How to create embodied carbon reduction strategies using BIM & LCA

MARIOS TSIKOS: Hello, everybody. Welcome to this class on how to create embodied carbon reduction strategies using BIM and LCA. My name is Marios Tsikos. I am a senior BIM consultant at One Click LCA.

And my day-to-day work is providing trainings and demos to One Click LCA users, undertaking in-house lifecycle assessments for buildings and infrastructure projects across the world, always with the aim to reduce embodied carbon and other environmental impacts as much as possible. And finally, I'm also working with the rest of the team in developing and improving our integrations with the various BIM and simulation software tools.

In summary, what we are going to cover today is why it is so important to conduct embodied carbon assessments and full lifecycle assessments in construction buildings, either [INAUDIBLE] buildings [INAUDIBLE]. And then we will focus on how to make this process easy using One Click LCA. And in this case, it's BIM [INAUDIBLE] this Revit.

At the end of the assessment, you will likely have a better understanding on why you need to integrate embodied carbon and LCA in your BIM workflows and have an idea on how to do this using One Click LCA Revit. You will learn how to automate the calculation and optimization process.

We will talk slightly on the possibility of using the One Click LCA API in order to create your own custom Revit plug-ins, Dynamo packages, or other applications. And finally we will touch on certification schemes and how to use the platform to achieve compliance with those.

So let's start with this simple question first. Why do we need to do LCA and embodied carbon assessments? The most straightforward answer we can get for this question is climate emergency. But let's expand a little bit.

So in this graph we're looking at the predicted global carbon emissions based on the Emission Gap Report prepared in part by the United Nations last year. In this graph you can see an estimate of the global emissions allowance for keeping the global temperature rise below 2 degrees, 1.8 degrees, and 1.5 degrees Celsius.

On the top of the graph, we can see where we currently are and where we are heading based on carbon targets as these are set by governments internationally. And comparing the 1.5-degree target with the current target, we realize that we need to do more. We need to more than halve, actually, our annual carbon emissions. And this is by 2030, which is eight years from now. So time is definitely not on our side.

And to better understand our role in this global effort in fighting climate change, let's see what our sector is responsible for. So according to a report from 2018 prepared and published by the World Green Building Council, it is estimated that 39% of the annual global carbon emissions are attributed to buildings.

If it were to split these into operational and embodied carbon, this would be 28% and 11% respectively. And remember that this actually represents the global average split. So there were countries where the electricity grid of which is very carbon intensive. And this way the operational carbon is contributing even more.

But there are other countries, especially among the most developed ones, that the grid is highly decarbonized due to the big surge of renewables like solar and wind. And in those cases, the share of embodied carbon can go much higher, even higher than 50%.

On top of that, it is estimated that cities are expected to double by 2060, releasing an additional amount of approximately 230 gigatons of CO2 equivalents based on current average material impacts and current typical technologies. So these impacts will come from the new constructions and associated infrastructure for those cities or of these expanses of those cities, but of course also their innovation and refurbishment of the existing building stock.

And to bring this into perspective, this equals to traveling 52 times around Neptune's orbit with a car. Or probably easier to realize, it's equal to building a city the size of New York every 34 days. And that is until 2060.

Stepping on the previous reference again on decarbonizing grids and the share of embodied and operational carbon emissions, it is expected that electricity grids will keep decarbonizing in all countries around the world. There's more and more countries making commitments for getting to net zero by 2050 or sooner.

So this means that the up-front carbon that is emitted today from manufacturing all these construction projects that we need to build those new buildings and infrastructure, they will finally present a much higher share of the overall carbon emissions. This graph would help us realize this concept even better. So if we were to show the carbon emissions of a building against time, it would look something like this.

At moment 0, we would have all of these carbon emissions released in the past months, in the raw materials construction, deployment and functioning with transportation to the site and the actual construction process. Then each year we would have an equal amount of emissions released due to the operational energy that is being used in the building plus some additional embodied carbon that is attributed to maintenance and replacements of the various components.

