Help! So Many Tools, So Little Time: Navigating the Carbon Analysis Ecosystem for Architects

CAOIMHE LOFTUS: Welcome to our Autodesk University class. Help! So Many Tools, So Little Time, Navigating the Carbon Analysis Ecosystem for Architects.

SHEENA ZHANG: As always, we start with our safe harbor statement because we'll be making forward looking statements today. So please don't make any purchasing decisions based on the content.

CAOIMHE LOFTUS: I'm Caoimhe Loftus. I'm a solution consultant with Arcadis. I worked as an architect for 10 years, and I'm passionate about innovation and sustainability.

SHEENA ZHANG: And I'm Sheena Zhang, an AEC sustainability specialist on the impact team here at Autodesk, and I have a background in architecture and sustainability as well.

CAOIMHE LOFTUS: In this session, we will explain why carbon analysis is important by providing some context and industry guidance. Then, we'll give you an overview of four solutions that you can use to integrate carbon analysis into your workflow, including Autodesk format and Revit tools, Insight, TallyCAT, and OneClick LCA.

In our final section, Help is on the Way, we'll share a personality quiz we've prepared to help you choose your carbon analysis solutions, as well as some guidelines and best practices for running your own carbon analysis. Let's get stuck in.

SHEENA ZHANG: So I'd like to start with some context and definitions to make sure we're all speaking the same language. I'm going to make an assumption that you're here watching this recording because it's clear that we're in a climate crisis and global emergency. This is a photo from my own personal lived experience last summer, when wildfires raged through California and winds brought the smoke to New York City, where I live.

And I know this is not unique to me, and that we all have our own personal experiences seeing the impacts of climate change firsthand. We also know that in order to address climate change, global leaders came together to set climate targets at the Paris Agreement 20 years ago. Since then, in 2022, an IPCC report found that meeting the Paris Climate goals requires immediate and deep reductions by the year 2030, before we set an irreversible trajectory.

And the AEC industry has a critical role to play, due to our contribution of 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions. 13% comes from the materials and construction activity, and 27% comes from the building operations. And the emissions from materials and construction are also known as embodied carbon, which is associated with the extraction, production, transportation, and construction of building materials.

The counterpart to embodied carbon is operational carbon, which comes from the associated emissions to power our cities, buildings, and transportation. Although operational emissions contribute more than embodied carbon across the globe annually, the majority of emissions addressable by architects, and that will be emitted by 2030, or in six years time, come from the embodied carbon of the projects and design today.

As a result, in order to meet those Paris Climate goals, we need to focus on the higher time value of embodied carbon, which is why we're focusing on it today. So let's define carbon relative to the industry standard for a life cycle assessments, or LCAs. These are based on different phases A1 through D, which capture the emissions from a built asset across its entire life cycle. Embodied carbon, as noted, is defined as the A1 through A5 scopes of material production and construction.

Operational carbon is from the energy and water consumption of the project over its operations. And together, we coined this term as total carbon, which is the sum of both. And both are important to calculate to get a holistic picture of your project's carbon impact. And you may notice that some LCA phases are left out of this definition, including B1 through B5, C1 through D. And that's because the industry currently does not have as much validated data around these phases.

Now, some tools are able to make industry-accepted assumptions to cover the whole life cycle, which you'll see referred to as whole life carbon. The majority of embodied carbon tools we have today are focused on phases A1 to A3. Because these represent emissions from building products, which architects have the most control over, and the industry has the most data available for.

So how does one calculate embodied carbon. At a conceptual level, it's basic third grade multiplication. You take the bill of materials from a model and multiply it by the carbon factors of the materials in the project. And because of the input of material quantities, BIM is actually a critical piece to calculate embodied carbon and streamline workflows.

CAOIMHE LOFTUS: Embodied and operational carbon can be predicted, calculated, and verified using different types of analysis at different phases. Here we've illustrated the AIA and Riba plans of work. For clarity, in this session, we will be using the terms early concept design, schematic design, design development, and construction documentation to describe the activities happening at each of these stages and help identify the relevant solutions.

As this diagram from the RICS shows, as the project progresses, the accuracy of the carbon assessment increases, as more detailed information is available. But the ease of making changes to influence or improve whole life carbon decreases. There is a challenge getting to carbon analysis at the start of the project, when it can make the most impact.

