Tools & Resources
We have all the tools and resources needed to to plan, design, and construct the built environment to stay within a 1.5 degree Celsius carbon budget. Though not extensive, the following includes are the tools and resources shared at the CarbonPositive’20 CONFERENCE and EXPO, and during the CarbonPositive RESET! 1.5ºC Global Teach-In.
Embodied Carbon Policies
City Policy Framework
Developed by the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance and Bionova Ltd., in cooperation with Architecture 2030, this framework provides guidance for cities considering policies that can deliver the highest impact within their geopolitical contexts and regulatory systems. Over 50 existing policies from leading cities have been evaluated, categorized, and scored according to their potential, cost efficiency, ease of implementation, and enforceability.
Embodied Carbon Tools
Autodesk BIM 360
Reducing Your Footprint: Lowering Embodied Carbon in Construction Materials with EC3 and BIM 360.
Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings
The Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings is free LCA software provided by the non-profit Athena Institute and backed up with its expertise and data. This tool has been used by design professionals, sustainability consultants and students since 2002. In this session, we’ll talk about the principles of whole-building LCA and provide a demo.
Beacon
“Beacon” is an open source Revit plugin that automatically creates an Embodied Carbon assessment of your structural design with options to modify material GWP values and visualizes embodied carbon data by floor level and by framing component (floor, foundation, columns, ect).
CarbonCLARITY
A suite of applications to reduce the embodied carbon of new construction projects and accelerate the rate of low carbon concrete innovation.
Carbon Smart Materials Palette
An immediately applicable high-impact pathway to embodied carbon reductions, providing attribute-based guidelines for designing low/no embodied carbon buildings and specifying low/no embodied carbon products.
Concrete Calculator
A calculator that can rapidly analyze the life cycle assessments (LCAs) or proposed concrete mixes compared to regional practices and estimates.
EC3
The Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool, is a FREE and EASY TO USE tool that allows benchmarking, assessment and reductions in embodied carbon per material category, focused on the upfront (Stage A1-A3) supply chain emissions of construction materials.
Edge
The Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool, is a FREE and EASY TO USE tool that allows benchmarking, assessment and reductions in embodied carbon per material category, focused on the upfront (Stage A1-A3) supply chain emissions of construction materials.
EPD Quicksheet
To implement the effective use of EPDs, an expert stakeholder group, facilitated by Architecture 2030 and CannonDesign, has developed an open-standard EPD Quicksheet. Created by and for designers and engineers, the EPD Quicksheet aims to simplify the process of reading, comprehending, and using EPDs, increase transparency in the building products industry, and support building professionals in achieving 2030 Challenge for Products goals.
One Click LCA
One Click LCA is the world-leading construction life-cycle performance software. It allows buildings to optimize for carbon, LCA and LCC and comprises over 80 000 global LCA datasets. One Click LCA Planetary is a FREE embodied carbon tool for everyone, everywhere. It allows you to calculate cradle-to-gate embodied carbon impacts (A1-A3) and material efficiency of your building designs. You can use it to easily compare design options, different materials, manufacturers and products.
Pathfinder
A free, web-based application allows registered users to estimate the carbon footprint and time to carbon neutral for landscape projects based on site design and management.
Tally
An LCA app and plugin for Revit, that enables designers to calculate the environmental impacts of their building material selections.
Transparency Catalog
A a free, online database of all HPDs and EPDs in North America.
Urban Footprint
Software to streamline urban planning and mobility decisions with actionable data for all U.S. locations.
Additional Tools & Resources
- Buildings as a Climate Change Solution White Paper, Chris Magwood, 2010
- Achieving Net Zero Embodied Carbon in Structural Materials by 2050
Operational Carbon Tools
Achieving Zero
An immediately applicable high-impact pathway to embodied carbon reductions, providing attribute-based guidelines for designing low/no embodied carbon buildings and specifying low/no embodied carbon products.
2030 Palette
The 2030 Palette is an innovative internet platform providing a set of guiding principles and actions for creating low-carbon and adaptable built environments worldwide.
Bimmer
With just an address in all major urban centres, Bimmer can create a 3D model of building structures in file formats that can be uploaded directly to leading design programs. The value of bimmer is that it can save architects and designers time and money when developing context models and the tool pulls from many data sources to gather the most accurate information.
Bimmer can capture from a single building up to a large city areas in just a few seconds, and can be used for a wide variety of design, engineering and planning applications.
CoveTool
Cove.tool is an energy vs. cost optimization software for the AEC industry. It offers users the ability to simulate the material performance of a building in its context by assessing energy against cost over a given period of time. It empowers architects, engineers, contractors, and owners to make better decisions about building by presenting cost and energy information in a simple app, with the ultimate goal of helping buildings reduce their carbon emissions in an affordable way.
SolarScore
SolarScore is a cloud-based software that looks beyond just rooftops by analyzing entire building envelopes and provides the business case for monetizing all surfaces with Building-Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) technologies. The use of BIPV technologies allows the asset owner/developer to reduce the GHG emissions, and produce clean energy directly from the building’s skin, and utilize the vertical space that is otherwise unused.
SolarScore is used by engineers, architects and planners to inform project design from concept/initiation phase.
Pathfinder
A free, web-based application allows registered users to estimate the carbon footprint and time to carbon neutral for landscape projects based on site design and management.
Urban Footprint
A software to streamline urban planning and mobility decisions with actionable data for all U.S. locations.
ZERO Code
In the opening keynote, Edward Mazria of Architecture 2030 shared Architecture 2030’s ZERO Code – a code standard that results in zero carbon buildings, and shared its latest adoption into the IECC 2021 Code updates.
ZERO Code Energy Calculator
The ZERO Code is supported by Energy Calculators that ease the implementation process and reduce errors when applying the prescriptive compliance path.
Zero Tool
The Zero Tool is used to compare a building’s design or an existing building’s EUI, understand how a building achieved its EUI, and set EUI targets.
Additional Tools & Resources
- Buildings as a Climate Change Solution White Paper, Chris Magwood, 2010
- Achieving Net Zero Embodied Carbon in Structural Materials by 2050