Now we even consider the future decarbonized grid. We will see that the operational emissions from energy and material replacements, it is around halved, highlighting the importance of the material choices that we make today.

Recognizing the importance of LCA and embodied carbon in tackling climate change, more and more governments, local authorities, and institutions around the world, they form new rules and regulations and policies. And they set aspirational targets for the entire construction industry.

So countries like the Netherlands, Norway, and France, they already have national regulations in place which mandate reforming lifecycle assessments to new buildings. While many other countries, they are in the process of development right now. And these will be in place probably in one or two years.

Local authorities like London and Vancouver and others have also created their own policies for construction projects in their jurisdictions. And then institutions, organizations, and other initiatives, they set up their own targets in an [INAUDIBLE] to inspire clients and design teams to take action.

So in this case, as an example, I will just mention the embodied carbon targets from the Architecture 2030, which are 40% reduction for buildings that are being built today, 45% reduction in 2025, 65% reduction in 2030, and finally achieving net zero by 2040.

So before we proceed, let's take a quick look at the methodology behind lifecycle assessments and the embodied carbon assessments. Lifecycle assessment is the standardized methodology for assessing the environmental impacts of a product or service during its entire lifecycle.

So in the case of buildings, this means, let's say, the raw materials construction, the manufacturing of the products, the actual construction of the building, the usage and the impacts coming from operational energy, material maintenance, and finally the end-of-life stage, where the building is being demolished and the material treatment either going to a landfill, being recycled, reused, or incinerated for energy recovery.

So these impacts are measured across several different indicators. But for today's session, we will focus on CO2 equivalents, which measures the effect on climate change and global warming.

The same methodology applies in the case of lifecycle post analysis, where instead of impacts, we are measuring cost. But I'm not going to expand on that at all for today. Now, the various emissions of chemical substances that contribute to, let's say, global warming are translated by using another methodology called characterization to the common unit, which in this case of global warming is kilograms of CO2 equivalence.

The lifecycle of a building is split into various stages and models, as we can see in this table. And model, say, A1 to A3, we've got product stage with the raw material construction and product manufacturing. At A4 to A5, we've got the actual construction. Then we've got the use stage with all material replacements [INAUDIBLE] and of course the operational energy use, which has traditionally been looked at in the past.

And finally we have end of life with the deconstruction of the buildings and the treatment of the various deconstruction products. If we exclude operational energy and water from an LCA, then we've got what is more commonly known as an embodied carbon assessment with all the different models as highlighted in this slide.

Now that we've covered the basics, let's see how we can benefit from integrating this process in our BIM workflows. To realize the benefit of such integration, let's first have a look at types of data that we need to perform an LCA or an embodied carbon assessment. So these are the material quantities of the building either in volume, area, length, kilowatts, or anything else, especially when we're talking about building systems.

Then we need to know the actual material specifications. And it's OK to use [INAUDIBLE] material [INAUDIBLE]. It's [INAUDIBLE]. But as the design progresses, we need to start looking at product specifications. And then we need data on impacts per given material, per given material quantity, which we [INAUDIBLE] from a database, and finally an estimate of the material lifespan and transportation distances to include those impacts, as well.

You can see that the concept behind the methodology is not too complicated. In a very basic term, we are basically talking about the multiplication of material quantities with carbon or other impact factors per given unit, for example cubic foot or cubic meter and so on.

However, acquiring the material quantities is probably the most time consuming step of this process. And in addition, getting access to quality data is quite challenging, as well. So this is where the automation comes in and where the benefit of using a big and high quality database is.

In a [INAUDIBLE] LCA, the typical sources of material information can be marginal measurements from drawings, marginal transferring of data from cost plans and previous material take-offs and of course big models. The first two, it can be used as a supplementary source of information and as little as possible, as they tend to delay the entire process and making it less appealing to engineers and architects in general.

This is why at One Click LCA, we have developed all these solutions and keep improving them continuously and developing new ones. And as I already mentioned, today we will focus on Revit, where with the One Click LCA plug-in, we can facilitate the process for creating [INAUDIBLE] and undertaking an LCA from a very early stage to an [INAUDIBLE] assessment, let's say, post construction.

