Construction and manufacturing sustainability platform One Click LCA has launched Materials Compass, giving designers, engineers and specifiers access to the world’s largest construction life-cycle assessment (LCA) database.
Showing the environmental impact of more than 250,000 construction products, Materials Compass will help construction industry professionals make more data-driven decisions throughout the design and construction process, select lower-carbon materials and ultimately reduce carbon emissions from construction projects — via verified environmental product declarations (EPDs) and other product sustainability data.
“We want to embed decarbonization into the design and construction process, instead of it being an afterthought,” said Panu Pasanen, the CEO and founder of One Click LCA. “Materials Compass brings all the global EPDs together for designers, buyers, and specifiers. This makes finding and choosing lower-carbon and sustainable materials easy.”
There can be significant differences between materials on the market. According to One Click LCA data, carbon emissions can be more than one-third lower if people select the lowest-carbon materials compared to the highest-carbon choices available. The result is carbon reduction potential for projects that select the lower-carbon options.
Material Compass provides a complete overview of all global EPDs for construction materials on the platform, letting construction industry professionals compare the carbon impact of different materials side-by-side. The platform brings together data from multiple sources, including EPDs, carbon footprints of products and generic life-cycle assessment data, making it easier to make informed decisions.
“Our goal is to integrate all qualifying construction material data, including EPD, CFP, TM6, and generic datasets, as soon as it’s available worldwide,” said Jani Tierala, head of LCA Data at One Click LCA. “All data undergoes a rigorous quality review by our experts, who leverage AI-based and proprietary tools. Where industry data is lacking, we also produce high-quality generic LCA data for key materials like concrete, steel, wood, glass, plastics, and textiles.”
