The $60 billion dollar Australian building and construction industry has gained access to LCADesign, the world’s first real-time environmental impact calculator for commercial property.
Building designers can optimise the eco-impact of a building as the design model evolves instead of waiting months for expert analysis, using the LCA Design software package.
LCADesign - Life Cycle Assessment Design - measures the environmental values and risks of materials in commercial buildings. It is the first calculator that works directly from the building designer's model, allowing architects and engineers to optimise the best environmental outcome in real time or ‘on the fly’.
There is growing momentum in the market for greener buildings, and this software will provide industry with the information necessary to design buildings that are more ecologically and economically sustainable.
The LCADesign software was developed over the past six years by a team led by the Brisbane-based Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Construction Innovation, working with the Queensland University of Technology, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Queensland Department of Public Works, CSIRO and other leading research and industry partners.
Users of the software can measure and compare changes to new and refurbished designs. They can see in seconds the impact of design improvements across human health, ecosystem damages, resource depletion, carbon impacts and dollar cost. Users may select from any combination of over seventy measures.
“Building operating energy and water as well as product selections can be changed in seconds and new results generated to show comparative numbers and graphs,” said Dr Keith Hampson, chief executive of CRC for Construction Innovation.
“As global pressure mounts for greener buildings this eco-efficiency assessment tool provides industry with vital information so design can be more ecologically and economically sustainable,” said Hampson.
The products, energy and water database allow designers to show the ecological and economic cost of a client’s design choices. At a mouse click users can compare the eco-preferred and conventional product options. Databases are also available for Californian, German and Dutch supply chains.
In Australia the software is priced at less than $5,000. Project licenses are available at a significantly lower price and a student-priced license is also available.