Selecting Project Parameters

This article describes how to set up project parameters for building and infrastructure projects in One Click LCA. These parameters are essentially default settings for your Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) calculations. They ensure consistent and accurate results across your project.

Think of it like this: you're setting the ground rules for your analysis. These rules apply to all designs within your project, but you can always adjust them later if needed.

Here's a breakdown of the key parameters:

1. LCA Parameters 

Service Life (Influences B4-B5 emissions)

This determines how long different materials in your building are expected to last. Read more about service life here. You can choose from several options:

• Technical Service Life: How long materials last in good condition (recommended default)
• Commercial Service Life: Shorter lifespan for materials in settings like retail or hotels where interiors are replaced more frequently.
• Product-Specific Service Life: Uses data from Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), suitable for DGNB, E+C-, and MPG calculations.
• Country-Specific Service Life Options:
  • RICS Default Service Life: Uses service life values from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) guidance.
  • RICS V2 Default Service Life: Uses service life values from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS v2) guidance.
  • Norway DFØ Default Service Life: Use service life values from DFØ guidelines.

Choose your service life setting

Transportation Distance (Influences A4 emissions)

This sets the default distance and transport mode for materials traveling from the manufacturer to your building site. Choose the region that best matches your project location (Nordic, European, UK, etc.) for more accurate transportation impact calculations.

• Nordic - Setting for projects in the Nordics. Will have distances typical for transport in the Nordics and default modes of transportation.
  • Norway - DFØ - Setting for BREEAM NOR v6.1 projects. Will have distances and transportation methods based on DFØ guidelines.
• European - Setting for projects throughout Europe. Will have distances typical for transport in the Europe and default modes of transportation.
• UK - Setting for projects in the UK. Will have distances typical for transport in the United Kingdom and default modes of transportation.
  • UK - RICS - Setting for RICS or GLA projects in the UK. Will have distances typical for transport according to RICS and specific modes of transportation.
• Canadian - Setting for projects in Canada. Will have distances typical for transport in Canada and default modes of transportation.
• US (miles) - Setting for projects in the US. Will have distances typical for transport in the US and default modes of transportation. 
• Australian - Setting for projects in Australia. Will have distances typical for transport in Australia and default modes of transportation. Several specific modes of transportation are available for Australia as well which can be manually selected in the building materials query. 
• Global - Setting for any project that is not covered by any of the above regions. Will have global average distances and modes of transport. This may not be accurate for every project location on the globe and therefore we recommend at minimum updating the transport distances. 

Choose your default transportation values

Material Manufacturing Localization (Influences A1-A3 emissions)

This adjusts the environmental impact of materials based on where they were manufactured. It accounts for differences in energy sources used in different regions. We use a data regionalization methodology according to CEN/TR 15941:2010 to adjust the emissions to match local manufacturing conditions. Recommended for BREEAM calculations. Learn more here. You have several options:

• v2.1 (recommended) - Current recommended version of our localization method. 
• v2.0 and v1.0 - Earlier iterations of our localization method.
• Disabling material localization - Use with care, uses the original production emissions for each EPD. One Click LCA generics will still be localized as these are modeled with world or European average energy emissions. 
• Changing the electricity profile - You will have the option to change the chosen electricity profile, which causes the data to be localized using a different electricity mix which will likely have a different emission factor. By default the latest electricity profile is already selected. 

Choose your material manufacturing localization target

End-of-Life Calculation Method (Influences C1-C4 & D phase emissions)

This determines how the environmental impacts of materials are calculated at the end of their life (demolition, recycling, etc.). This does not affect tools that have mandated EOL methods like DGNB or IMPACT. Learn more here. You can choose from:

• Material-locked: Provides grouped end-of-life emissions that cannot be changed.
• Market Scenarios: Offers more detailed end-of-life emissions based on material type and current market practices (recommended).
• EPD EOL Scenario: Uses end-of-life data from EPDs if available.

• Country-specific end-of-life scenarios: Offer default settings for specific countries.
  • Global
  • Japan
  • Denmark
  • United Kingdon - RICS V2

•  End of life energy recovery (module D) substituted energy mix (only for Market scenarios)
  • Default settings based on your earlier chosen country settings and LCA parameter settings can be manually changed if required. Only affects module D.

Expert license users can adjust the end-of-life modeling if the calculation tool does not mandate an EOL method. This additional setting is explained further in the following article: User-Adjustable End-of-Life Modelling

Country specific site wastage (Influences A5 emissions)

This setting generates automatic wastage percentages in the tools that support this. We have options for: 

• Global wastage scenarios
• United Kingdom
• Norway

2. LCC parameters

To set up LCC parameters, start by selecting your project country. This will automatically fill in default values for:

• Exchange Rate: Currency exchange rate against the Euro.
• Hourly Labor Rate (Worker): Average hourly cost for a low-skilled worker.
• Hourly Labor Rate (Craftsman): Average hourly cost for a high-skilled worker.

 You can read more about the LCC method and data here.