Carbon Designer's Swedish template has now 7 new assemblies, 10 additional material alternatives in the existing assemblies, and updated reference scenarios. New constructions include HDF slabs, partition walls with aluminum frame, and internal walls with double plasterboard on both sides. The latter became also the baseline for internal walls in schools and multi-family residential houses. Updates in existing assemblies include several new material options as alternatives and especially for cladding, including for example stone and painted wooden cladding. Last, concrete profiles from Svensk Betong replaced One Click LCA generic concretes as reference profiles.
27 June 2020 - June Release notes (all users)
Release notes highlights
Check the highlights of this release below, and view the downloadable PDF file for a full overview of the June release
here.
- The One Click LCA Pre-Verified EPD Generator is now available and allows you to deliver easily and cost-efficiently EPDs according to EN 15804 + A1 + A2 amendments
- The One Click LCA Flexible EPD and One Click LCA Product Carbon tools are now also available.
- New data import workflow makes data handling options easier to use and apply when importing from BIM.
- Expert users can now download data in Excel, do edits and Excel and upload them back to One Click LCA.
- French users are getting a range of significant updates in the Energie Carbone / RE2020 & HQE tools.
- Users are now able to model reused materials or retained building parts more precisely in calculations
- + over one hundred smaller improvements and fixes.
- Almost 9000 new resources have been added in 2020 since week 3! Data updates are reported weekly in the Database update log.
One Click LCA product level tools
- Three new Product level LCA tools have been launched, One Click LCA Product Carbon, One Click LCA Flexible EPD and One Click LCA Pre-Verified EPD Generator.
Summary of the release notes - All license levels
- Model reused materials or retained building parts easily and more precisely - Available in RICS, NS3720, NollCO2, BREEAM UK & Int't, Level(s), Global Carbon and Life Cycle Carbon - North Amerca
- Clear option for disabling 'Material manufacturing localization', has been added to the LCA parameters.
- New End-Of-Life model is now available in more tools - BREEAM UK & Int'l, All LEED tools, Level(s) and Life Cycle Carbon - North America.
- 11 other updates which can be read in the attached PDF file (bottom of the page)
Summary of the release notes - Business licenses
- New import mapper workflow - Major improvements
- Allow replacing constructions (same way as material replacements)
Summary of the release notes - Expert licenses
- Expert users can now download data in Excel, edit and re-upload the file back to One Click LCA
- New End-of-Life model - Experts users can make more edits in the tools in which this is available
Updates to the Energie Carbone & HQE tools
- Mise à jour d'Energie Carbone à la version RSEnv 1.1.0.0, amélioration des saisies et corrections des calculs des seuils:
- Les paramètres 'projet' nécessaires au RSEE sont saisis au niveau projet directement
- L'utilisateur doit associer les zones du RSET avec celles de la modélisation et modéliser plusieurs bâtiments dans un même projet de manière distincte.
- Nouvelles distinctions dans la partie 'description du bâtiment' est faite - pour faciliter la saisie des données nécessaires au calcul ACV et des niveaux de performance.
- La possibilité de rentrer manuellement les coefficients nécessaires aux calculs des seuils Carbone quand on n'a pas de RSET > 8.1.0.0 v1.0 ou de RSET tout court.
- Les valeurs seuils intermédiaires des indicateurs de performance sont maintenant visibles
- Correction concernant la prise en compte des bénéfices quand ils sont négatifs pour les ignorer.
- Correction pour ignorer les bénéfices export quand le champ export n'est pas rempli et que toute l'énergie est auto-consommée
- Nouvel outil excel d'aide au calcul de consommation en eau potable pour Énergie Carbone (sur le centre support)
Autres mises à jour:
- Carbon Designer pour créer des variantes rapidement en phase amont, maintenant disponible dans l'outil HQE selon EN 15978
- Fichier import excel dédié en français
The ICE 3.0 database has now been enabled for the RICS tool. Some data-points will show a warning as they do not meet the RICS requirements for data.
The NollCO2 tool now supports reporting operational water and energy. The Site Designer tool is intended for supporting earliest phases of project before any design at any level is started. It allows calculating comparative carbon impacts of choosing different sites, different energy supply and different end user transport scenarios (e.g. based on public transport proximity). Site Designer tool allows calculating operating energy, underground construction, building construction, and end user transportation impacts.
Building construction scenarios can be modeled for any building type and region globally. Average and 70 percentile values from Carbon Heroes Benchmark Program provide data allowing to account for expected impacts for type of building. This is a dataset of some 130 high quality curated carbon profiles. These values can be adapted with site specific underground construction impacts e.g. from piling, as well as site clearing.
Operating energy scenarios can be modeled for any building type and region globally. Ready-made standard values are in place for all Norwegian building types.
Operating transport scenarios can be modeled for any building type and region globally. Ready to use standard transport scenarios are in place for Norwegian transport scenarios as well as Helsinki Region Transport (Finland) transport scenarios. End user can input transport assumptions for any other region themselves. Transport scenarios also consider average transport distance, frequency and transport mix between private car, carpooling, public transport by bus and by rail, and walking and biking. Parking availability impact can also be modeled.
Site Designer is well suited for comparing impact of situating a project on different site with differences in any of the above factors.
3 May 2020 - May Release notes (all users)
Release notes highlights
Check the highlights of this release below, and view the downloadable PDF file for a full overview of the May release
here.
- We introduce the Request for EPD feature to allow getting more data directly from manufacturers
- New machine hours datasets and different types of soils for earth construction / Infrastructure projects
- GHG protocol and CSR tools have fully new sets of graphs and extended Scope 3 emission data
- Expert users: You can now add private data directly to the company account via the user interface
- Expert users: Significant improvements for private constructions creation and management
- This release launches a new tool, Site Designer, for carbon conscious site selection decisions
- With this release, we're soon launching the One Click LCA Pre-Verified EPD Generator. This tool will allow creating EPDs faster and more cost-efficiently.
