LCA in Construction Practice
In North America, LCA is rapidly becoming more integrated in green design codes and standards. The number of leading-edge designers currently bringing LCA into their practices is growing because it’s a tool that defines their work and addresses their clients’ demand for accurate footprint information.
Athena tools and data are used on their own, or in conjunction with LEED®, Green Globes™, the ICC 700 National Green Building Standard, ASHRAE 189.1, CalGreen and the International Green Construction Code.
LCA and LEED
LEED has run two pilot credits that involve LCA, and has two new MR credits with LCA in the LEED 2012 draft (July 2011 2nd public comment draft).
LEED Pilot Credit 1 (Life Cycle Assessment of Building Assemblies and Materials—discontinued in Fall 2011) used the Athena EcoCalculator tool as a basis for awarding a point if the building design exceeded average performance. The results of this pilot are being used by USGBC in developing a new MR LCA credit in LEED 2012.
LEED Pilot Credit 43 (Certified Products) is worth one point and available to all LEED rating systems except Homes, EB and ND. This credit has two pathways, and both have elements of LCA. Athena has published LCA data on most generic structural and envelope materials which would be applicable to this credit.
LEED 2012 (July 2011 2nd public comment draft) BD&C has a new MR Credit, Non-Structural Materials Transparency, worth 1-2 points, which is essentially the second path of Pilot Credit 43 described above. The LEED 2012 EB draft has a similar credit that applies to consumables, electric equipment like computers, and some lamps.
LEED 2012 (July 2011 2nd public comment draft) BD&C has a new MR Credit, Environmentally Preferable Structure and Enclosure, worth 1-3 points. This credit contains elements of previous MR credits for building reuse, recycled content, and local materials as well as offering a new LCA alternative compliance path (worth up to 2 points). In this path, designers use an LCA-based tool to assess the footprint of the building structure and enclosure, document results and subsequent design decisions, and demonstrate that the final design meets or exceeds national averages as published in USGBC tables. Athena has the only North American software for building and assembly LCA
LCA and Green Globes
Green Globes™ was the first national building rating system in North America to integrate LCA as a credit. The Athena EcoCalculator for Commercial Assemblies is the basis for this credit; in fact, the EcoCalculator was originally developed to serve this purpose. Green Globes awards points for the educational experience of using LCA and does not credit any particular performance level. In 2010, ANSI/GBI 01-2010: Green Building Protocol for Commercial Buildings was officially approved; it is derived from Green Globes. In this standard, LCA is included as an alternative compliance path to prescriptive material requirements.
LCA and ICC 700
The International Code Council (ICC) 700 National Green Building Standard™ is a residential green standard initiated by the National Association of Home Builders. The current version gives points for the educational experience of using LCA. The 2012 draft has an alternative compliance path to prescriptive material requirements.
LCA and the IGCC
The International Green Construction Code from the International Code Council is currently in public version 2.0 and headed for formal release in 2012. LCA is available as an alternative compliance path to prescriptive material requirements at the whole-building or assembly level.
LCA and ASHRAE 189.1
LCA is available as an alternative compliance path to prescriptive material requirements at the whole-building level.
Calgreen
In California’s 2010 draft Green Building Standards Code, LCA is available as an alternative compliance path to prescriptive material requirements at the whole-building level.