Running analysis of embodied carbon is an important step in designing more sustainable buildings, but needs to be considered within the wider sustainability framework. LETI's embodied carbon primer provides helpful rules of thumb, by stage, to inform what we need to do as we work through the project stages. For example, it's really important to set your project goals in early concept design phase before you start to run your analysis.

Whereas later, in the design development phase, the focus is on detailed specification and design optimisation. Embodied carbon analysis has different purposes at different stages of the project. In early stages, the carbon analysis helps support decision making, as illustrated by Daniel Overbury. This is about right sizing your building and understanding the implications of choosing different structural systems before we get to the detail of product selection, versus later in the process. Analysis is used to validate decisions made earlier in the project and get accurate assessments for certification.

SHEENA ZHANG: But building of the many reasons and purposes to perform an embodied carbon assessment, there is also a landscape of many ways to perform an assessment, starting from simpler references and proxies, all the way to custom solutions and specific LCA software, which are powered by various databases which may have screaming for help, which is why we're here today.

Here's a view of the Autodesk solution landscape mapped across project lifecycle phase. The goal of today's session is to orient you as the user to the solutions connected to the design and make tools you're already using. And just to clarify, the goal for today's session is not to teach you how to use these tools and become an expert in each individual tool, but rather how to differentiate and select one for your project. So as a reminder, we'll cover Forma, powered by C Scale, and Insight for Revit, and add-ons, TallyCAT, and OneClick LCA for Revit.

Our framework for tool selection that we'll cover today includes six criteria to consider. The first is project phase, which boils down to how much information do you have about the project? And what are you trying to do with the analysis? Assess design options earlier in design, or capture the final design for reporting purposes.

The second is ease of use. How much time do you have to dedicate to the analysis? Do you have the technical staff and contract hours from your scope to run a full analysis? Or are you trying to quickly understand insights? Which systems need to be included in the assessment? Different scopes are needed for different reporting agencies and certification bodies, such as whether or not interiors and MEP need to be included. Or perhaps you're an architect that is only focused on the interior elements, versus maybe a structural engineer who only needs to look at the structure.

Which carbon scope phases, i.e. A1 through D need to be included? So it's also related to the reporting needs. But as mentioned, many of the tools we'll talk about today have A1 to A3 covered, and there's a varying degree of coverage for the whole life carbon. And which regions are included in the carbon data set? Much of the data is highly available for North America and Europe. But of course, there's construction all across the globe. So considering how your local data needs, and what they are, will drive which data sets and tools you can use.

And finally, do you need documentation in order to certify for a third party certification, like LEED or BREEAM? And so we'll be referencing these criteria as we explore the different solutions to help guide you through that process. And for this presentation, we tested the four solutions on the Snowdon Towers, Revit 2024 sample model. It includes the project scopes we needed and represents a high level of design detail that made it well suited for even the most detailed tools, while also letting us simplify it to be used for the earlier phase tools.

It's also accessible to anyone with Revit 2024, so you can actually test these out for yourself.

CAOIMHE LOFTUS: So let's take a look at our four solutions. To help you understand when best to use them, we'll explore these tools in a sequence that loosely follows the project journey. For that reason, we are starting with Autodesk format. As an overview, Autodesk format enables early insights into the planning and design process to help you set targets and reduce embodied carbon at a point in time where you can easily make changes to your design.

We've got a short demo to walk you through the typical workflow. Within Forma, the embodied carbon analysis works with the basic building typology. The embodied carbon extension is now available by default in the analysis menu. Navigate to the embodied carbon analysis, and fix any warnings or errors that are shown.

Then, you can select the required system parameters, including building type, envelope, percentage glazing, and structure. Now I've populated these inputs. I can trigger the analysis. Within a few seconds, I get an analysis of the embodied carbon, including a breakdown by system. It's very easy to change these inputs. So now that I know the structure is a big carbon contributor, I can change it to an alternative structure and see how that impacts the results.

With the visual feedback, I can see that's already made a big improvement. An expert user may want more detail, and they can see this by exploring the carbon factors here. You can also adjust the calculation by area or by building, if you have multiple buildings. And if you want more detail about how the analysis works, you can review this help article. We'll provide a link to this in our handout.

For each of the solutions, we've provided an overview of the typical workflow. As you've seen, this one is pretty straightforward. You model your massing, then you specify the building type, envelope, structure, and percentage glazing, and click run, and then review and repeat. It's very easy to do and really accessible. A great introduction to embodied carbon tools for everyone on your team.

