167
All of the tools generate the results of the study, presented in numerous ways to
help the user interpret them and act on them. However, there are other ways that the
tools work to make the results more actionable for the user. The tools dovetail in
with several green building standards as they relate to LCA. In the “Reports” window, Athena has a “Rating System Reports” that enables the user to generate reports
specific to Green Globes and LEED. One Click LCA has the ability to support
results for numerous international certifications, including LEED, Green Globes,
and Living Building Challenge. This is important because a 2016–2017 study
showed that the overwhelming majority of professionals (mostly in Europe) believe
the purpose of a WBLCA study is as part of a green building certification (BruceHyrkäs et al. 2018).
Beyond certifications, the results become actionable when there is some form of
comparison that can be made. There is no typical baseline building or target emissions to compare a project against. The existence of such reference standards would
assume that all WBLCA studies are completed using the same methodologies and
assumptions. The sheer number of variables in methodologies that can be used in
conducting a study leads to inherent incompatibility in comparing results across
studies. Furthermore, project characteristics including building height, building
type, and stories below grade all have considerable effects on the embodied carbon
of a project (Simonen et al. 2017). Instead, a more reliable option is to compare the
design to variations of itself. Each tool has different methods built in to easily compare different design options to encourage users to compare and evaluate several
design options and find solutions with lower impacts on the environment. These
comparisons must be done between studies using the same tool and with the same
parameters. In most cases, comparisons are only valid when made between options
within the defined project scope.
8.6.2 SolidWorks Sustainability
Since SolidWorks is a tool for product designers and engineers, the LCA functionality associated with it requires more technical input regarding materials and manufacturing processes from the user than does a WBLCA software. When looking at
the scale of a whole building, the user is removed from any of the manufacturing
details of the LCI data they are using. All of this is embedded in the LCI data points
that get mapped to building assemblies. In the greater scheme of the study, small
differences in manufacturing processes will not have dramatic impacts on the
results. However, when looking at the LCA results of a single product, the specifics
of the exact material being used in addition to the manufacturing process become
much more important to the results of the study. In using SolidWorks Sustainability,
users are more engaged with the manufacturing process, fuel sources, fuel quality,
and many other technical considerations (Tzetzis and Symeonidou 2015).
Furthermore, SolidWorks Sustainability brings LCC right into the LCA dashboard.
8.6 Comparison of LCIA Tools
All of the tools generate the results of the study, presented in numerous ways to
help the user interpret them and act on them. However, there are other ways that the
tools work to make the results more actionable for the user. The tools dovetail in
with several green building standards as they relate to LCA. In the “Reports” window, Athena has a “Rating System Reports” that enables the user to generate reports
specific to Green Globes and LEED. One Click LCA has the ability to support
results for numerous international certifications, including LEED, Green Globes,
and Living Building Challenge. This is important because a 2016–2017 study
showed that the overwhelming majority of professionals (mostly in Europe) believe
the purpose of a WBLCA study is as part of a green building certification (BruceHyrkäs et al. 2018).
Beyond certifications, the results become actionable when there is some form of
comparison that can be made. There is no typical baseline building or target emissions to compare a project against. The existence of such reference standards would
assume that all WBLCA studies are completed using the same methodologies and
assumptions. The sheer number of variables in methodologies that can be used in
conducting a study leads to inherent incompatibility in comparing results across
studies. Furthermore, project characteristics including building height, building
type, and stories below grade all have considerable effects on the embodied carbon
of a project (Simonen et al. 2017). Instead, a more reliable option is to compare the
design to variations of itself. Each tool has different methods built in to easily compare different design options to encourage users to compare and evaluate several
design options and find solutions with lower impacts on the environment. These
comparisons must be done between studies using the same tool and with the same
parameters. In most cases, comparisons are only valid when made between options
within the defined project scope.
8.6.2 SolidWorks Sustainability
Since SolidWorks is a tool for product designers and engineers, the LCA functionality associated with it requires more technical input regarding materials and manufacturing processes from the user than does a WBLCA software. When looking at
the scale of a whole building, the user is removed from any of the manufacturing
details of the LCI data they are using. All of this is embedded in the LCI data points
that get mapped to building assemblies. In the greater scheme of the study, small
differences in manufacturing processes will not have dramatic impacts on the
results. However, when looking at the LCA results of a single product, the specifics
of the exact material being used in addition to the manufacturing process become
much more important to the results of the study. In using SolidWorks Sustainability,
users are more engaged with the manufacturing process, fuel sources, fuel quality,
and many other technical considerations (Tzetzis and Symeonidou 2015).
Furthermore, SolidWorks Sustainability brings LCC right into the LCA dashboard.
8.6 Comparison of LCIA Tools