- Data updates are reported weekly in the Database update log
- + over one hundred smaller improvements and fixes
Summary of release notes - all versions
- Easily request EPDs directly from the manufacturer
- Important data updates for earth moving / Infrastructure construction
- Results by life-cycle stage graph is updated
- Navigation improvements
- Option to archive completed projects added
Summary of release notes - Business & Expert
Business features
- Carbon heroes benchmarks now have additional metadata available
- Users can create groups of materials, check that out here: Grouping materials
- Import: Mapping basis clarification added
Expert features
- Several improvements to private construction creation functionality
- Ability to add private data directly
New graphs and data for CSR tools
- Completely new set of graphs available for CSR tools (GHG protocol, etc)
- Significant Scope 3 data extension for construction and food services
New tool: Site designer
- New tool for making informed choices about project location carbon impacts
- Modeling impacts of available energy sources
- Modeling end user operational transport to and from the building
- Modeling construction impacts
New tool: One Click LCA Pre-Verified EPD generator
- New tool which allows for creating EPDs faster and cheaper
- Redeveloped filters, creating groups, two transport legs per material
- Ecoinvent based data cards which contain more information
- Ecoinvent data can be assigned an alias
- More options for copying data
In the tool 'Other indirect (Scope 3) GHG Emissions, in input data form 'Upstream activities (supply chain)', in 'Purchased goods and services (category 1)', new modeling option for food services, catering and restauration is provided.
Approximately 200 datasets for different types of foodstuffs can be found under 'Activity data: catering, restauration and food services'.
Modeling construction projects with average embodied carbon figures from
Carbon Heroes Benchmark Program is now possible. The datasets provide both arithmetic average datasets for global or regional building types, and for some building types and markets also market-specific averages exist. In addition of average datasets, also 70 percentile datasets are provided. The 70 percentile datasets capture some of the inherent uncertainty in average datasets with non-normal distribution. The datasets are provided per m2 gross internal floor area, so adding building construction completion is possible just by adding the total floor area constructed. The dataset comprises circa 130 profiles created out of thousands of real life projects.
These datasets can be found in 'Activity data: construction completion per building types', both in input data form 'Upstream activities (supply chain)' under 'Capital goods (category 2)' as well as in input data form 'Downstream activities (distribution and use)' under 'Investments (category 15)'.
21 April 2020 - Important update for projects involving earth moving and machinery hours (Infrastructure users)
All tools that include 'Construction site operations' scope now have access to Machine hours as part of Energy use on the site reporting. These can be found in separate question called 'Machine hours'. The machine hours provides over 40 different machine hour profiles that can be used in calculations. The machine hours are very well suited for early stage calculations when measured data is not yet available but hours of machine use can be estimated. For as built calculations you can instead use the actual fuel types and consumption into the 'Fuel consumption' question above.
All One Click LCA generic earth masses, such as aggregate, gravel, soil, clay soil, macadam, sand, soil are now provided with both wet and dry bulk densities. This will allow calculating transport impacts of wet and dry masses correctly. We are further refining the densities to provide options for loose and compacted densities for these materials in the next weeks. This will not change any existing calculations but provide more options.
20 April 2020 - Customized assemblies are now available for the earthquake scenarios (North American Carbon Designer users)
The new assemblies for columns and beams are developed to match best the recently updated earthquake scenarios and are developed based on concrete buildings. The new profiles are assigned automatically when an earthquake scenario is selected.
14 April 2020 - New project parameters and RICS biogenic carbon storage (All users)
New project parameters can now be defined in project level
Users can now define the number of floors and frame type in a project level. This will help improve the accuracy and detail of project benchmarks and LCA Checker.
RICS tool now reports biogenic carbon storage
Users can now access in the detailed report the biogenic carbon storage for each material, while the total value for each stage is demonstrated under the updated field "Assessment of biogenic carbon and mass of materials, RICS" in the Results page.
10 April 2020 - Corrections dans l'outil Energie Carbone (French users)
- Afin d'éviter les doubles comptages, la phase utilisation des équipements techniques du bâtiment (PEP) étaient précédemment exclue, car les PEP ne contenaient pas le détail nécessaire des modules B1-B7. Cependant tout nouveau PEP publié après 2019 qui contient les impacts distincts pour les modules B2 à B5 seront intégrés aux calculs.
- Le bénéfice total au-delà du cycle de vie est maintenant soustrait aux Eges (en plus du Eges PCE) en ligne avec le référentiel
7 April 2020 - New machine operation profiles, Carbon Designer, HS2 and NollCO2 updates (All users)
New profiles for machine operation are now available
42 new resources are now available in the "Construction site operations" tab in relevant tools.
The resources can be found in the field "Machine hours and other site fuel consumption" (previously named as "Site fuel consumption").
Permanent update to HS2 tool
A range of changes were implemented in the HS2 tool in line with advice from HS2.
- Biogenic carbon was added as a separate impact category
- "EPD" checkbox is now available for all material inputs. Any materials marked as EPD will be then added to the "List of EPDs used" in the Results page.
- "Ecopoints" and "Radioactive waste" impact categories were removed
Italy & Southern Europe 2020.2 (Beta) template is now available for all Carbon Designer users
The new region brings several updates including:
- Improvements for a range of assemblies, including igloo slab and walls.
- Assumptions were made available the comments section
- Optimization of the baseline's configuration to include concrete in situ slabs and clay brick walls, along the pillar-beam structural system
- For hollow clay bricks slabs, precompressed joists were also added in the constructions and layers were broken down analytically
- Improvements in the selection of baseline environmental profiles for bricks and plaster
Lavkarbonbetong 2019 profiles are available in all tools, including Carbon Designer
Lavkarbonbetong 2019 profiles have been added in the platform and are now available also as alternative options in Carbon Designer.
NollCO2 workflows updates
New workflow "NollCO2 reference building workflow (BETA)" has been published and includes guidance on how to create a reference building for NollCO2 using Carbon Designer. The existing workflow on how to complete an LCA for NollCO2, was renamed to "NollCO2 workflow (BETA)"
31 March 2020 - Carbon Designer European reference building updated (EU Carbon Designer users)
The EU template in Carbon Designer, now supports fully the new seismicity scenarios with customized column and beam assemblies for each scenario
This tool allows calculating scopes A1-A5 according to Boverket's proposed method for Klimatdeklaration av byggnader. The tool will be updated with the official national database as soon as Boverket releases it. Boverket has indicated that database release could be in January 2021.
15 March 2020 - Minor updates to LCC results page (TRACI and CML LCC users)
In the TRACI and CML based life cycle costing tools the constituent categories on the results page have been expanded so more details can be seen.
