Ellis Herman
Forma Site Design, available in the AEC Collection or as a standalone subscription, offers powerful AI-powered tools for architects and designers in pre-design and schematic design phases.
The decisions you make in the first weeks of a project shape a building’s carbon footprint for its entire life. Where the buildings sit. How big they are. What they’re made of. By the time a sustainability specialist runs a detailed assessment, the massing is often locked — and the biggest opportunities to cut carbon have already passed.
Early carbon analysis has traditionally been hard to reach. It called for specialist tools, specialist expertise, and a handoff that happened too late to change much. So, carbon got treated as something to verify at the end, rather than something to design with from the start.
Beginning August 1st, 2026, that changes for Forma Site Design users, specifically with Forma Data Management hubs located in the US. Forma Site Design moves from embodied carbon analysis to full total carbon analysis — embodied and operational together — powered by Forma Carbon Insights and built directly into the tool, right alongside the environmental analyses you already use.
It’s the same Forma Carbon Insights platform that powers carbon analysis in Forma Building Design and Revit. So, you get consistent carbon data and analysis from conceptual to detailed design — one platform, one set of numbers, carried through as a project matures.
Forma total carbon analysis results in the Analyses section of Forma Site Design
Carbon analysis, without the specialist
Total carbon analysis is designed for the people making early design decisions — architects, urban planners, and real estate developers working in pre-design and schematic design. You run an analysis from the Analyze menu in Forma Site Design, choose the buildings you want to evaluate, adjust a few settings like building type, exterior walls, and window-to-wall ratio, and get results back organized into Total, Embodied, and Operational.
That means a small regional firm can track carbon without hiring a specialist or standing up new technology — and a large, multinational practice can scale carbon analysis across its whole workforce on a single, consistent platform.
Why early carbon decisions matter most
The value isn’t just faster carbon numbers. It’s carbon numbers early enough to act on. When you can see the embodied and operational impact of a massing option while you’re still exploring alternatives, carbon becomes one more factor you weigh — alongside sun, daylight, and yield — instead of a constraint you discover after the fact.
What you can do with total carbon analysis in Forma Site Design
Evaluate carbon alongside broader site performance
Assess embodied, operational, and total carbon together with environmental analyses such as sun, daylight, wind, noise, microclimate, and solar energy. Better equip your team to make more holistic sustainability decisions from the earliest stages of design.
Rapid iteration during conceptual design
Quickly compare building layouts across a site and early building concepts to understand carbon implications while exploring multiple design alternatives. Empower more team members to make sustainability-informed decisions without requiring specialized expertise.
Shared carbon dashboards
Create collaborative insights that can be shared with sustainability specialists or extended project teams through Forma Carbon Insights, aligning everyone around consistent carbon data, analysis, and insights across Forma and Revit.
Simple workflows with advanced analysis
Generate total carbon results directly within Forma Site Design, then open Forma Carbon Insights dashboards for advanced configuration, customizable metrics, and deeper analysis as projects evolve.
A consistent carbon experience across Autodesk
Access the same Forma Carbon Insights platform whether starting in Forma Site Design, Forma Building Design, or Revit. Forma Carbon Insights provides consistent analysis and workflows throughout the design lifecycle.
Availability and what’s changing
At launch, total carbon analysis powered by Forma Carbon Insights is available for Forma Data Management hubs located in the US. Support for additional regions is planned for later this year, and users will receive advance notice before availability expands.
This capability replaces the embodied carbon analysis previously powered by C.Scale in Forma Site Design. We maintain a strong partnership with C.Scale and aim to deepen it through the continued development of the Forma Carbon Insights platform. Beginning August 1st, you’ll no longer generate new C.Scale-powered analyses in Forma Site Design; previously generated results will remain available in a read-only view for a limited time, and you’ll be notified before they’re removed.
What comes next
Bringing Forma Carbon Insights to Forma Site Design is a step toward a single, consistent total carbon experience across Autodesk’s design tools. As we regionalize the analysis and expand the platform — including our vision to let third-party carbon data providers integrate directly — carbon assessment becomes more connected, transparent, and available earlier in every project.
Because designing lower-carbon buildings shouldn’t mean waiting until it’s too late to change them.