Non-technical question (kind of a rant) about OneClick LCA

Jonathan Weiss

Jacobs Buildings & Infrastructure

LEEDuser Premium Member

140 thumbs up

March 11, 2024

A brief non-technical rant about OneClick LCA - from someone who is not actually USING the tool, but lobbying for its access. Wondering if you all have better intel, or if it is just me.

We are working on a number of projects for which te teams are using OneClick LCA - for some cases it has a better international data set than others. I am deferring to my teams who know more about when that makes sense.

My experience has been that every time we communicate with them there is some other nearly bait-and-switch type of communication, like, "oh, if you want that, it is a different module," or similar. Different licenses based on where the model is hosted, different licenses based on which database is included, etc.

Have any of you had any similar experience? Or guidance on what the reasonable approach is to this tool? Help! Want to make sure we get the best out of this tool. I'm fully willing to admit if the problem is largely me, but figured this group will have many insights. Your thoughts appreciated.

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James Kitchin

Director of Performance & Provenance

MASS Design Group

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Mon, 03/11/2024 - 21:38

We have the global carbon license which we chose because we work globally and want access to all types of data around the world (TRACI and CML data being the biggest calculation methods) for research and to design better buildings but this means we don't have access to other environmental impacts. The only reason you can lump TRACI and CML carbon data together is because the calculation method is almost identical so those numbers are comparable, but you can't compare, say ozone depletion, between CML and TRACI because they have different calculation methodologies. Their argument for having different modules is that there are different LCA calculation methodologies (LEED, BREEAM, RICS, DGNB, Level(s), London Plan ... The list goes on and on). So when you select data or view results you're restricted to what aligns with the LCA calculation methodology of your module. If you have multiple modules with them then you can select the appropriate calculation methodology when starting a project. Anyway, I totally get your rant, to have multiple modules with them will be extremely expensive! If you're using it for certification you'll need that specific module (I don't know what will happen when LEED v5 starts before v4 stops) but if you want to just get deep into carbon then their Global Carbon module is fine. On Mon, Mar 11, 2024, 12:32 PM Jonathan Weiss wrote:

Lisa Adams

Principal

HKS

LEEDuser Premium Member

0 thumbs up

Tue, 03/12/2024 - 01:17

Hello, Jonathan. Yes, I am still happy to meet with your class this Thursday. Look forward to talking with you all then. Lisa Adams NCIDQ, LEED AP, WELL AP Director of CitizenHKS & Sustainable Design Leader Principal 125 S Clark St, #1100, Chicago, IL 60603 +1 312 957 4352 | www.hksinc.com ________________________________ From: J

Allison Wilson

Sustainability Director

Ayers Saint Gross

LEEDuser Basic Member

5 thumbs up

Tue, 03/12/2024 - 20:23

Jonathan, I so get this. And yes, we've had some conversations in this vein too with OneClick. That said, the things we've run into hasn't hit enough of a roadblock for us to change our usage of the tool.