So let's review what Autodesk format is best suited for. It's for early concept design and schematic design. It's very easy to use and doesn't require lots of training. It is a web-based application and can be accessed for free by anyone with the AEC collection. The systems include structure, foundations, envelope, interiors, and MEP. The carbon scope is currently A1 to A3, but that will likely change in the future.

The carbon data set is C-scaled data model, and is currently not eligible for certification.

SHEENA ZHANG: Thanks, Caoimhe. So, moving on to our next solution, and further down the project lifecycle from planning to design, we're going to move to insight for Revit. So the next generation of insight was just released earlier this year. And this is the only tool on the market that allows for total carbon analysis using a single model, allowing users to analyze trade offs and make informed decisions.

And the key to insight is that it's a customizable dashboard that leverages open, robust, and extensible data and analysis. It calculates both embodied and operational carbon from a single model because it's generated from what we call an Energy Analytical Model, or EAM, which structures the data relevant for sustainability analysis.

The EAM includes information about the building, such as thermal zones, climate zone, building material and construction types, loads, and HVAC systems, and is comprised of both analytical spaces and analytical services. One nice feature of the EAM is that the level of detail can be tweaked based on the level of detail of the model or project phase. This is why insight is applicable to a range of designs phases, from late planning to end of detailed design.

Here on the left is a screenshot from the EAM settings for defining material properties. You can select the option that's best suited for where you are in your project. But in general, it's important to default to the simplest setup you need to achieve your goal. This prevents overloading your model with too much information and keeping analysis fast, while still getting the results you need.

If you want more information about how to use insight for Revit, how to set up the EAM, how it's been used in the case study, et cetera, we have many classes at AU this year, and I'm providing this as a resource so you can go check out the recordings. So now for the demo. Start by making sure the spaces are enclosed and editing the EAM settings.

You'll generate the model, which can take some time, depending on the amount of detail. If you get an error, which we'll see in a moment-- here we are. Make sure only elements that are meant to be rebounding have the check box on. Once you've done that, you'll see the EAM. You can look at it from analytical services or spaces. And then you can actually send the model to insight and view in a web browser, which brings you to this default dashboard that shows total carbon options.

First, you go into the embodied carbon analysis tab, where you can view results in various layouts. The embodied carbon definitions uses data from building transparencies, EC3 database. And you can replace these defaults with your own values or add your own custom definitions. And these results, you'll see updated in the dashboard. You can also create custom dashboards. There are a series of metrics and factors that are completely customizable, based on what's important to your projects.

You can test different scenarios, such as amount of PV renewables you have to offset, based on various PV design parameters. And you can set these up as equations. You can also create custom factors, which are hard-coded coefficients, which can be used to be dragged as inputs into your overall dashboard. So in this case, you can see the factor is based on percentage coverage of the roof.

And once you've set those up, you can generate visualizations and customize your options, and compare design options and trade offs. So for an overview of the workflow, as I mentioned, it can be used in many different ways to cover different project phases. So I've shown a few optional steps here, but the dark green ones are the required steps which are essentially set up the EAM, set the model to insight, and assign your embodied carbon factors.

Optionally, if you have more information about the model, you can, on the front end, set up the HVAC and material definitions for more detailed analysis. And on the tail end, if you need more detailed results, or a very specific type of question that you need answering, you can customize the dashboard with bespoke metrics and factors and create custom views to compare options and drive decision-making.

And what differentiates insight from the other solutions is that, again, it can be used to assess both embodied and operational carbon from a single model. You can adjust different levels of detail, and you can also create these customizable dashboards to view all sorts of sustainability criteria. So to recap, factors for using insight are, it works well for projects and SD, through CD phases. There's flexibility to-- and ability to export different levels of detail for the EAM. It's best suited for an intermediate user. The format is in this web-based application that's accessed through an add in for Revit.

And in terms of the systems, it includes structure, specifically foundations, slabs, floors, and the roof. At the moment, it does not include structural columns or beams, but this is on the team's radar. It also includes envelope and interiors. And in terms of carbon scope, it is focused on A1 to A3, and that's partially because its carbon data set is from material averages from EC3 with the ability to incorporate custom inputs.

At the moment, it does not create LEED or BREEAM reports, but at the time that this recording will be released, it can be used with the AIA DDX to comply with the AIA architecture 2030 pledge, and it comes free with the AEC collection.

