What's new in 2022? – One Click LCA Help Centre

This update log is no longer updated. Please check the release notes instead: Release Notes

25th July 2022 - User interface update (EPD Hub tool users)

An update to the EPD Hub tool user interface will be made on Monday 25th July, making it easier to report Allocation, Averaging, and Excluded processes in the EPD Description query.

Allocation

The current open text field will be replaced with easy-to-use dropdown menus with an additional field for relevant comments. Further to this, an optional text field is added for more detailed notes for verification purposes should they be required. Only the answers in the dropdown fields will be reported in your EPD.

Averaging

Similarly, averaging will be reported with dropdown menus with additional comments fields. If the EPD is an average, representativeness of the average is mandatory to report, and is shown in the EPD.

Excluded processes

Excluded processes (or cut-off) must be reported if any processes are excluded. If applicable for your product, this is reported as additional information for verification. This information is not shown in the EPD and is given only to assist the verifier

Both the old and the new questions will be available until the end of August. Any data currently in the old questions will be migrated to the new questions to preserve your inputs, so no action is required on your part to transfer any data.

If you have any questions about the update, please feel free to contact us via the Help Centre.

14th July 2022 - GLA/RICS tool update (all UK users)

This is a clarification on an earlier update processed on June 24th, mentioned in the June Release Notes. A notification regarding this update was sent out again on 13.07.2022.

On June 24th we processed an update to the GLA/RICS tool which had calculation improvements to how the B4 (replacement) emissions are calculated. This method is already present in the majority of our calculation tools.

The replacement emissions in GLA/RICS used to calculate only the Material Production (B4-a). This has now been streamlined to additionally include the Material Transport (B4-b) and Waste Treatment (B4-c).

Materials emissions for the materials which are replaced are always calculated based on the quantity of materials, their service life setting and the calculation period of the project.
Transportation emissions for the materials which are replaced are calculated based on the material mass and the chosen method of transportation.
Waste treatment emissions for materials which are replaced are calculated based on the material mass and the selected end of life treatment of the material.

In order to get your projects to utilize the updated calculation method you will need to re-save your designs, which can lead to an increase in your B4 emissions, and hence in the total emissions of the designs. While this may negatively effect your results, as in, the emissions might increase as compared to previously calculated, the calculation method is more accurate and this is desired when performing life-cycle assessments.

In the majority of projects the total emissions increase should not be significant, however if you have materials which have short material service life settings and have high reprocessing emissions (C3) this can lead to higher emissions than you may have previously expected.

Results for B4 will not be present in the results of old designs which have not been edited since June 24th. This changes once users re-save these designs.

10th June - June 2022 Release (All users)

The release includes further performance improvements as well as new features and compliancy updates to existing Building and Product LCA tools. We also introduced one new calculation tool and the new version for Revit integration.

Speed of results report generation with Product tools has been increased significantly
Speed of Carbon Designer 3D design creation has been increased significantly
Improvements to Product LCA tools, including quick product carbon footprint creation
NEW! NMD 3.0 Infrastructure LCA calculation tool for the Netherlands
New Revit plugin version supporting Revit 2023 downloadable here: Revit Integration

Read more about or download the release notes in full at Release Notes June 2022

22nd May - May 2022 Release (All users)

The release focuses on quality and performance improvements. We introduced a range of improvements to calculation tools, functions and the software in general.

Speed of result page loading has been increased significantly
Speed of detailed report loading has been increased significantly
Carbon Designer 3D is now supported in multiple languages
40+ Improvements to variety of software functions

11th April - April 2022 Release (All Users)

In the last four months, we have been brewing some major improvements and new tools that we are excited to share with you.

One Click LCA now runs on AWS Cloud: for faster response times and cybersecurity improvements
NEW! Carbon Designer 3D: visualise & optimise carbon before you start drawing
NEW! Bentley iTwin integration
One Click LCA EPD Generator is now pre-verified for EPD Hub, a new & cost efficient EPD program
More flexible data importing process
Continued cybersecurity improvements

Read more about or download the release notes in full at Release Notes April 2022

25th March - RTS/EPD Norge Transport scenario documentation A4 update

This update is for EPD tool users publishing with RTS or EPD Norge only, where reporting Transport scenario documentation A4 is required.

In order for the software to be harmonized with the standards, the volume capacity utilization factor field is being changed from a text input for a % value, to a dropdown menu with the options; 1, <1, and ≥1.

Current input:

New input:

Once this update is implemented on 25th March 2022, any value in this field will be overwritten. While this is a minor change for EPD documentation only and will not change your LCA results, if the update will affect any of your projects, it is recommended to take note of your current input so that it can be replaced with one of required options from the new dropdown menu.

If you have any questions about this, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

14th March - Split and replace functions added to energy consumption queries

This update allows for energy to be split between different use types and energy data points to be replaced for efficiency, particularly useful in calculation tools where different energy scenarios are required.

14th February - Database update (all Finnish users)

The energy profiles used in Finnish tools (Rakennuksen vähähiilisyys 2019 and 2021 versions) were updated according to the linear decrease scenario published in SYKE database (co2data.fi). The update affects emissions from electricity, district heating and district cooling.

23rd January - Software update (all users)

The update includes a range of fixes, the addition of graphical result representation in a new appendix in newly generated One Click LCA EPDs, and some smaller product updates, including the rename of the GLA tool to GLA / RICS.

20th January - Verktyget för Klimatdeklaration - uppdateringarel(s) (All Swedish users)

Uppdateringarna innehåller följande:

1. Verktyget har nu 2 nya påverkanskategorier, en som refererar till klimatpåverkan (GWP) för Generiska klimatdata och en för Specifika klimatdata.

2. Resultaten för A1-A3 är nu uppdelade i Bärande konstruktionsdelar - Grundläggning / Bärande konstruktionsdelar - Övriga / Klimatskärm / Innerväggar. Den här uppdelningen görs baserat på det motsvarande fältet i fliken för byggnadsmaterial för varje material eller konstruktion.

3. Två nya resultattabeller visar förhållandet baserat på massa mellan de olika materialtyperna för "Bärande konstruktionsdelar - Grundläggning" och "Bärande konstruktionsdelar - Övriga".

4. Indata för A4 och A5 kan nu klassificeras som "Generiska klimatdata" och "Specifika klimatdata" baserat på de relevanta fälten i fliken för byggnadsmaterial.

10th January - All Irish users get now direct access to the Irish Carbon Designer through a new tool, Level(s) (IE).

New Level(s) (IE) tool has been added to the licenses of all commercial Irish users. The tool enables access to the Irish Carbon Designer, which was created in cooperation with the IGBC. More information can be found here. Users with commercial licenses have access to all the queries of the tool without any limitations, while free users get access to Carbon Designer and the Results tab.

It should be noted that the tool contains custom carbon data and energy scenarios so its results can differ from other tools due to its settings. More specifically:

The tool contains local generic carbon factors coming from the Life Level(s) project: "Supporting the Development of Quality Data". These are carbon factors and can not be used for other certifications such as BREEAM or LEED, since these certificates require the use of additional impact indicators
The tool contains custom generic concrete data that were generated based on the aforementioned data
NZEB energy scenarios were created based on data provided by IGBC and can be activated in Carbon Designer, by selecting them in the Scenarios section
The tool is not taking into account the manufacturing localization method, no matter what the LCA parameter settings are. This is because local generic data have been provided for the most important materials that are manufactured locally, while the rest are typically imported. This way EPDs are not affected in any case as well. This can lead to significant differences in results in comparison to other tools