15 March 2020 - March release notes (All users)
Summary of release highlights - all users
- This release delivers 10 customer requested features
- Significant improvements to visual comparisons on the project main page
- Favorite materials can be stored in organisation profile for quick access to your common choices
- Simplified default LCA parameter setup introduced
- Carbon Heroes Benchmarks have been updated
- Data update: 2840 new resources and a new database update log under 'Help' menu
- From this version, all materials, including building technology, doors and windows can be inputted in any section in materials
Release highlights for Business and Expert licenses
- Business: Improvements to import
- Business: Improved resource data information
- Expert: Create private constructions (assemblies) for your organisation from existing projects
- Expert: Additional new treemap visualisations
Carbon Designer update
- Improvements for seismic structures & data grouping
- New Carbon Designer regions for Southern Europe and Sweden added
6 March 2020 - YM workflow & NollCO2 wastage and workflow added (Finnish and Swedish users)
All Finnish clients that have a building license and the YM tool now have access to a workflow describing all steps to take for the YM assessment.
Swedish users with the NollCO2 tool now have wastage percentages enabled in the building material query, which are prefilled, but can be manually changed. Additionally a workflow for NollCO2 has been added to the tool as well, which is available to all Swedish building users. This workflow is a BETA and will still be updated.
Previously in the RICS whole life carbon tool, the A4 and A5 stages were combined on the results page. These are now separated as per the reporting guide.
The BETA version of the new NollCO2 tool is now available to all Swedish users. The current MB3 tool which previously has also been used for NollCO2 cannot be used for NollCO2 anymore and has been renamed. A workflow for NollCO2 will be made available soon also.
The HQE tool now supports all the needed impact categories according to the Référentiel HQE Bâtiment Durable V3 (2019).
To see results for the new impact categories the materials query must be resaved.
19 January 2020 - Treemap graph added (All users)
The graphs section on the results page has been expanded with the option to display the results in Treemap format. The results can be downloaded in several image formats as well as excel or CSV.
17 January 2020 - One Click LCA Simplebim 8 Plugin (All Simplebim users)
A final version of the plugin for Simplebim 8 is now available. The 3D visualization is now also working in this version. You can download the updated version from the attachments on the
Simplebim integration page.9 January 2020 - Climate Earth database updated (All North American users)
Over 20.000 plant-specific datapoints for Ready-Mix concretes are now updated with full emission data for all the impact categories. These data points are available in the LEED tools for US & Canada and the Life Cycle Carbon - Global tool. Press release:
One Click LCA Integrates with Climate Earth concrete data3 January 2020 - One Click LCA Simplebim 8 Plugin BETA (All Simplebim users)
A BETA version of the plugin for Simplebim 8 is now available. The 3D visualization is not working in this version yet. A newer version of the plugin with full functionality will be available soon. You can download the BETA version from the attachments on the
Simplebim integration page.18 December 2019 - One Click LCA Revit plugin update (All Revit users)
- This version of the plugin introduces a fix that affected Revit 2019 usability with some models. This is corrected in Revit 2019.2.2. Updating Dynamo is also recommended. This Revit bug can prevent models from being read, it is a bug in Revit (Not related to the One Click LCA plugin).
- This version of the plugin makes sure Revit does not crash the One Click LCA plugin.
15 December 2019 - December release notes (All users)
Summary of release highlights - all versions
- Error corrections in materials thickness handling and Carbon Designer facades
- New detailed comparison graph is added to the end of project main page
- New results sidebar allows a sneak peek at results from data input forms
- Materials input forms now have enabled delete multiple by dragging the area and right mouse click and Delete
- Data searchability improvements for long lists and identifying plant-specific data
- Improved materials manufacturing localization method v2 is released as a beta
- General improvements, user interface enhancements, and Italian language support
- Database: 18427 new datasets since the last release
Release highlights for Business and Expert licenses
- New Revit plugin with Revit 2020 support, benchmarking and improvements (Business)
- Integration with Autocase for Triple Bottom line analyses (North American users)
- Cost and carbon optimal materials specifier (Expert license)
- Private data improvements (Expert license / all French users for EPD generators)
- Fully revamped Green materials benchmark feature (Expert license)
- New user-adjustable End of Life model v2 beta for selected tools (Expert license)
Tool specific updates
- Carbon Designer improvements and support for default values for calculation methods
- Corporate reporting improvements: hiding reporting periods and new visualizations
Read the release notes in full
here.
8 November 2019 - One Click LCA Revit plugin update and support for Autodesk Revit 2020 version
Refreshed One Click LCA plugin for Autodesk Revit is now available. The new plugin delivers several important and requested improvements.
- Support for Autodesk Revit 2020.
- Direct access to Quick LCA on the main ribbon. This allows you to push all data to the One Click LCA cloud and allow parsing and processing data in the cloud environment.
- Benchmark your project to any of the regional and building type-specific Carbon Heroes Benchmarks and compare your project's carbon intensity and see the impact of your changes inside Revit.
- Several user interface clarifications and improvements.
14 October 2019 - October release notes (All users)
This release includes several smaller updates relevant for all users and also
- Improved bad mapping protection for data import
- Carbon Designer update for Expert license users
- Update to the Circular economy tool
Read the release notes in full here. 20 September 2019 - September release notes (All users)
This release improves result readability and visualization and includes the below updates.
- All licenses: Swedish language, hiding designs, and 10+ user-requested features & updates
- Business: improved Copy & Merge and import for infrastructure projects is streamlined
- Expert: Materials Specifier, a beta of manufacturing localization v2 and calculation details
- Carbon Designer: UK/Ireland and Finland regions now available, several improvements
- Over 600 new materials datapoints since August
Read the release notes in full here. 20 August 2019 - New early phase carbon model for UK (UK users)
Carbon Designer now has a UK region, including also building services to simplify BREEAM UK optioneering. The new early phase building model for UK is compliant with Current Part L requirements (2013 with 2016 amendments) and allows easy compliance with BREEAM UK Mat 01’s Option appraisal for superstructure during Concept Design and supports also optioneering in the Technical Design phase. The model includes a range of external wall options that are Part L compliant, as well as elements that can be used for the Substructure and hard landscaping options appraisal credit. This can be used by all users who have the Carbon Designer add-on and are using either the 'RICS carbon assessment' tool or the 'LCA for BREEAM UK' tool.
