Private Constructions

Note: It is not possible to create private constructions for regulated/mandated datasets such as the Dutch NMD database.

What are private constructions?

One Click LCA supports organization-level private assemblies called private constructions. Such assemblies are created and managed by your organization, and can only be accessed by users from your organization to add them to calculation projects. Once an assembly is added to a project, it’s visible to any party who has been given the right to access and use the same project.
Private constructions allow you to define and create new assemblies from existing material datasets. Each construction is always constrained to a specific subset of the database to ensure consistency, for example, to only use CML-compliant data points. The construction itself will thereafter be available in CML-compliant calculation tools. 

 

How do you use private constructions?

Pre-requisites for using these are:

• Having an Expert license
• Having created a company account (how to set up a company account)
• To publish (make available to others on the company account) or edit private constructions, you need to be a 'Main user' of the company account (multiple users can be the ‘Main users’).

If the above pre-requisites are fulfilled, all users that are linked to the company's license (basic, or 'main' users) can:

• Access the company's private library of construction in their projects
• 'Create a group' inside a project, and suggest to the company's 'main user' to add these to the company's private library. 'Main users' will be notified via email and need to 'lock and publish' the construction.

Users can be added to a company account by the 'main users' or they can send a request through the platform, as the software will give you a notification when you are eligible for joining a company account. It is not possible to add to the organization users who do not share the same email address domain. Please contact support if you need to do this.

 

Options for creating private constructions

Option 1: Use the 'Create a group' feature on the building materials page.

Users can drag and drop any desired rows from the page to the group, and create a group from it. The group can be created for this project only, or be saved as a construction in the organization profile.

When a user selects to save the construction on the company's account, the organization's "Main user(s)" will be notified to choose if they want to approve the assembly or not. If it is already the "main user" selecting this option, the construction is published immediately and it can be used directly in all the company's projects.

 

The construction automatically inherits metadata from its constituents: for example, a construction created using a tool locked to the INIES database creates similar construction.

 

This allows, for example, creating constructions of wall and floor structures used in a project, that can be reused in other projects going forward. All constructions created will get by default a comment on them giving the name of the person creating it and a timestamp.

 

 

Option 2: Creating a group by drag and drop

Dragging over resource rows with the left mouse cursor and then clicking on the right mouse cursor shows a shortcut to the create a group functionality. This allows creation of a group of selected rows exactly as in the case above.

Option 3: Adding private constructions through the classical construction management page

The classical construction management user interface under the organization profile has been simplified and clarified. The fields displayed have been reduced to the minimum necessary. All constructions created via the user interface will also stay editable in this way.

 

Step 1: Open your company account and navigate to the 'Data management' tab'

Click on 'Edit' in the row for Private Constructions to access existing private constructions and create new private constructions.

 

 

Step 2: Click on 'Add a construction/component, and choose the applicable construction

Select which construction you want to create. If you are a North American user you will have to choose TRACI. Any other user can choose CML.

 

 

Construction name	What kind of data is available with this option?
European construction material: CML / Ecoinvent	CML based data with Ecoinvent as the upstream database
European construction material: CML / GaBi	CML based data with GaBi as the upstream database
European construction material: (Allows mixed upstream database)	CML based data with both Ecoinvent and GaBi as the upstream databases
European construction material: Okobaudat	Okobaudat data only
North American construction material: TRACI / Ecoinvent	TRACI based data with Ecoinvent as the upstream database
North American construction material: TRACI / GaBi	TRACI based data with GaBi as the upstream database
North American construction material: (Allows mixed upstream database)	TRACI based data with both Ecoinvent and GaBi as the upstream databases
Ecoinvent 3.8 constructions (for use in product calculations)	Data for EPD product calculations only

 

Step 3: Fill in the required fields for the construction.

Fill in the required fields for the construction. The minimum required fields are

• 'Name'
• 'Unit' 
• The constituents of the construction.

 

Field	Specification	Required?
Naming fields	Here you can enter the name of your construction.	Required
Unit	Here you enter the unit of your construction	Required
Technical specification	Enter any information about the technical specifications	Optional
Environmental data source	Enter any information about the data source	Optional
Data type	Specify if it is generic or manufacturer-specific data	Optional
Country	Specify the applicable region	Optional
Type	Specify the type of construction	Optional
Service life	Specify the service life of the construction	Optional
Thickness	Specify the thickness of the construction	Optional, if applicable.
Classifications	Specify the classification (RICS; Mat01, Bygningsdel, Rakennusosa, BSAB)	Optional
Comment	Free text comment field	Optional
Choosing the construction materials	Choose which materials are included in your construction	Required
Lock & Publish	Locks your construction and publishes it	Required for using the construction in projects

 

After you press save the construction can still be edited. If you press 'Lock & Publish' the construction will be finalized, and locked from further editing.