Going straight into the Revit plug-in, there are two options, the LCA in cloud and the LCA in Revit. With the LCA-in-cloud option, we will basically get all material quantities from your model and send them directly to your One Click LCA account and import them to your relevant project.

All materials will be sent and mapped automatically where possible based on previous markings that you did from your account, previous markings that your colleagues did from the [INAUDIBLE] and some other general name recognition rules which we are using. In the other option, which we will see more carefully in a quick demo soon, we can start and complete the entire LCA within Revit itself.

And in this case, we have the option to define the exact scope detail by selecting which phases and options we want to include. If we want to exclude entire categories of family types, we can also select Include Linked Models if we want to avoid assessing them separately.

And in the next release, which is coming out in a few days, we will also have the option to define which worksets we want to include, as well. Alternatively, we will also soon have the option to just go with whatever we can see in our active view and in this way have a more feasible control of the physical scope.

So we're working in Revit. We can get the results directly in Revit, as well. And at any time during the process, we can send our work in progress directly to the cloud and continue from where we left it or just continue working at the same time in Revit and cloud.

Performing the first run is the very first step, though, as the main goal of any such exercise, an LCA exercise or embodied-carbon exercise, it should be to absolutely reduce the environmental impacts of our designs. So to do that, we can use a combination of the various features that are available in the Revit plug-in and the cloud application, as well.

First, the color-coding feature in Revit will help us very quickly identify which building elements are contributing the most so that we can look for material or product alternatives. And at the same time, we can also send our work in the cloud and use a series of different graphs and charts to help us identify where those impacts are hidden and what actions we can take to reduce those impacts.

Here we can see, for example, some pie charts splitting the embodied carbon by lifecycle stage, by element, [INAUDIBLE] and material group, as well. We can get similar visualizations with bubble charts and tree maps, as we can see here, either by life-cycle stage or material group, bar charts with impact by classification and stage and lots of other visualizations that are available on the cloud.

Once we have identified those hotspots, we then need to start looking to ways to reduce those impacts. And this can be either through auctioneering and [INAUDIBLE] appraisal and comparison or through targeted [INAUDIBLE] as a column. So for this last one, you can select any generic material or EPD or any material that you have used in your LCA model. And check how it compares with other products in the same material group.

You can set the benchmark you want to compare with your material and get a list of all the available EPDs that actually perform better than your material, as we can see in the next slide. So you get a list of all the other materials that perform better.

In addition, and before we switch to the live demo, it is worth mentioning that you can also compare any selected products from the same material group and the whole-life perspective before you add them in your model or while you're looking for a better alternative. So in this particular graph, for example, we are comparing three different commercial carpet products. And we can see the embodied carbon for stages A1 through 3, the use stage, and end-of-life stage, as well.

So I'm going to switch now to One Click LCA and do a live demo. OK, so let's go to the main base. This is called the main base [INAUDIBLE] slide of the One Click LCA. But before we look into the main application, let's go to Revit.

So the Revit plug-in will look something like that. So you'll have a separate tab. And you will have two different options here-- the LCA in cloud. As we said, you can click. And this will open your default browser. And it will try to send all the material quantities directly to your account.

And then we've got LCA in Revit, which if I click, it will ask me to log in first. So that's done. And then we've got the setting style where we actually can make some very simple settings, the most important ones being if we want to split the family types into materials, which is relevant for detailed Revit models, or if we want to keep the Objects group.

So instead of materials, we're thinking of quantities of element types, family types, like walls and floors and so on, like areas of those elements. In this case, I will assume that my Revit model is a detailed one.

And then we can switch to the Model tab. And this is where we actually define the physical scope of our assessment. We can select the phases. We can select the design options. Here we have any linked models.

And as I mentioned previously, very soon we'll be able to select the different worksets, as well, that we want to include. And also, we will have the option to just go with what we can see in our active view. So it will be easier to define the scope visually, let's say.