The entire material cost database has been reviewed and revamped. This has corrected several cost anomalies and made the rest of the costs more reflective of market conditions in different regions. All material unit costs and all material installation labor rates have been reviewed and where required, corrected. Cost data has been also updated to reflect some newly introduced material types, including tile adhesives, textiles, (etc). Kindly note that systems and installations do not have unit costs as of today.
Also, the cost basis for products that are almost exclusively expressed in m2 (sqft) has been rebased to those units. This concerns windows, doors, flooring and roofing materials. Unit basis for most other materials remains the same.
If you have used the LCC tool previously, all costs generated to date have been saved as final and will not update automatically. This ensures no data changes occur in your existing projects. If you wish to apply the new cost to your project, you need to input or import the same quantities again to the project.
In addition, we have introduced a regional cost profile for users who do not wish to include labor/installation costs to their LCC. This region is available in LCC parameters under project country/region as Material costs only, euro based. Choosing this region will set automatically labor costs to zero, thus having pure material costs considered for LCC).
9 June 2019 - June 2019 Release notes (All users)
This release delivers the following improvements:
- Six new powerful features for Business and Expert license users launched
- 500 new datasets added (all material types, Europe and North America) and SAP 10 compliant energy profiles for UK
- Support for Net Zero projects with vegetation carbon uptake and carbonisation modeling
- Three ASHRAE climate zone specific regions for North America baseline buildings released in Carbon Designer: Canada, Southern United States and Northern United States
New tools available:
- New ‘LCA for VERDE’ tool for Spain for VERDE Omega certification
- New ‘NS 3454 Lifecycle Costs for Construction tool’ for Norway
- New Infrastructure carbon as add-on to building LCA licenses (PAS 2080, Envision)
- New Infrastructure LCA as add-on to building LCA licenses (CEEQUAL, HS2)
Read the release notes in full here.
4 May 2019 - BREEAM Int’l/ES/NOR/SE now supports Man 03 Responsible construction practices credit (BREEAM Int'l users)
The 'LCA for BREEAM Int’l/ES/NOR/SE' tool has been updated and now included impacts relevant for 'Man 03 Responsible construction practices; Monitoring of construction site impacts' credits. These include construction site energy and water use as well as transportation distance and fuel use. Results can be found under the result tables in an expandable section 'Man 03 Site impacts (energy, water, transportation monitoring)'
29 April 2019 - April 2019 release notes (minor release)
This release is predominantly focused on Carbon Designer improvements. These improve functionality and prepare upcoming releases of regional baselines for United States, Canada and Finland and enable inclusion of building services. We also released 49 generic scenarios for different types of building services like HVAC, and enabled using Sankey diagrams (Expert license).
Read the release notes in full here. 18 April 2019 - Split & Change feature now included in the Starter pack
The Split&Change feature is now available for all Starter license users. 9 April 2019 - New Carbon Heroes benchmarks available
The Carbon Heroes benchmarks have been updated based on the latest available data as of Q1 2019. The new data better represents the geographical conditions as well as the building types. All the new benchmarks are marked as "CH Q1 2019". The change might affect the relative performance of projects.
26 March 2019 - Norwegian and European reference buildings updated to new version 2019.1
The Norwegian and European reference buildings have been updated to new version 2019.1, which includes many improvements and fixes. The full details on all changes can be read here (Full details). This will not affect data already saved to the Building materials input form but will update the saved designs in Carbon Designer.
The changes will on the average, increase the Construction Materials (A1-A3) impacts by 7-8 % for all building types.
Please note: Reopening and saving previously created Carbon Designer model will update it to new version. Do not save it again if you do not wish to update the reference to latest version
21 March 2019 - March 2019 software update (All users)
In this release we focused on improving the performance and now our data input pages load significantly faster. There were many new features and improvements aiming to improve user productivity including for instance advanced LCA completeness and plausibility checker, more advanced BIM import settings and more. We also launched a new tool that allows quantifying building circularity impacts and visualizes them.
Read the release notes in full here.
25 February 2019 - Energie carbone RSEE validation issue solved (French users)
The issue of RSEE file not validating after v1.1.0.3 update has been solved. This affected buildings with multiple zones in the same building. Now data input forms have a question "Zone de bâtiment" where user must assign the inputs in the same zones as in RSET file. By default all inputs are assigned Zone 1.
There are minor improvements to the Infrastructure LCA tool that will affect the results page and data input forms.
The categories "A1-A3 Construction materials" and "A1-A3b Construction materials" will be shown as a single expandable category "A1-A3 Product stage". If you want to see the breakdown click on the + symbol. After this change the "A1-A3 Product stage" will appear empty before the results are recalculated but you can expand the category to see the previous results. The totals row of the tool will also remain unchanged.
Where possible we are adding additional help texts indicating to which category certain inputs are calculated towards. This will be indicated by appending the category to the section or question name.
Result report structure is now fully aligned with PAS 2080 structure. The labels are identical with ones used in PAS 2080, and access to details of stages with multiple constituents can be accessed with the "+" symbol to see sub-constituents for A1-A3 Product stage, A5 Construction/installation process and B4-B5 Material replacement and refurbishment.
Please note that at first, before you have resaved or recalculated your data, the sum row for A1-A3 Product stage will remain empty. The data is however intact, as it is recorded in the constituent rows as before that are visible if you expand the stage A1-A3.
25 January 2019 - New ITB EPDs added, 88 products from Poland and region (Central European users)
All new EPDs from the ITB program are added to the One Click LCA database. This covers products for example in cement, coated glass, ETICS (External Thermal Insulation Composite System), glass wool, laminated flooring, natural stone, other insulation, partitioning systems, regular glass, gypsum plasterboard, reinforcement steel, rock wool, sandwich panels and structural steel.
New NS 3720 relevant electricity scenarios are now available. All the new scenarios follow the below methodology
- Average period is now the average of 2014-2016 years for which final statistics are available. The data for this period are based on International Energy Agency.
- Calculation inventories, system models and characterisation factors all comply with the EN 15804+A1 and NS 3720 methodologies. Upstream database is Ecoinvent 3.3.
