Building Life Cycle Assessment is One Click away with DesignBuilder

DesignBuilder comes with native integration to One Click LCA, the world’s leading building LCA and LCC platform. This integration enables users to:

• Transfer DesignBuilder energy models quickly and easily to One Click LCA for additional materials analyses
• Achieve BREEAM Mat 01 LCA and LCC credits and LEED v4 and v4.1 LCA and materials credits
• Use One Click LCA’s material database to get a true picture of the carbon & LCA performance

DesignBuilder and One Click LCA have both been developed with ease of use in mind, so it's no surprise that when combined, they work together seamlessly to allow building carbon footprints and other environmental impacts to be assessed and reported in just a matter of minutes. Some specific advantages of the new LCA workflow include:

• Only LCA software rated 100% for BREEAM.
• Additional tools for Life Cycle Costing, Infrastructure, EPD, CSR and more.
• Support LEED v4, DGNB, HQE, E + C and many other green building schemes.
• Access the biggest LCA database on the market, with thousands of EPDs and all your local data.
• Easy to interpret visual results and access to benchmark data.

The One Click LCA cloud service is accessed from DesignBuilder via its "One Click LCA" toolbar button which can be found on the Edit screen and also on the Cost and Carbon screen on the Embodied Carbon tab. The integration creates a materials model of the building behind the scenes and submits it to One Click LCA, providing building LCA results with the minimum of time and effort.

Furthermore, if the required scope of analysis goes beyond what is captured in the energy model (e.g. structural elements, foundation or external areas), those can be conveniently added in One Click LCA directly. This allows you to focus on energy-relevant modelling scope within DesignBuilder. 

Achieve BREEAM and LEED materials credits with pre-approved One Click LCA

One Click LCA is a pre-approved LCA software for all versions of BREEAM. It can be used to achieve Mat 01 Life-Cycle Assessment, Life-Cycle Costing and other materials credits. It is the highest rated LCA software for BREEAM with 100 % verified rating, allowing you to achieve the exemplary credits. One Click LCA also supports BREEAM LCC scope both for elemental and component level analyses.

It also supports BREEAM UK NC 2018, where Mat 01 LCA fully substitutes Green Guide. One Click LCA can support up to 7 + 3 exemplary credits for Mat 01. In addition, it can support creating seven other BREEAM-compliant analyses, worth up to 14 credits more, for a maximum potential of 24 credits.

One Click LCA complies fully with LEED v4 requirements for LCA and comes with separate database for North American and International users. Furthermore, One Click LCA supports dozens of national and international certifications and standards.

Read the credits details here for BREEAM UK, BREEAM International, LEED v4 and other systems. 

 Use One Click LCA’s material database to get a true picture of the carbon & LCA performance

One Click LCA contains environmental profiles for more than 8000 materials, including a wealth of manufacturer specific and verified Environmental Product Declarations. This allows calculating the exact embodied carbon results with the specific products from manufacturers supplying the project.

This level of the detail allows modelling environmental impacts arising of materials of refurbishment projects where changes only may occur for services and interior design. The list of integrated LCA databases is available here.

One Click LCA also helps you understand how your project is doing in carbon performance terms with Carbon Heroes Benchmark Program, which brings together 1000 buildings for embodied carbon benchmarking purposes.

As well as LEED and BREEM Certification, One Click LCA also provides reports for DGNB, Green Star, NS3720, Taxonomy and many others. You can read the full list on their help page. 

Getting started

For more information on the integration, please see: DesignBuilder and One Click LCA: instant Life Cycle Assessment from DesignBuilder

For DesignBuilder-specific instructions please go to: DesignBuilder - One Click LCA Guidance

About One Click LCA

One Click LCA is a cloud software specializing in construction life-cycle metrics and circular economy. It is developed and marketed by One Click LCA Ltd. The software is used in over 50 countries, supports 30+ rating/certification systems and standards and holds 10 third party certifications.