Then in the Categories tab, we can keep taking some categories of family types out or splitting them into materials or grouping them again into family types and then in the level of detail of those family types. I'm not going to change anything here. You can also change the default unit of those categories in family types.

Then we've got the material style where you can go. And let's go to some works. For example, you can click here and try to find-- you can type it on your Search field here and map a suitable material.

Or if you want the application to do most of the work for you first, you can go directly to the results. And this will actually try to find some suitable mappings, assign them. And then you can go back to the Materials tab and double check them. And if they're not the best, you can change them. Or there are some materials that were not identified. You can also model those manually.

So these two take a few more seconds since it's trying to get all the material quantities first and then try to map them, find a suitable data set from the cloud, and then calculate all those impacts. And here we are.

So going back to the Materials tab, if you go to this tab, you can see now that we've got something in place here. So it has already mapped it with this Ready-mix concrete data set. And the same for all other categories as well.

So there should be probably some items that were not identified. Let me try 'columns are identified.' Yeah, it can be sometimes the case that it wasn't able to find a suitable market, like those cases for example.

So having done that, you can also go to the Results tab and say, pull the results and by category and family type of material. And you can also visualize those results directly in Revit. So this is going to color code direct elements based on the embodied carbon.

And it should take a few more seconds. There we are. So yeah, from this view we can very quickly see that there is some action that we need to take in this element. And we can also see there's some other elements that basically perform better with green and light yellow.

So when we are happy with what we've done, we can continue in cloud. So at any point during the process, actually, we can send those material points to the cloud. And this is the same page that we opened previously.

And we can actually define the project that we want with all those quantities, the name of the design. Let's say I have already set up a Revit import, a design which is called "Revit Import." We can define the tool in this case. I only have one.

I want to import all data. And I want to replace the existing data also because I ran this tutorial previously again. So I am going to continue and override.

And at this stage, it will ask me for the rules with which I'm going to group some of the materials. In this case, it's a very small project. So there's no need to group anything. But in principle, it's always a good practice to use the class, which is basically the right category, the quantity type, so whether it is area, volume, and so on.

At minimum, you can also use the type. So different types can be grouped together. In this case, [INAUDIBLE] OCLID is the already mapped material. So this is our way actually to transferring this information to the cloud. And you can also use thickness or not, of course the material length.

So I'm going to click Continue. And this will now combine all those different materials, all those different rows of the same material, let's say, and also apply the automated [INAUDIBLE]. And it will give me a list of all those materials to review.

There we are. So at this stage, we're getting two different lists, one with the identified data, which in this case is 99% of the material volume, and another list with unidentified or problematic data, which is what we will actually need to take some action on.

Let's actually identify that first. So here we've got at least all the different materials that we got from our Revit model. And here is some additional information for each of those materials, like the quantity, the quantity type or unit, the thickness, if it is structural material, if it comes from a composite element, and so on, and the family name and the family type name, as well.

And then we've got the different quantities. So if we want to switch from area to volume and do it from here, then we also have the automated mapping and the basis for this automated mapping.

So in this case, it says that several users in the United Kingdom did the same mapping. So when they had this material name, they did this mapping right here. And it says "United Kingdom" because this example project was set up for the United Kingdom.

Then we thought some other materials that are mapped in models. So that means that these are mappings that we transferred from Revit directly to the cloud. So this is work that we did in the Revit plug-in so we're not losing this work.

And in some cases, you will also see that this is your own mapping because it's mapping that you did previously and so on. And then we've got the unidentified or problematic data. So this is basically material names that the software really wants to find a good mapping for. So you would see that most of them are basically things like kitchen devices and furniture and this kind of stuff.

So let's assume that we don't really-- sorry-- we don't really need any of those. Or if we need them, we can click on this drop-down list. And we can type anything and try [INAUDIBLE] material. But for all of those, we can just click them as they are. And we can continue.

