How Peutz Consult optimizes urban design projects and improves climate resilience with ENVI-met

Peutz Consult GmbH is part of the Peutz Group, an engineering consultancy network operating in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Belgium. The company specializes in acoustics, building physics, environmental technology, sustainability, and façade engineering, supporting projects from individual buildings to urban districts

Industry

Engineering Consultancy & Urban Planning

Headquarters

Germany

Challenge

As cities face increasing urban heat island effects and stricter sustainability requirements, municipalities are increasingly requesting microclimate simulations as part of planning approvals. Peutz Consult needed a reliable way to evaluate thermal comfort, airflow, and environmental impacts during the design phase to help clients create climate-resilient developments while meeting regulatory expectations. The challenge was particularly significant when projects entered the planning process late, limiting opportunities for cost-effective optimization.

Solution

Peutz Consult adopted ENVI-met from One Click LCA to integrate microclimate analysis directly into urban planning workflows. Using the software, the team models buildings, vegetation, surface materials, weather conditions, and airflow patterns to assess how design decisions affect thermal comfort and environmental performance.

The consultancy follows a structured workflow that includes modelling existing conditions, simulating current and future scenarios, comparing design alternatives, and recommending optimizations such as improved building placement, ventilation corridors, additional vegetation, and surface material changes. ENVI-met also supports projects pursuing sustainability certifications such as DGNB by providing robust environmental performance data.

Outcome

Since implementing ENVI-met, Peutz Consult has completed microclimate simulations for more than 120 projects. The software enables the team to quantify environmental impacts, visualize complex urban climate interactions, and support informed decision-making long before construction begins. As a result, clients and municipalities can confidently optimize developments for comfort, sustainability, and climate resilience.

Results

Urban Climate Optimization

120+ projects improved through data-driven simulation

Since 2018, Peutz Consult has used ENVI-met across more than 120 projects, ranging from individual buildings to large-scale urban districts, helping clients design more comfortable and climate-resilient environments.

Sustainable urban development

Supporting climate resilience and DGNB certification

ENVI-met simulations help developers and municipalities evaluate heat stress, wind comfort, air quality, and green infrastructure performance while supporting sustainability frameworks such as DGNB certification.

"We chose ENVI-met because it's very user-friendly and allows for detailed modelling of the urban environment and climate, which is a very complex system"

Karina Zühlke Project Manager Peutz Consult GmbH

ENVI-met: Reduce heat stress & improve liveability

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Responding to growing demand for climate-resilient cities

As urban temperatures continue to rise, municipalities are placing greater emphasis on understanding how new developments affect local climate conditions. Peutz Consult uses ENVI-met to assess thermal comfort, wind patterns, air quality, and vegetation performance during the planning phase, enabling clients to make informed decisions that improve urban livability and resilience.

Embedding microclimate simulation into urban planning workflows

The Peutz Consult team integrates ENVI-met into projects through an iterative modelling process. Existing site conditions are mapped using GIS data, open-source datasets, and client information. The team then simulates current environmental conditions and compares them with proposed designs to evaluate impacts on temperature, airflow, and human comfort indicators such as Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET).

These insights enable targeted recommendations including green infrastructure enhancements, shading strategies, optimized building placement, and improved ventilation corridors.

"We use ENVI-met for microclimatic simulations to visualize the impact of construction projects on the urban climate — and to plan optimizations at an early stage.."

— Karina Zühlke, Project Manager, Peutz Consult GmbH

Case study: Optimizing a logistics center in Herne, Germany

One notable project involved a logistics center in Herne, where the municipality required assurance that new warehouse buildings would not increase heat stress at a neighboring education center.

Using ENVI-met, Peutz Consult simulated wind conditions, air temperatures, and PET values under peak summer conditions. Initial results showed increased heat accumulation between the warehouses and the educational facility, prompting concerns from local authorities. Through an iterative optimization process involving five simulation rounds, the team evaluated façade and roof greening, additional vegetation, revised building spacing, surface material changes, and layout adjustments.

The fourth iteration achieved significant reductions in temperature increases and improved thermal comfort, satisfying municipal requirements while balancing the client's operational objectives.

Faster decisions, stronger outcomes, and more resilient cities

By integrating ENVI-met into its consulting services, Peutz Consult enables clients to understand and improve environmental performance before construction begins. The result is more effective collaboration between developers and municipalities, better-informed design decisions, and urban environments that are prepared for future climate challenges.

What's next: Expanding climate resilience through simulation

As demand for climate-adaptive urban planning continues to grow, Peutz Consult plans to further expand the use of microclimate modelling across projects. The company sees early-stage environmental analysis as a critical component of future urban development, helping cities become more comfortable, sustainable, and resilient in a warming climate.