EDGE Simulation for Sustainable Office Building Design: An Analysis of Energy, Water, and Embodied Carbon Performance in a Chennai Case Study

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-535-5_11How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Sustainable Buildings; Simulation; Energy Conservation; Water Conservation; and Embodied carbon savings

Abstract

Using EDGE (Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies) modelling software, this study quantitatively evaluates the potential for energy, water, and embedded carbon reductions in a typical office building in Chennai, India. The study shows the use of design stage simulation for attaining sustainable building performance. For a particular 5-story, 4000 square meter office building, the methodology entailed modelling a number of sustainable design interventions using the EDGE framework, including building envelope changes, HVAC and ventilation systems, lighting and renewable energy integration, water efficiency measures, and material selections. Key findings show significant potential for energy savings, with high-efficiency cooling systems generating 6.38% improvements and Window-to-Wall Ratio (WWR) optimization yielding up to 10.18% savings. Significant effects were shown by water efficiency methods, especially wastewater treatment and recycling systems, which saved 58.24% of water. At 8.45%, the adoption of a filler slab concrete method resulted in the largest decrease in embodied carbon. The research also highlights the need for climate-specific modelling by pointing out situations in which specific design decisions, such high WWR or particular orientation changes, might result in higher energy usage. All things considered, combining these strategies can result in notable drops in net carbon emissions, with carbon offsets offering the possibility of net-zero operations. These findings highlight the value of simulation in obtaining green building certifications and the synergy between design-stage evaluation and real-time operational optimization.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Hemang Dave
AU  - Akshay Gupta
AU  - Ankita Patnaik
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/16
TI  - EDGE Simulation for Sustainable Office Building Design: An Analysis of Energy, Water, and Embodied Carbon Performance in a Chennai Case Study
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Creativity, Innovation & Design (ICCID 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 124
EP  - 134
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-535-5_11
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-535-5_11
ID  - Dave2026
ER  -