So then, moving even further down the project life cycle, we will move on to the tally climate action tool, otherwise known as TallyCAT for Revit. And TallyCAT is a free and open access Revit plugin that syncs with the Revit authoring environment with a real time connection to the embodied carbon and construction calculator or EC3 to map Revit elements to the databases of specific products.

And so, to demo this workflow, you'll first load the TallyCAT plugin, sign in, confirm your server, and open a library of materials, which can be imported from other library project files, or you can use the default settings. And you can directly compare options from the EC3 three database. And you can also, if you choose, load materials from the library directly into Revit.

Once you set your library, you can manage your scope of materials to include in the analysis. You can deselect items you don't want included, or add more, as well as design options, and set your expert settings and sync to EC3. Once that's complete, you can open it in EC3, which you will see pulled up here.

And within EC3, you can see a project view, where you can establish project parameters. And then, the bulk of the work is in this table, where you can actually assign EPDs, or Environmental Product Declarations, containing information about the product's global warming potential and define your search criteria for your product.

So here, I'm choosing a different dimension of gypsum board and assigning them to the appropriate materials. You will want to check the flag materials. And make sure that the units of your export align with those in the EPD. And these can be solved by incorporating unit conversion formulas.

So once you've addressed all the flags, you can save, and review a summary of results. And EC3 allows you to do this in a few different ways. And, in my opinion, this is where EC3 really shines, in that you can create these charts and graphs, download Excel files outside the authoring environment, and then create custom reporting or specific metrics you want to call out, depending on your specific project.

So for this workflow, as an overview, you begin in Revit and activate the add in. Once you've signed in, assign any material libraries as an option. Set the scope of materials of what you want to include or exclude in the analysis. Synchronize to EC3, where you can then review the auto-assigned materials and edit, and then refine the units of materials, as needed.

And what differentiates TallyCAT is that it uses an open database of EPDs from the EC3 library. So these are fully validated and product-specific information. That's what makes it better suited for later on in the project phase. It also has a feature called builders, which we didn't show in the video, but you can always find more resources on this, which will include as part of the handout.

And essentially, the builders help you approximate non-modeled elements. So let's say you have a wall assembly with steel studs, but you, of course, haven't modeled each of those studs within Revit. So with EC3's builders, you can actually approximate for those studs to capture the embodied carbon associated with all layers of the assembly, even if they're not modeled.

And finally, EC3 automatically creates reports, graphics, and Excel charts that can be modified or post-processed for whatever your purposes. So to recap, of the criteria we've outlined in the beginning, TallyCAT's project phases are best suited for design development and construction documentation.

It's best suited for intermediate user. The format is also a web-based application with an add in from Revit. It includes structure, envelope, and interiors, and it covers carbon scopes A1 through A5. So it takes into account the location of your project for transportation and construction emissions. And the carbon data set is through EC3, which contains product EPDs. And the majority of the coverage for the data is North America-focused, though they do have many other international databases as well.

It can be used for a LEED pilot credits certification, and it is also free with the AEC collection.

CAOIMHE LOFTUS: Thank you, Sheena. Last but not least, we have OneClick LCA for Revit. This is an incredibly powerful tool. And most suitable for expert users. It leverages an impressive global data set for life cycle assessments. It covers whole life assessments, not just upfront product carbon, and it includes many other environmental impact factors.

When producing a life cycle assessment, we need a robust bill of quantities. In the typical process, drawings from your Revit model go to your quantity surveyor and they produce a bill of quantities, which is manually input into the assessment software by the sustainability consultant to carry out their assessment. We see great potential with using the Revit add in for interim assessments, where you migrate straight from Revit to OneClick LCA.

This workflow is not suitable for certification, but can be helpful for interim feedback before the design is finalized. It speeds up the process. Because you are reducing the number of parties required to get to that result, and allows changes to be made before the design is finalized. So again, we're starting with the Snowdon Tower sample model in Revit. I recommend you use filtered views to isolate the elements you want to include in your assessment. You can also assign parameters to elements for exclusions or categorization, as required.

It will toggle the OneClick LCA add in, and the first step is to make sure that you're logged in. In the model settings, I choose active view. There are options to assign materials within the Revit add in, but I recommend using the online version, as the interface is much better.

So within the online add in, choose which OneClick LCA project you want to assign the information to. You named this version of the project, specifying what elements are included. You're then given the option to ungroup certain elements or delete objects, which make up less than 1%. You'll note, small objects don't make a big impact on the result, but can take a lot of time to assign materials to.