 

Step 4: Click on 'Lock & Publish' and your construction is ready for usage.

After you have locked and published the construction if will be available to you, and other users within your organization. You will be able to search for the construction with the given name in the building material query.

 

Managing private constructions

Managing private constructions can be done through the company account. Main users will be able to approve constructions to be added to the company account. After publishing your construction you cannot make edits anymore. If a construction needs to be edited please contact support.

 

Editing existing constructions

Constructions can be edited in the company account, however, edits can also be made to constructions on the building materials query.

• If you want to remove the construction group and continue only with the materials, you can choose to 'unbundle' the construction. This removes the calculation rule, however, allows you to include the constituents of the construction separately in your assessment. 
• If you want to change the quantities or constituents but keep the construction as a whole, you can choose to 'create a variant'.

Creating allows you to make edits to the existing construction without having to unbundle the construction or take it apart. 

 

Seven best practices for creating constructions

We have listed several best practices for creating constructions below. Following these practices will ensure you can create accurate and usable constructions.

1. Suggested unit of construction

Below are the suggested units to be used when creating construction

• Walls / slabs: m2
• Beams / columns: m
• Concrete: m3
• Building installations (HVAC systems) might need to be modeled in items (eg 1 “piece” of a ventilation system, but “pieces” shall be the last option)

2. Material selection for construction

How to select the right materials

• Prefer generic over manufacturer-specific data. You can make exceptions in case you identify a local/foreign EPD that is actually quite representative of your local market and which has typical impacts that are close to the average. You can identify average carbon impacts and see how the material performs by using the material benchmarks. Find the green materials benchmarks article here. 
• Priority of generic data: One Click LCA's own generic data, Okobau, INIES (you can re-order if you wish). Please note that not all data in Okobau and INIES are generic. Generic data can be filtered in the material search.
• Strong advice: Agree in advance on profiles that shall be used in constructions in order to ensure consistency and avoid re-doing constructions. This is mainly important for high-impact materials. Agreed materials can be marked as favorites and appear always first! Find your favorite materials article here.
• Other potential options: You can filter only data with 1 specific upstream database e.g Ecoinvent or GaBi
• General guidance on selecting different types of materials, you can find here.
• Average material quantities guidance you can find here. 

3. Order of materials in construction

In what order to insert materials

• The top-down approach in horizontal elements (e.g. 1. Tiles, 2. Tile adhesives..)
• Outside-inside approach for external walls (e.g. 1. External paint, 2. Plaster..)

4. Parameters to consider for each material in a construction

The most important parameters to define for each material are as follows

• Units: As described in #1, use typical units for the inserted quantities of materials.
• Manufacturing localization: Ideally this is used for materials that are indeed produced locally but no available local data. This will change the impacts from the ones demonstrated in the EPD. Method explanation here.
• Transportation: If A4 is relevant for the project, default distances can be used. It is recommended to update this if you have better data available
• Service life: If replacements are relevant to the project, default values are given. We suggest you ensure they make sense with each other within a construction (e.g. tiles and tile adhesive have the same lifespan). You can identify more references for lifespans here: The service life of materials
• Wastage: Materials that are input as constituents receive wastage according to the material subtype by default. The construction-specific waste percentage can be assigned for each material by adjusting this value. The wastage parameter is only considered in tools where wastage is enabled in the Building Materials query

5. Adjustable recycled content

You are also able to specify the recycled content of each material for Circularity Assessment purposes. Do note that adjusting the recycled content does not affect the LCA results of the materials. This parameter is only considered in the Building Circularity tools.

6. Document your assumptions

For each material of construction, we strongly recommend to a add assumptions and clarifications in the “comment” field, explaining what this material is about and how it was calculated (eg if you add reinforcement, add a comment on how you calculated it, eg “Rebar for beams 300 kg/m3”)

7. Creating Constructions in One Click LCA

The easiest way to create constructions is by using the grouping feature, additionally, you can also save the construction to your company account in order to re-use it. 

Decide internally if all of your users are able to save groupings in the company account or if there should be someone approving them. “Main users” in the company account can have this role. If you wish, you can add all your users as “Main users”, and then no approval will be needed. Guidance on creating a company account here.