Materials and Resources/ Building Life-Cycle Impact Reduction

Richard, you need to use a whole-building LCA tool. Such tools are very powerful and complex, so they are not part of LEED Online. There is a free whole-building LCA tool called the Athena Impact Estimator. You need to register with them in order to download, but it doesn't cost anything.

We are doing the same for Option 4, what kind of documents is needed for Option 4? Can Athena Impact Estimator output the necessary documentation for LEED submission for this credit? Are there other software that can be used for this full life-cycle assessment that satisfies LEED requirements? Has anyone been awarded this credit before that can share their experience and what they did? Thanks!

Kathy, you can use any LEED v4 compliant LCA software for this, provided the software can calculate and report scope and impact categories LEED v4 requires and provides you ISO 14040/44 compliant LCA data. Ours is One Click LCA, the module in question is LCA for LEED v4 (TRACI), and a number of LEED v4 projects went through to final certification and were awarded the LCA credits with our software. The database is also third party reviewed for compliance with the mentioned ISO standard.

A few things to consider for software choice: 1. Can you make use of your modeling work for speeding up LCA? If you have energy models or Revit models, we are able to help you read those in - and edit the data seamlessly afterwards, so the model need not be perfect to start with. 2. Do you have good set of data to consider your sourcing options? If you have region where some suppliers have better-than-market products documented with verified EPDs, using those can help you achieve lower emissions project as well as to earn the credit. One Click LCA integrates pretty much all EPDs there are in the North America, and if there's a new one that just came out for you, we are able to integrate it to our database and life-cycle model (provided it passes our third-party verified quality assurance procedure). 3. How easy is optioneering and diving into differences between options? You do not usually find the best option to go for on the first try, and having good process and support for this can save a lot of time.

Replying to Kathy's question, yes - the Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings will provide you with a report that exactly meets the documentation requirements for this LEED credit. I should mention as well that we have a useful document downloadable from our web site to help guide you through the LEED LCA credit using our tool. Good luck!