And this will take us directly to the Results page. So in essence, if you are using the standard naming convention for your materials and your family types, it means that you will most probably get if not 100%, nearly 100% of your materials or family types recognized and mapped with a suitable data set from the database.

So this is taking us directly to the Results page, showing me the results by indicator-- let's focus on global warming for today-- and by lifecycle stage. And then down here we've got a series of different graphs and charts, as we saw in the slides.

In this case, some of them might not make a lot of sense because we didn't use any classifications, for example. But in essence, you can, let's say, see that there are several different graphs to look for and try to do some hot-spot analysis from those.

So in this case, we can go back to our model and see what kind of material we've got for floor finishes and see if we can find a better alternative, probably some kind of nature-based carpet or flooring material and so on. We got all those different graphs. Or we can just go to All Graphs and see all those.

I think that should be it for the live demo. So I will switch again to the PowerPoint presentation. Before we finish this session, just some final words about what we can say who we are and what else you can achieve by using the software.

So One Click LCA is being used by design teams and consultants in over 100 countries nowadays. It can be used at [INAUDIBLE] with virtually any LCA and embodied carbon certification or regulation or policy, as it has been officially approved for more than 40 of them internationally.

It comes with a vast database of more than 100,000 data sets that are available to use. And as I mentioned previously, I believe we are continuously developing new BIM integrations for the most popular design and energy simulation tools. And at the same time, we keep improving our existing products within our growing team that nowadays counts more than 50 employees across the world.

We are supporting and we are connecting the entire construction industry, from design teams and builders to allow them to decarbonize their projects to manufacturers [INAUDIBLE] to develop the EPDs for their products, investors who want to decarbonize a portfolio, and of course institutions and governments in their efforts to decarbonize our economy.

And I will start a little bit at our database, which, as I said, now counts more than 100,000 data sets. And that includes EPDs to make data sets, constructions, or assemblies which are basically groups of materials that represent an entire element, like floor or wall and so on, and of course any national or scheme-specific database that might be required for compliance.

So we have a dedicated team in place which, on a daily basis, identifies new EPDs. It verifies them and enhances them where necessary and adds them in our database. So this includes probably all existing EPD platforms and other data sources across the world. So you can rest assured that if there is a construction project with an EPD, it will also be available in the One Click LCA database.

In terms of compliance with certification schemes and regulations, I will only mention a few of them, like LEED and BREEAM, of course, DGNB, which comes from Germany, the Living Building Challenge and Zero Carbon standards and of course other standards and regulations around the world. The software is built in such a way to allow compliance with any LCA standard by using different tools that will be plugged in in the same product and serve all those different standards at the same time, even if those standards have different requirements from one from the other.

Just very quickly I thought I would talk about LEED, as I believe it's more relevant for the majority of this session's audience. So LEED, like many other schemes, it awards points or credits based on the proposed design performance, which is measured against a baseline design.

So if we were to simplify this process of LEED, we would basically split it into three steps. So step 1 is creating a baseline and duplicating it, then optimizing it by identifying hotspots as we discussed previously and making these changes, and finally comparing the baseline and the optimized designs.

And then ensure that you achieve the required reduction targets, which can be done either using these comparative graphs on the project's main page or by defining the baseline design and comparing your results with the baseline directly with the other results' page. A very final note, and I'm going to close with that, we did mention the various BIM integrations and focused on the Revit plug-in.

However, with One Click LCA, you also have the option to create your own, too. And you can also use the One Click LCA API to do all the calculations and get the results imported back to you. [INAUDIBLE] solution is ideal for bigger organizations, though, probably organizations who want to integrate LCA and embodied carbon even further using their own custom BIM tools.

So a certain application could be a custom Revit macro or a custom Revit plug-in or even a Dynamo package and so on. And all that is required for this to work is to gather and send all the material quantities using a predefined data structure like the one shown in this slide. And the user will then have access to the entire database and will be able to get the results back from One Click LCA.

And with that, we have reached the end of this session. I hope you enjoyed it. And I'm looking forward to hearing your questions live in a few days. Thank you very much.