- All calculation is fully life-cycle based and includes transmission losses, energy conversion efficiency for fuel-based energy production and share of CHP systems. Hydropower is calculated as existing hydropower.
- Assumptions for year 2050 are taken from the NS 3720 Annex A, including the assumption for widespread use of Carbon Capture and Storage in year 2050. This is not a statement of plausibility of that scenario.
On the average, the revised scenarios reduce the carbon impact of the electricity in particular for the 60 year periods.
The new datapoints are:
- Electricity, Norway, 3-year average 2014-2016 (IEA)
- Electricity, Norway, 60 years forecasted average (IEA/NS3720 energy mix, projection from 2014-2016 average)
- Electricity, EU28 + Norway, 3-year average 2014-2016 (IEA)
- Electricity, EU28 + Norway, 60 years forecasted average (IEA/NS3720 energy mix, projection from 2014-2016 average)
The new datapoints are also included in Carbon Designer and Site Impact tools where they replace the earlier datapoints.
21 January 2019 - Major Revit plugin update in One Click LCA (Revit integration users)
One Click LCA newest Revit plug-in (version 2.1) key improvements:
- Revit 2019 supported (and all versions from 2016 upwards),
- Ability choose specific phases and linked models,
- Significantly improved materials mapping,
- Faster loading time and better usability, and
- Advanced results analysis (with Carbon data/3D for BIM)
Full article about the update can be found here.
Download the new plug-in here.
15 January 2019 - One Click LCA extension (beta) for IDA ICE 4.8 SP1.0 available (IDA ICE users)
One Click LCA extension beta for IDA ICE 4.8 SP1.0 is now available. This requires that the IDA ICE 4.8 be updated with the service pack 1.0, and a Business or Expert subscription to One Click LCA.
14 January 2019 - BREEAM UK NC 2018 benchmark comparison credit estimator (BREEAM UK users)
The 'LCA for BREEAM UK IMPACT-compliant' tool has been updated and now includes the estimated BREEAM benchmark comparison credits for offices, industrial and retail buildings for BREEAM UK NC 2018 Mat 01. This allows having an initial quick estimate for the credits. The section is added at the top of the IMPACT-compliant tool.
21 December 2018 - NS 3720 allows user declared district heat (Norwegian users)
The NS 3720 tool allows inputting a user defined district heat profile in the Energy consumption data input form. Select "User-declared Norwegian district heat as kg CO2e" or "Fjernvarme, Norge, brukerdefinert, kg CO2e" in Norwegian and provide the annual CO2e emissions as kg of CO2e manually. Document the source of emissions factor in comments field.
18 December 2018 - Latest EPD Norge updated - circa 75 new datapoints
New EPD Norge datasets have been added to production.
11 December 2018 - Too high values in module D for specific wood products now corrected
End of life incineration carbon benefits (so-called module D impacts, impacts outside the building life-cycle) for several dozen mostly EPD Norge wood products calculated between 10 October and 10 December 2018 were significantly too high. As module D is not accounted towards the total results, this will not have changed total results. Any recalculation of a result or data stored at any time will now also calculate a correct figure in the module D. This issue only concerned specific products.
3 December 2018 - December 2018 software update (relevant for all users)
The focus of this release has been improving usability, adding value to the content and tools. It also includes updates for our UK users, including a RICS-methodology-compliant tool and workflow.
Read the release notes in full here.
22 November 2018 - Workflow added for BREEAM International and Energie Carbone, LEED v4 workflow improved
New workflow content has been added to the platform. There is now a dedicated workflow that can be used with BREEAM International, BREEAM Espana, BREEAM NOR and BREEAM ES and BREEAM DE. For BREEAM UK, use the dedicated workflow tool.
The LEED v4 workflow has been substantially beefed up and it includes compliance guidance and instructions on baseline building generation and submission instructions.
Energie Carbone has now it's own dedicated workflow (available in French) supporting the whole process from RSET reception to RS2E submission.
Workflows are available as add-ons. If you do not have workflows in your license please write to sales@bionova.fi.
20 November 2018 - Norwegian reference building default materials updated in the new version 2018.1
Carbon Designer has been updated with new default materials in the new version 2018.1. This update was done to ensure default materials are as close to Norwegian market average as possible based on client requests. The changes will on the average, reduce the Construction Materials (A1-A3) impacts by 12-14 % on larger buildings.
This will not change any previously saved material lists for reference buildings in any way. The data you have saved in the Building Materials query stays as it is. All data for which new profiles are replacing the old data points will stay available in the calculations, but can no longer be added again. However, if you access the Carbon Designer again for one of the previous projects, only the new default materials will be available.
The changes performed were the following:
- Default concretes were changed to Lavkarbonklass B from Lavkarbonklass C based on Statsbygg request.
- The structural steel data points were updated to ones with lower alloy content. This aligned these closer to market average impacts.
- The reinforcement steel used in precast elements were also updated to ones with lower alloy content.
- As new regionally more relevant CLT datapoints became available, the default Cross Laminated Timber datapoint was replaced
This is an one time change. Any future updates to reference building, excluding error corrections (e.g. to reflect market development, inclusion of building services, or other parameters), when such are needed over time, are expected to become available as new versions alongside the current version.
Kindly note that if Lavkarbonklass B is not representative default for your project region, and unless your reference building rules forbid this, you can change the default material by 'Edit' feature in Carbon Designer.
1 November 2018 - Energie carbone now shows Carbone 1 & 2 values for Eges PCE (French users)
The Energie carbone tool now displays the maximum embodied greenhouse gas emissions levels Carbone 1 and Carbone 2 for building materials and technology (Eges PCE). To calculate these values fill in question Type de bâtiment in data entry form Description du projet. In addition, there is a separate table that displays Eges and Eges PCE values of the project.
A new add-on tool ‘Life Cycle Carbon – Global’ has been released. The tool accounts for global warming potential and biogenic carbon storage and can be used with both European and North American data-points. The tool allows calculating transports only in kilometers.
27 October 2018 - Nordic special character issue in import solved (Nordic users)
An issue with Nordic special characters in import process has been solved. In certain cases Nordic special characters were displayed as html numeric codes and prevented users from creating new mapping rules. This was addressed in a patch.
Level(s) life-cycle carbon and Level(s) life-cycle assessment tools now account for the biogenic carbon storage in wood-based materials. The results for biogenic carbon storage are reported as a separate column in the result table. This requires no action from the user.
