The Green Key Village venture comprises 145 eco-friendly homes available in ten customizable floor plans. Each will be fully sustainable as defined and certified by the Florida Green Building Coalition (FGBC) and the Home Energy Rating System (HERS).

Green Key Village’s biggest challenge was to ensure that each development could be customized and result in a net-zero energy status at a cost-effective price.

Ekotrope’s software suite is based on an advanced algorithm, developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which allows developers, builders, and design-build firms to analyze energy-efficient and cost-effective configurations of different building envelopes and heating and cooling systems.

Greg Thomas, managing member for Green Key Village LLC, said, “When embarking on this new development, it was crucial for us to understand all the cost, energy, and sustainability build options available to us in detail. For each individual design plan, this meant considering more than 10,000 unique variables. Our buyers can also choose from 10 different, fully-sustainable designs. That’s why we chose Ekotrope — the software is amazingly sophisticated but easy-to-use, enabling us to intuitively review and compare a wide array of build and material options.”

Ziv Rozenblum, Ekotrope CEO and founder, said, “We enable developers to design the best buildings in the most cost-efficient way. With Ekotrope, thousands of cost and energy-efficient design options can be evaluated in seconds, enabling developers to work within budget and to visualize and calculate the best sets of building components to meet goals.”

For more information, visit www.ekotrope.com.

Publication date: 5/27/2013