Getting Started

Absolutely, Mike! The whole-building LCA option is definitely designed to support new construction.

Hi Mike. The Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings will give you the results you need for the LEED credit you're talking about. You have two choices for how you tell the software about your building. You can use an existing bill of materials (from a CAD/BIM file or by doing manual take-offs), or you can let the software estimate your material quantities based on geometry and loading etc inputs. The easiest way to get acquainted with the process is to watch our series of short video tutorials here: http://calculatelca.com/resources/watch-tutorials/impact-estimator-for-buildings-tutorials/

Hi Jennifer, we are looking for an LCA software to assess MRc1 credit for a project located in Saudi Arabia. Could you confirm Athena Impact Estimator, is applicable in KSA? Thank you in advance.  

Hi Fabio, Those are actually two separate questions. For MRc1, option 4, it looks like any LCA software tool (including the Impact Estimator) would be acceptable to USGBC - from previous comments on this forum, I have the sense that USGBC is lenient on geographic applicability. But in a more pure sense (your second question), we generally advise against using tools where the underlying data is not specific to your region, or to do so with caution - by that, I mean take the results with a grain of salt, as there will likely be a bit of inaccuracy. The Impact Estimator is specific to North America data, and I don't know of any tools that have accurate data for KSA.