The Envision tool has been updated and is now compliant with Envision v3 credits CR1.1, CR1.2, and RA1.1. The results are now arranged in 3 separate tables: Life-cycle assessment of materials, Life-cycle impacts of operational energy and Sustainable procurement and recycled material use. The recycled material and sustainably procured materials can be accounted for in the Construction materials data input form.
11 October 2018 - DGNB 2018 and International update (German users)
The DGNB DE tool has been updated and now is compliant with the 2018 version for all reporting purposes. It can also now be used for DGNB Innenräume 2018, as well as new certifications NaWoh and HafenCity. Main changes are:
- The calculation period for the tool is now user editable in the input form “Calculation period”. For all existing projects set to 50 by default. This is necessary to adjust for Innenräume certifications.
- There is a new input form “Water consumption” that allows accounting for operational water. The water impacts are accounted only towards Use of net fresh water.
- New reference values for version 2018 have been added and the tool supports simplified method for DGNB version 2018 (multiplier of 1.2 applied).
- In the Results page at the bottom, all materials used are listed based on their KG DIN 276 classification
The DGNB International tool now has access to verified EN 15804 compliant EPDs. The access to EPDs is limited to EPDs issued by well-reputed European Program Operators and only data complying with EN 15804 and that is third-party verified is enabled for these tools. This increases the number of available datasets to over 5000. Current enabled sources are AENOR, BauEPD, BRE, Cenia, DAPc, EPD Danmark, EPD Italy, EPD Norge, GBCe, IBU, INIES, ITB, International EPD System, ift Rosenheim, Kiwa BCS, RTS.
For Level(s) tools we have added material classification based on “Level(s) – A common EU framework of core sustainability indicators for office and residential buildings; Part 3: How to make performance assessments using Level(s)” Table 1.1. The result report and graphs on the result page will be based on this classification.
5 October 2018 - NS 3720 update (Norwergian users)
The NS 3720 tool allows expanding the following stages in the results report to see all sub-constituents:
- A5 Construction/Installation process
- B4-B5 Material replacement and refurbishment
- B8 Operational transport
This change provides more transparency and allows understanding what activities in the stage contribute to the relevant life-cycle impacts.
In this connection, B4-B5 stages are added with transport and waste handling impacts of the replacements. Previously calculated B4-B5 results (which only included material manufacturing) can be seen by expanding the B4-B5 stage. A recalculation of the results will regenerate the B4-B5 results and include transport and waste handling impacts for the replacements as well. If you require maintaining identical scope, you can expand the B4-B5 stage and deduce the values for transport and waste handling from the result.
27 September 2018 - NS 3720 update (Norwergian users)
The NS 3720 tool is now supporting simultaneous calculation for the main scenario (with Norwegian 60-year energy mix) and main operational transport scenario for B8, and it also allows a secondary energy scenario and transport scenario to be calculated within the same design by using Alternative scenarios query.
The NS 3720 tool now supports also three digit classification for bygningsdel NS3541.
24 September 2018 - September 2018 software patch update (relevant for all users)
- Support for Green Star in Australia (credit 19A/19) and New Zealand (pilot credit). We have integrated AusLCI construction materials, Australasian EPD program and BPIC datasets are partially available with more being added. Also, the additional reporting impact categories are supported. Peer review is available from us, but you are also free to organize it yourself.
- We support the upcoming London Plan requiring LCAs for GLA referred developments.
- Our Infrastructure module is updated and we support now Envision v3 and High Speed Two P06 specifications, in addition to BREEAM Infrastructure, CEEQUAL and PAS 2080.
- One Click LCA is an officially approved tool for ILFI’s Zero Carbon Certification.
- Our NS 3720 module has several smaller updates (see Service Update Log), and by the middle of this week also is able to calculate at once the primary and additional scenarios.
New add-ons and add-on updates
- Compliance add-ons available for BREEAM UK NC 2018, LEED v4 and NS 3720 reference building in the Workflow Manager.
- Carbon Designer has been improved and has now generic European baseline building.
All packages
- General Information section is collapsed when you enter the project page
- Material search now enables searching by name and any other qualifying parameters
- Many other smaller improvements
Business and Expert
- Easier and more flexible data combine setting management in data import
- Improved LCA Checker interface and more detailed checks for LCA result correctness
Datasets
- Ökobau.dat 2017-I update available, and old Ökobau.dat 2016-I is inactivated. Your old datapoints are still available in your projects. New data can be added only from 2017.
- AusLCI integration for local energy and water supplies and Australian construction materials. AusLCI data can be used with both Green Star specific characterizations as well as CML ones, depending on the tool you use automatically without you having to worry about it.
A lot other small improvements
- Creating a new design proposes the highest applied RIBA/AIA stage on the project as default (or stage 2 when nothing is chosen
- Before you enter LCA Parameters query, an explanatory screen shows to explain what the questions are asked for
- Entity types for which you have a license (e.g. Building) are highlighted under +Add
- Added icons to make the interface more intuitive
13 September 2018 - NS 3720 update (Norwergian users)
Carbon footprint, NS 3720:
- The stage A5 Construction/installation process now also accounts for material wastage during installation in addition to Construction site operations. The value can be specified in Building materials data input form under “Wastage %”. The default value when adding new materials is based on the material type. If you have previously added waste to site impacts questionnaire or used scenario for site impacts, please check it for duplicate waste streams.
- Building materials data input form now has a checkbox “Specific” that allows the user to indicate if the chosen material is the specific product used instead of a generic product as per NS 3720.
- The assessment period of the calculation can now be adjusted by the user in Calculation period data input form. Use 60 for typical assessment.
All infrastructure LCA tools can now access a centralized project level Parameters query. It allows setting default service lives and transport distances as well as allows local compensation target (if wanted). Using it will set generic products, and foreign manufactured products to resemble products manufactured in the target location. Using this is optional. If this is used, it should be used consistently across different projects. The local compensation method is peer-reviewed and approved by BRE for use in BREEAM; it is based on CEN/TR 15941.
29 August 2018 - BREEAM UK NC 2018 update (UK users)
BREEAM UK NC 2018: Following confirmation of this change from BRE, the BREEAM UK NC 2018 tool report generation no longer includes B6 energy nor B7 water. If you regenerate your report, these life-cycle stages will be removed. This does not affect compliance in any way and BRE has informed us that they intend to clarify this when manual eventually is revised.
