Deep expertise, multiplied.
Rational Boxes partners with domain experts to multiply the reach of their expertise — encoding the judgment beneath their work into products that scale from a first platform to full automation. We did exactly that with EcoREAL Solutions, whose LEED expertise became Green Canary:
1 billion+ square feet of construction verified · Portland Metro standard protocol · Walmart Home Office Campus · Portland Building historic renovation
You have spent years mastering something narrow and valuable. We build the machine that runs it at scale.
We partner with experts at every stage
Expertise, Constrained
You have spent years mastering something narrow and valuable. But your judgment is delivered one client and one hour at a time — capped by your own calendar.
Expertise, Accessible
We encode the logic beneath your judgment into a platform that reasons the way you do. Your expertise reaches hundreds of customers at once, and revenue shifts from billable hours to recurring subscriptions. First platform typically ships in 10–18 weeks.
Expertise, At Scale
Your platform evolves into intelligent automation. Workflows, rules engines, and AI-assisted processing run your judgment at scale — thousands of decisions a day, with you in the loop only for the exceptions.
We multiply your expertise. We never replace it.
Most technology partners ask you to bend to their system: change your process, abandon your methods, trust their interface. We work the other way.
We study how you actually think — the consistent logic beneath your judgment — and encode it faithfully, so the product reasons the way you would. Your methodology is the irreplaceable core. We build the machine that runs it at scale.
This is not merely a technical pattern. It is an expression of respect for domain expertise. You spent years building your judgment; asking you to abandon it and bend to a generic system is the single most common reason expert productization fails.
Who we have worked with
World class organizations and companies that we have helped to succeed.
"James Hickman with Rational Boxes is the most talented software engineer and overall innovative problem solver we have ever worked with. He goes beyond conventional software engineering to invent new custom solutions that helped us build our own Green Building Integrative Management platform in record time, and with a restricted budget. He responded to client demands quickly, and was always able to meet their requests. His overall positive proactive attitude makes him a pleasure to work with, and a rare commodity for any team!"
"The GBIM platform provides useful and customizable organization to track the various LEED v4 metrics on a project. The ability to track and organize this information is critical to successfully attaining construction credits in LEED v4. ecoREAL Solutions has regularly updated the platform to adapt to changing project needs, which has also been invaluable."
"James (With Rational Boxes) brought both creative vision and technical expertise to the project. He assisted with the visual design of the display and wrote the underlying code in Drupal and other applications, ensuring the system was both functional and adaptable. He also coordinated with multiple external data providers to integrate real-time information such as bus schedules, weather updates, and a live news ticker. In addition, he developed a dynamic tenant directory that is easy to navigate and consistently accurate."
"James Hickman at Rational Boxes provided excellent service and support to the dental society in the construction and deployment of our website. He was able to quickly respond to troubleshooting issues and was most helpful in guiding us through the design process. His efforts resulted in the development of a state of the art website for managing our organization's communications and programming administration."
Two flagship examples. One model.
Green Canary: From a Hands-On Practice to a Billion Square Feet
Stage 3 — Expertise, At Scale. Green Canary began as a sustainability consulting practice whose LEED expertise was capped by personal capacity. Today its judgment is encoded in a platform that is the standard verification protocol for Portland Metro regional government, with landmark deployments including the Portland Building renovation and Walmart's corporate headquarters.
Read the case study
EcoSpex Green Building Matrix: A Researcher's Methodology, Multiplied
Stage 2 — Expertise, Accessible. A researcher's systematic comparison of 11 green building certification systems across 578 credits is now a subscription platform serving architects, engineers, and sustainability consultants. Built in 10 weeks. The partnership is ongoing, with next-generation automation in development.
Read the case study
Nama
Nama is the creator of a trendy juicing appliance with a robust health and wellness narrative. The original store was hosted on the Shopify platform. Still, it lacked features to engage customers post-sale or provide adequate customer support.
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WTC dashboard kiosk
Interactive tenant directory featured articles and additional helpful information available on multiple screens built in touch display array.
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Report dashboard for VolCafe
Reporting application for exploring demographic, environmental, and financial metrics about coffee growers around the world.
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Built for expert consultants and specialized researchers
Sustainability & Green Building
Consultants with deep mastery of certification, embodied carbon, and compliance — the domain where our flagship platforms already operate at industry scale.
Engineering & Technical Compliance
Engineering analysts and compliance specialists with a proprietary methodology for standards, codes, and evaluation whose judgment is in demand beyond their personal capacity.
Research & Analysis Practices
Supply chain and technical researchers with a systematic approach to supplier evaluation, benchmarking, and risk — expertise that today reaches only the clients who can book the time.
