Using our LCA Tools
Tools
Embodied Carbon Optimiser
Check out our Embodied Carbon Optimiser tool if you want to optimise your project to achieve climate targets and get normalised data per person and per year.
How to access it:
Click "Tools" and then choose "Embodied carbon optimiser" from the dropdown to get the Embodied Carbon Optimiser tool.
By doing so, you will be directed to the DOT selection page where you may choose the type of building you want to optimise. By clicking on the options of your choice, you can choose between the Commercial and Residential building types as well as the Fit-Out, High-Rise, Low-Rise, and High-Rise and Low-Rise options, respectively. After making your choice, pick "generate" from the menu in the top right corner of the page. You will then be directed to the DOT configuration page.
You can make your material selection on the DOT configuration page by clicking the dropdowns next to the filters on the left. The Climate result summary per m2 in the center of the page provides you with an impact analysis of the selections that you have made. It includes carbon footprint, water footprint for (A1-A3) life cycle stages, contribution of the building and materials selected to global warming and carbon improvement from average. To learn more about these indicators, hover over the “?” on each of these indicators. The thermometer in the center represents Carbon footprint of the materials selected and the building in relation to how much the building contributes to global warming.
To adjust all these elements and reach your sustainability and climate goals, choose more sustainable options from the filter (on the left).
You can view and evaluate the impact of each product/material choice below this information.
You can enter the details of the building you're developing in the second part of the page and receive an impact report as a result. The carbon and water footprint of your building as well as its normalised per-person and yearly use are also included in the building-specific impact report. Embodied carbon offset data along with a percentage of the project value is also provided. You can fiddle with each of these indicators to optimise and achieve your desired targets.
Hovering your cursor over the "?" icon will display more information about each impact indicator. In order to share your configurations with your team and clients and to more thoroughly assess the effects of the materials you have chosen, you can also export a one-page overview of your configurations.
Projects tool
The Project tool on our platform helps you gauge the impact of your design. One can also create multiple design configurations for the same project to compare and analyse their impact!
Here, we’ll walk you through the process of selecting materials and specifying products along with measuring the impact of your design with the help of the dashboard:
Start by selecting "My projects" from the dropdown menu after selecting the Tools section in the top right corner of the platform:
You will then be directed to the projects page, where you can click on the “create new” tab to create projects of your choice. This section will ask you for specifics of the project. Click the save tab to continue after entering the project details.
Selecting Materials for your project
To create a project, you can select materials for different Building Applications (BAs) in your project. For example, you can choose materials for the substructure, floor finishes, and frame. To do this, a list of materials will be presented in a dropdown menu for each BA you want to include. For example, you can select materials for the substructure by selecting from the list in the dropdown menu for that BA. Then, you can repeat the process for the other BAs you want to include in your project, such as floor finishes and frame as seen here:
After you have chosen materials for the various building applications, you can create a configuration with your selected materials by clicking the "create configuration" tab. If you want to start over, you can use the "clear configuration" tab to clear the current configuration and create a new one. You can also add more materials, save the configuration, and delete it using the available tabs.
The projects tool allows you to create multiple configurations for the same project so you can compare the impacts and select the one that best meets your targets and goals. To do this, under the same project, you can create a new configuration by choosing materials and products for the building applications you want to include. Once you have made your selections, you can save the configuration under a different name than the previous configurations. Then, you can specify products for each material you have chosen. The dashboard section enables you to analyse the impact of different configurations, as well as the impact of the materials and products selected for each configuration (as described in the steps below).
Specifying products for your project
Click on the configuration tab, select the configuration you’d like to specify products for. To specify products for each building application and material already selected, click on the "search product" tab.
This will bring you to the products results page, which displays a list of products that match the specification for your building application and material type. You can choose a product from this list. If you are interested in a specific product, click the "view specs hover over" tab and then click the "add to project" tab at the top right of the specification page to add it to the specific configuration you are working on within the project.
You can then add this product to the specific project and configuration of your choice with the prefilled dropdown that is shown.
Once the product has been added to your project, click the back button to return to the project you were working on. Similar to this, you can choose and specify other products for the different building applications under the selected configuration.
Dashboard & Results
The dashboard offers a comprehensive view of the impact of the configuration and project that you created. Depending on whether your project has an impact that fulfills your goals, you can make adjustments.
By selecting the "Available configuration" dropdown, you can see the impact of the products and materials chosen for the project under the different configurations that you have created.
The dashboard page offers an overview of the total carbon footprint, net water use, circularity indices of all the life cycle stages of the products that have been included in the configuration/project. The dashboard also provides impact breakdown according to the different Building Applications, inputs on the top 5 materials/products with the highest Carbon contribution in the selected configuration along with a graphical representation of the Carbon breakdown of different life cycle stages of the selected products in the configuration.
To see, compare and analyse the impact of different configurations that you have created, you can select that configuration under the “available configuration” dropdown. Also, and within each configuration you can compare and analyse the impact of the different materials and products selected by selecting the Configuration (products) or Configuration (Materials). Once you have made the comparisons, you can select the one that meets your targets best.
You can share this information with your team and clients, by selecting the “Export PDF” tab and convert it to a PDF.
Hovering the cursor over the "?" bubble will reveal more information about each dashboard component.
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