23 August 2018 - DGNB-DK and DGNB-DE (2018) update (German users)
Following on the express approval in DGNB 2018 edition and approval from Danish Green Building Council for DGNB-DK, we have now enabled in these tools access to verified EN 15804 compliant EPDs. The access to EPDs is limited to EPDs issued by well-reputed European Program Operators and only data complying with EN 15804 and that is third party verified is enabled for these tools. This increases number of available datasets to over 5000. Currently enabled sources are: AENOR, BauEPD, BRE, Cenia, DAPc, EPD Danmark, EPD Italy, EPD Norge, GBCe, IBU, INIES, ITB, International EPD System, ift Rosenheim, Kiwa BCS, RTS.
We would also like to remind DGNB and BNB users that the entire ÖKOBAU.DAT database will be updated to version 2017-I in the near future. All datasets are replaced on as-is basis and this does not require any action.
17 August 2018 - August 2018 software update (relevant for all users)
All packages
- All pages show a breadcrumb trail of page hierarchy and queries are shown as tabs
- New design comparison graphs added
- Possibility to choose which calculation tools you wish to use for a specific design
- New support ticket handling system to improve customer service
- Possibility to document additional information on project level
- Several minor improvements and fixes
Business & Expert
- Faster access to Excel and gbXML imports directly from query pagesExcel
- Import allows choosing to combine material also when thicknesses vary substantially
New add-on – Carbon Designer
- Carbon Designer allows very quick baseline building creation with minimal knowledge about the project and enables optioneering choices and their impacts easily
- Carbon Designer also supports reference buildings (referansebygg) for NS 3720
- Infrastructure tool data import capabilities have been enhanced
- HS2-specific PAS 2080 tool has received several useful updates
- All GRI environmental tools in the platform are now updated to GRI Standard
- Calculating at once both location-based and market-based Scope 2 emissions has been simplified
- New data, new reports and changes to queries are added
- Dutch NMD database was updated to the version 2.2.
- Material searchability has been improved in a number of categories, especially finishes
- New data from several databases, including some 50 building technology products added
- Additional generic materials LCA data released, particularly for road construction
- Advance notice of upcoming changes
- ÖKOBAUDAT profiles will be updated to ÖKOBAUDAT 2017-I in the coming weeks. This does not require any user action. All existing datapoints will be automatically migrated to their up to date version. This database version is the mandatory version for BNB certification.
- Default end of life processes for all materials will be updated to the latest processes and LCA profiles as applicable for the relevant material type.
- Both changes will be applied to any existing results if the results are recalculated. To avoid an accidental recalculation, you can “Lock” your design.
French users: import generated FDES
- Support for importing FDES from national EPD generator. French customers using Business or higher license can upload generated FDES (EPD) to One Click LCA for Energie Carbone.
Minor improvements and fixes
- Material extra info is visible in all sized pages
- Portfolios contain more information about projects below “?” mark
- In the Details and Detailed report you can now see the material details under “?” mark
- Many more smaller changes and fixes in LCA Checker, Model Checker and other features
Report generation was simplified by introducing Asset Id as an additional question. The detailed report is sorted by this field. An additional classification field “Design discipline” was also introduced.
Life-cycle stages have been adjusted:
- A4 transport shows now the combined transport for both earth masses and construction materials.
- A5 – Construction site operations query has an additional classification question which splits the result into different A5 subcategories (expandable in results page), being A5-1 (Site waste), A5-2 (Temp works & accommodation) and A5-3 (Other).
- B4-B5 is now expandable to sub-categories of replacements including their sourcing, transport and waste handling.
- Accounting for recycled-renewable materials and reused renewable materials is simplified by introducing specific fields for the share of such materials; they are represented directly in the results report. These are always zero by default.
For HS2 baselining, an HS2 specific electricity mix with GWP only based on forecasted decarbonization was added, and HS2 specific construction site scenario based on monetary value (GWP only). Additional new generic materials for infrastructure construction were also added.
For users who have data import enabled in their license, the HS2 specific additional data has also been enabled in infrastructure data import templates downloadable here.
Ecopoints v5 calculation had a flaw in the PAS 2080 tool, and this has now been corrected. A recalculation of saved results will correct the Ecopoints.
Local compensation of the construction materials manufacturing impacts was enabled in the HS2 tool. Using this is optional. If this is used, it should be used consistently across different projects. It can be set and accessed via Parameters query. Using it will set generic products, and foreign manufactured products to resemble products manufactured in the UK (if UK is selected as the target for compensation). The Parameters query also allows adjusting default service lifes and transport distances. The local compensation method is peer reviewed and approved by BRE for use in BREEAM; it is based on CEN/TR 15941.
13 August 2018 - NS 3720 update (Norwergian users)
The NS 3720 tool Operational transportation module has been updated. You can now specify the number of users and distances traveled per each user group individually.
10 August 2018 - BREEAM NL update (Dutch users)
We are happy to inform that One Click LCA BREEAM NL tool has been verified and updated to use the latest NMD 2.2 database version.
The NS 3720 tool and the associated reference building Excel tool and the early phase tool have been updated. The principal changes in place now are:
- All reference energy scenarios (with reference building Excel and early phase energy scenarios) are applying by default now 60 year Norwegian electricity mix, instead of the previous EU28+Norway electricity mix.
