current economic doldrums.

It is also a good time to be a renter. Apartments in Dallas have remained affordable. The city’s numerous neighborhoods and cultural diversity lend the area a rewarding cosmopolitan attitude. Until the economy revives, and green technology once again becomes the chief approach to building, renting an apartment might be the best choice to make.

In fact, Green buildings are designed to meet certain objectives such as protecting occupant health; improving employee productivity; using energy, water, and other resources more efficiently; and reducing the overall impact to the environment. These buildings with good overall environmental quality can reduce the rate of respiratory diseases, allergy, asthma, sick building symptoms, and enhance worker performance. The green building construction technique include following elements:-

Elements of Green Building Construction Technique

1. Proper Ventilation

Green Buildings provide adequate ventilation to all habitable rooms including bath rooms, kitchens with high-efficiency in-duct filtration system to allow proper drainage of air-conditioning coils to control humidity including heating and cooling systems which ensure indoor air quality.

2. Prevention of indoor microbial contamination

Under this technology, construction and finishing materials are selected with zero or low emissions to improve indoor air quality. Many building materials and cleaning / maintenance products emit toxic gases, such as volatile organic compounds (VOC) and formaldehyde gases which result in a detrimental impact on occupants’ health and productivity. Such products are not to be used in building construction and their finishing.

3. Utilization of recycled material for minimizing the cost of building

Demolition and reconstruction of old buildings is a continuous phenomenon. Population and demand for buildings are increasing day by day whereas our resources are depleting in the same proportion. Building construction activities consume one-sixth of the world’s fresh water withdrawals, one-fourth of its wood harvest, and two-fifths of its material and energy flow. About 22 percent waste material (bricks, concrete, wood, steel, metals, steel pipes, plastic pipes, electric wires, sanitary material etc.) of demolished buildings can be reused or recycled thus prolonging our supply of natural resources and minimizing construction cost. In green buildings, about 25 % recycled material is used.

4. Installation of glass panels

Instead of wood window glass panels are installed in green buildings to allow flow of natural light inside the building during day time.

5. Installation of Rainwater Harvesting System

The green buildings are well equipped with rainwater harvesting system to preserve depleting water resource.

6. Maximizing the use of renewable natural resources

In order to maximize the use of renewable natural resources in green buildings, the energy efficient equipments such as Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) and Solar Water Heating Systems etc. based on non conventional energy resources are installed.

7. Minimizing The Use of depleting resources

Since, forest cover is depleting day by day in the world, therefore, use of fresh wood is minimized in green buildings. Wherever, use of wood is considered necessary, in such buildings, the wood of fast growing trees is only used so that utilization of such material may not effect the ecological balance of the earth.

8. Minimizing energy use in green buildings

The green buildings are fixed with energy censors to minimize the use of power within the building. When there is no person within a room, the lights would automatically go off.

9. Water conservation and efficiency measures in green buildings

In green buildings, water is used in most efficient way. The gray water from bath rooms is again recycled to flush toilets.

10. Proper disposal of garbage

The garbage of green buildings is properly handled, placed and disposed off as per Building Bye Laws of respective Civic Bodies by segregating it into biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes.

11. Maintenance of greenery

In green buildings, the open areas are well landscaped with maintenance of maximum greenery for building healthy environment.

The driving force behind this is to lower our negative impact on the environment and, at the same time, make the buildings we live and work in safer and healthier for us.

According to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) statistics,`buildings are responsible for all of the following:

39% of US carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions
70% of US electricity consumption
15 trillion gallons of water consumption

Even though there is still some controversy over the effect of greenhouse gases on the environment, the last two statistics are very important for those of us living in urban areas experiencing continuous growth, especially the American Southwest. With our population expansion, aging water and electrical infrastructure, and shrinking landfills, designing and constructing green and sustainable buildings makes practical sense from a utilitarian perspective.

In fact, USGBC data shows that green buildings use 36% less energy, require fewer raw materials, and divert less waste to our landfills. Furthermore, the “increased” cost of green building is only one or two percent more expensive than a conventional building. This minute difference exemplifies the tangible and long-term benefits of sustainable design, primarily due to the fact that green buildings conserve water and electricity. Thus, while they are more expensive to build, green structures will save money by conserving more energy over time.

Another push towards the green build movement is by local governments. More and more municipalities

are adopting the USGBC LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) guidelines for new

and renovated buildings. In 2006, at the USGBC Greenbuild expo, the Mayor of Denver challenged other major cities to see who can have the most LEED® certified green buildings. They are accomplishing this by offering tax breaks to private corporations and mandating sustainable construction for city-financed projects.

This has led to a dramatic increase in the number of sustainable projects built by LEED® Certified general contractors. However, this growth has not come without challenges. Currently, the following issues are restricting the number of green projects being built:

Increased demand for green products has lead to long lead times
New and unspecified materials are labeled “green” products which are not necessarily certified
Building officials are struggling with a steep learning curve on how to evaluate these new products and sustainable building techniques

Despite these difficulties, the USGBC, sustainability advocates, and green building construction management firms are meeting to overcome these challenges.

The LEED® process is constantly under review and continues to adopt the latest codes and products. This includes Standard 189, a new minimum standard for green building. The USGBC is currently developing LEED® 3.0 and working with national code writers to include new products and techniques.

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has even rolled out a new initiative called “Sustainability 2030,” which at its roots, is looking to design all buildings by the year 2030 as carbon neutral. The USGBC has even initiated the Green Advantage Builders Certification for contractors to certify their knowledge in green building

techniques.

So what does green building mean at the end of the day? It’s simple yet profound: Do the right thing for you, the environment, and the next generation. While most companies are concerned with their bottom line, they ought to embrace the idea that energy and water conservation, green building, and the use of “green materials” in construction stands to increase their savings over time while positioning them as a leader in environmental stewardship.

According to the USGBC, we spend 90% of our time indoors. Due to this fact, scientists have identified an increase in allergies, asthma, absenteeism from school, and even work. There have been numerous studies done on post occupancy productivity levels, which have increased within “green” built facilities. Not only does

green adaptation result in less sick days taken, but also shows an increase in productivity, job

satisfaction, and in the case of schools, better grades.

So, as we positively affect the environment around us with sustainable green construction, we eventually create better health for ourselves.