GBCA’s incorporation of Life Cycle Analysis into Green Star will lower the carbon impact of Australian buildings, making it easier and more cost effective to improve designs.
As part of the Green Star 2014 program, the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has announced the launch of two Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) based ‘Innovation Challenges’. Providing up to 8 points in the Green Star Innovation category, the challenges will encourage the industry to incorporate Whole of Building LCA (6 points) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) (2 points) into new and registered Green Star projects.
“This is a fantastic development for the Green Building industry, the owners/occupants of the buildings and ultimately the environment,“ says Alex Bruce, Co-Founder, eTool. “Whole of Building LCA provides a brilliant platform to understand the total ecological footprint of a building, facilitate ease of comparison against alternative designs and ultimately find ways to improve the final outcome of the project.”
While forming the basis of the British and European standard for calculating environmental impacts of buildings (BS EN 15978:2011), LCA is now rapidly propagating into the industry as can be seen with its incorporation into BREEM in the UK, LEED in the US, and now Green Star in Australia.
The integration of LCA within Green Star will provide an opportunity for architecture, engineering and construction organisations to get ahead of the pack as LCA becomes mainstream.
Under the ‘Life Cycle Assessment: Material Lifecycle Impacts’ ‘Innovation Challenge’ a project will be potentially eligible for 6 points by conducting a Whole of Building LCA
- 4 points for realising an improvement across 4 environmental impact categories in comparison to a theoretical benchmark building
- 1 point for comparison against a real example building of similar function
- 1 point for including an additional five impact categories in the analysis
“With almost four years of delivering Whole of Building LCAs and developing LCA software, eTool is well positioned to assist organisations looking to capitalise on this new ‘Innovation Challenge’. Our proven, streamlined, accurate and cost effective process gets results and makes Whole of Building LCA easy,” says Richard Haynes, Head of Software Development and Co-Founder, eTool.
eTool provides eTool® LCA software and training to organisations, enabling ESD consultants to either conduct their own LCAs to be certified or work with LCA engineers to complete the Green Star accredited LCAs on their behalf.
“We anticipate that projects aiming for “five star”, and in some cases “four star” ratings, will find improvements in the required LCA environmental impacts readily achievable,” says Bruce. “This, combined with the simple and cost effective eTool® LCA process, will enable access to up to 6 points in an economical fashion.”
Further details about incorporating LCA into your Green Star project can be found on eTool’s website.
To find out more visit www.etool.net.au
Media Contact:
Siobhan McGurrin
Marketing & Communications Manager
+61 (0) 8 6364 3805
Siobhan@etool.net.au
About eTool
eTool is a world leading life cycle software company that optimises building design for lower environmental impact and greater performance. Utilising their unique software eTool® LCA, they work with architects, engineers and developers to measure and improve the life cycle impacts of buildings, surpassing industry standards. From residential and commercial to development and infrastructure, eTool® LCA makes sustainable development easy to achieve and cost effective for all size projects.
Website: www.etool.net.au/
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