- We have corrected calculation errors in non-residential passivhus energy profiles in Arctic conditions, as well as some other cases
- The “Early phase tool” is renamed “Site selection impacts”, or “Lokaliseringsvalg”
- Early phase energy scenarios have been withdrawn from the NS 3720 tool, and are only available via the “Site selection impacts” tool
- Numerous help texts and links to sources have been added
Tools will continue to evolve over the coming approximately one month, including the following upcoming changes:
- Operational transport module will be updated. This update is of such nature that old calculations will be invalidated until recreated
- Project description query is expected to be replaced with the LCA Parameters query, which is used in BREEAM assessments
- Calculation tools will be updated to allow simplified generation of the dual scenarios as required by NS 3720
- Other changes relevant for NS 3720 will be delivered once the standard is approved
9 June 2018 - June 2018 software update (relevant for all users)
All packages
- Alternative designs can be mapped to RIBA/AIA stages
- Life-cycle stages contribution visible in carbon clouds
- Breakdown graphs revised
- Implausibility warnings for material thicknesses
- Filter materials based on units
- Service update log and new user guidance
Business
- Carbon Heroes Benchmarks visible on project’s main page
- Major Revit plugin update
- LCA Checker (beta) helps spot calculation issues
- Additional information in the materials and other popups
- Improvements in BIM Model Checker
Expert
- Green materials suggestions improved
- Additional project information in portfolio
- New constructions for High Speed Two
- Shadow price and combined LCA/LCC in MPG/BREEAM NL tools
- Automated LCC tool update for BREEAM UK
- More than 10 000 active materials profiles
- First generic materials released
15 May 2018 - HS2 Carbon baseline profiles available (UK infra users)
We have added HS2 carbon baseline profiles to the database. These are based on agreed common main assumptions from the main works contractors (with the addition of water to the concrete recipes). They can be found searching with “HS2 baseline” and their composition is visible by expanding the relevant construction.
We have added TEK10 energy profiles to the software, and the reference building template also now supports temperature sensitivity for a passive house in both very cold and high cooling load conditions.
Also, in the same update, we have added the NS3541 classification to the exported Excel reports for further analysis
We have updated all our Life-cycle cost tools to ensure best possible user experience for each of them. Now all LCC tools are linked with the bill of materials so they can be seamlessly combined with LCA analyses, and have both manual cost data entry as well as automated cost profile option (subject to license). Also, combined entries of some capital costs via materials and some via separate entries are now simplified in reporting for better readability. These changes are rolled out to all LCC users. The new LCC tools per region are: for UK Life-cycle cost, PD 156865:2008, for Europe Life-cycle cost (ISO 15686-5 & EN 16627), and for North America Life-cycle cost (ISO 15686-5). All these tools will also support combined quantities and costs uploading from Excel in the June software update.
9 May 2018- BREEAM International, NOR, SE and ES update (relevant for BREEAM users)
We clarify the use phase for BREEAM to cover the material replacements (B4-B5), energy use (B6) and water use (B7, optional). Furthermore, the waste indicator is changed to align with non-hazardous waste impact category of EN 15804. This update is approved by BRE.
Following the introduction of IMPACT v5 database we have now successfully completed the approval for v5 version of IMPACT. This simplifies the reporting format of the IMPACT tool and makes material transportation distance, service life and wastage rate end-user editable. Also, you need to confirm the project assessment period (set at 60 years for BREEAM compliance). This update is approved by BRE.
17 April 2018 - April 2018 software update (relevant for all users)
All packages
- Terms of use and Privacy policy updated for GDPR compliancy (find the terms in the attachments)
- Two tier material search helping you to locate right materials
- Recommendations for materials from nearby areas
- Floating help toolkit in all pages
- Setting project basic parameters to enable LCA data quality check-ups
Business
- New Carbon Heroes Benchmarks added for life cycle embodied carbon
- Data input quality checker tool for design data import
- IESVE integration (version 2017 Feature Pack 4 or higher)
- DesignBuilder integration support (version 5.1. or higher)
- Ability to import reference building (now available for Nordic conditions)
Expert
- Annual impacts visualized for each year of the project
- Generate automated, visual Word reports*
- Create own concrete recipes
- Create a report for multiple LCAs at once and export it to Excel
- BREEAM UK 2018 tools – officially verified and accepted by BRE
- BREEAM NL tool (officially verified)
- LEED v4 MRc1 LCA credit now officially accepts EN standards and One Click LCA tools are verified for compliance.
New user guidance pages and datasets
- BREEAM NL guidance page
- NS 3720 guidance page
- New video for searching materials
- How to check and correct your inputs in our new input checker tool
- ca. 1000 new datasets
- Database up to date with the latest versions of all major EPD programs around the world
Improved features and capabilities for all users
- Improved material search capabilities – search materials by type
- When searching materials with a keyword such as name or manufacturer, the tool shows all matching material categories and you can now easily narrow down the search to the right category.
- Recommendations for local and regional materials - We now automatically prioritize datasets based on project location from project country and region making it easier to find the best matching material datasets for your building.
- Help page recommendations for every page with our new floating toolkit - Expandable help toolkit helps you to easily find relevant guidance videos and articles for each page.
- Setting project basic parameters to enable LCA data quality check up - We have added a new feature to set project-level basic parameters for LCA. The parameters questionnaire will collect the most vital project information that will enable us to provide quality feedback on your life cycle assessment results and help you to ensure calculation result quality with our new LCA checker feature (released in June 2018 release). Additionally, basic information results will be used for automated assessment reports. The basic parameters questionnaire will appear automatically when you start a new project as a mandatory step but the answers can be modified later from “Parameters” button.
- Enhanced charts for comparison and spotting hot spots
- Downloading test datasets
- Easier sign-up process
- We have now replaced trees with the social cost of carbon, which is estimated to be 50 EUR or GBP per ton
Please take note of following important information regards Ecopoints methodology and High Level Radioactive Waste Disposed (RWDHL) impact category. This is the category referred to as “Radioactive waste disposed (high-level nuclear waste); RWDHL” in the BREEAM Infrastructure. This impact category is not part of the industry main standard EN15804:2012+A1:2013 and is no longer applied by BRE in IMPACT nor in BREEAM applications. As the category is facing withdrawal from the market, ensuring consistent calculations with the impact category will become untenable and we have moved to latest version of BRE’s methodologies as follows:
With the latest update of IMPACT v5, BRE have done the following changes of relevance to the HS2 project reporting:
1. BRE Ecopoints v5 characterisation no longer considers RWDHL, but instead uses “Radioactive waste disposed”
2. This impact category has been dropped from the IMPACT dataset completely
One Click LCA has been updated to implement Ecopoints v5 methodology and latest IMPACT database and as part of this effort we have updated HS2 tool. The reported impact category is Radioactive waste disposed as per EN15804:2012+A1:2013. This is the new impact category adopted by BRE following withdrawal of Radioactive waste disposed (high-level nuclear waste). Ecopoints heading has been labeled Ecopoints v5 in reference to the updated weighting factors for the BRE Ecopoints.