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differences in performance and aesthetics of these three window options, and the
environmental considerations cannot be the only deciding factor. However, the aluminum clad window could serve as a good compromise to having a similar look but
better environmental performance.
9.4 Environmental Product Declarations
When working as an industrial designer or product designer steeped very closely in
one specific area, the powers of LCA at the scale of an individual product are strong.
However, someone who is working at a larger scale, such as an architect specifying
products for a building, will not have the time or knowledge to fully conduct and
utilize the results of such a study. In this case, an environmental product declaration
(EPD) can provide insight to the designer. An EPD is a report generated that transparently reports the results of an LCA study for a specific product. They can help
designers to evaluate comparable products and select the best one without having to
complete the full LCA study themselves. However, inconsistencies in methodologies can make it so that the results of two EPDs are not comparable, and there are
not publicly available EPDs for all products. Until EPDs are widely proliferated and
standardized, studies like the example above is the most reliable way to compare
individual products.
There are features specific to SolidWorks Sustainability that are not found in the
WBLCA tools. Specifically, the ability to quickly assign and test different manufacturing locations and travel distances can be very valuable. SolidWorks Sustainability
has information on different manufacturing conditions based on location, as well as
default transport distances for products imported from varying regions. Tally and
One Click LCA can also be used to test varying travel distances to simulate imported
products, but it requires the user to enter information on the transportation distances
for each product manually. Tally only has information on North American manufacturing processes, and while One Click LCA has databases for all over the world,
they are covered under separate licenses, and so each project is restricted to data of
one location. While location and transportation are important factors in a study, in
most cases the impacts are dominated by the material stage.
9.5 Future Tools
At the moment, all of the tools discussed act independently of each other, instead of
working in tandem. This lack of interoperability can severely limit the ways that
designers can evaluate their projects based on a lack of access to software, knowledge of the software, or time. At the present moment, LCA, LCC, and operational
energy studies must all be conducted separately, with few exceptions. SLCA tools
9.5 Future Tools
differences in performance and aesthetics of these three window options, and the
environmental considerations cannot be the only deciding factor. However, the aluminum clad window could serve as a good compromise to having a similar look but
better environmental performance.
9.4 Environmental Product Declarations
When working as an industrial designer or product designer steeped very closely in
one specific area, the powers of LCA at the scale of an individual product are strong.
However, someone who is working at a larger scale, such as an architect specifying
products for a building, will not have the time or knowledge to fully conduct and
utilize the results of such a study. In this case, an environmental product declaration
(EPD) can provide insight to the designer. An EPD is a report generated that transparently reports the results of an LCA study for a specific product. They can help
designers to evaluate comparable products and select the best one without having to
complete the full LCA study themselves. However, inconsistencies in methodologies can make it so that the results of two EPDs are not comparable, and there are
not publicly available EPDs for all products. Until EPDs are widely proliferated and
standardized, studies like the example above is the most reliable way to compare
individual products.
There are features specific to SolidWorks Sustainability that are not found in the
WBLCA tools. Specifically, the ability to quickly assign and test different manufacturing locations and travel distances can be very valuable. SolidWorks Sustainability
has information on different manufacturing conditions based on location, as well as
default transport distances for products imported from varying regions. Tally and
One Click LCA can also be used to test varying travel distances to simulate imported
products, but it requires the user to enter information on the transportation distances
for each product manually. Tally only has information on North American manufacturing processes, and while One Click LCA has databases for all over the world,
they are covered under separate licenses, and so each project is restricted to data of
one location. While location and transportation are important factors in a study, in
most cases the impacts are dominated by the material stage.
9.5 Future Tools
At the moment, all of the tools discussed act independently of each other, instead of
working in tandem. This lack of interoperability can severely limit the ways that
designers can evaluate their projects based on a lack of access to software, knowledge of the software, or time. At the present moment, LCA, LCC, and operational
energy studies must all be conducted separately, with few exceptions. SLCA tools
9.5 Future Tools