OneClick LCA will automatically assign materials based on the material names. You'll note some warnings where OneClick has identified potential errors in the imported data. From there, it's easy to get some initial results. You can see that I still have some errors to resolve. You get information at various levels of detail, including overall results, as well as a breakdown into the specific materials and the EPDs that have been used.

This interface is really helpful to review your results and sense check it before exporting. This is the overview of the OneClick LCA workflow. We start in Revit, where you set up your views with the required scope that you want to include in your assessment. Then you activate your OneClick LCA add in and export to the web app.

Then, you need to review the auto assign materials to make sure they're correct, then review and refine your results. Where OneClick LCA excels is the huge array of data sets available. The automatic material mapping is extremely powerful, but I would recommend allowing sufficient time for checking. This is where expert knowledge is especially important.

OneClick LCA for Revit is most useful in design, development and construction documentation phases because it requires a high level of detail. It is relatively easy to use, but I would recommend it more for advanced users because of the level of detail required. It is available as an add in for Revit, Civil 3D, and Takeoff. But we recommend working in the web-based tool. You can include structure, envelope, interiors, and MEP systems.

The carbon scope can be determined to suit your needs, but information is usually available for scopes A1 through to D. There are multiple global datasets available, and it is applicable for LEE and BREEAM certification. It does require a paid license. Having reviewed the four solutions separately, let's take a few minutes to review them alongside one another.

As we've gone through the workflows for each of the four solutions, you might have noticed that within each of the tools, the same tasks are repeated, though often in a different order. We wanted to call this out, as it gives a good overview of the steps required for carbon analysis. So typically, there is some setting up need to do to verify and validate the model you're working with. As an example, when we first started using the Snowdon Towers model, we needed to filter out duplicated structural elements, which were present in both the structure and architectural model.

The second is setting your scope. Again, using Snowdon Towers as an example, in the Revit file, there are a lot of elements that aren't required for the assessment. Things like furniture and plumbing fixtures weren't applicable to the scope that we were using. The third step is refine. This is assigning your materials and carbon factors.

As you've seen, depending on the tool and the stage of your project, this can be quite time consuming, but it does become easier the more you do it, hence the need for expert level users to assist with this step. The last step is to run the analysis and review the results. Depending on the level of information you've input, there may need for greater investment of time at this stage.

Let's quickly review the workflows of the four solutions we explored today under these categories. For the purposes of this overview, we've assumed that you already have a model in the correct format. As you can see, the number of steps varies by tool, and this gives some indication of the time commitment and level of expertise required.

Starting with format, which is a 2-step process, you can go all the way down to OneClick LCA, which requires more significant investment of time and more detailed information. Here, we've grouped our overview of each of the solutions together. We hope this will be a useful reference to help decide what carbon analysis tool to use at various stages during your project. As we've discussed, there are many factors that influence which solution is right for you.

SHEENA ZHANG: But after running through all the solutions, and many criteria, we wouldn't blame you if you still think help is needed. And so, help is on the way. Good news is, you don't need to commit to memory all of these criteria to help you pick the right tool for your project. We're happy to share this resource that we developed, which Caoimhe mentioned is the personality quiz, where you can input factors around your project, and it'll help you understand which embodied carbon tool may be the best for you.

So to access this, you just scan the QR code, and that will take you to a series of questions that you see here on the right that will help recommend a tool based on your requirements and why. So with this eight question quiz, you will be able to get a recommendation out of the four solutions we covered. And it will show you the recommendation, and why it's been recommended.

In closing, we want to leave you with a few tips to choose the right tool. So the first, and probably the most important, is to keep the end in mind. Think about what outcome you need, as this will set guardrails for which tool fits the bill. The second is to match the granularity of the tool to the level of detail available for the project. Don't over-model for a simple tool and don't use a simple model with a more detailed tool.

The third is to take stock of your available resources for analysis, how much technical expertise do you have available, and how much time do you have available. Next is to actually note how the data is more specific to certain regions, which, depending on your project location, you may-- it may be the best that you can actually use, until there's more data available for your specific location.

Either way, be sure to document the data source and assumptions transparently so anyone looking at the results can understand that that assumption has been made. And finally, be mindful of non-modeled elements. Each tool has a different way of approximating for these. And if you're not careful, you may miss them altogether or double count.

To supplement today's session, we've included some additional resources, which will help you implement best practices for performing carbon assessments in the handout with more detailed training resources around each of these different solutions. That's all we have for today. Thank you so much for watching.