What Is a Whole-Building Life Cycle Assessment (WBLCA)?

What WBLCA measures

Embodied (the A1-A3 — the material production; the structure's concrete and steel dominating; the A4-A5 — the transport and construction), operational (the B6 — the energy use; the grid's decarbonization reducing it over time), and the end-of-life (the C — the demolition, the disposal; the D — the beyond-system reuse credit). The GWP (the global warming potential — the kgCO2e/sq ft metric).

How it's done

The model (the BIM quantities or the early estimates — the material takeoffs), the EPDs (the environmental product declarations — the products' impacts; the generic vs. the product-specific), the tools (the Tally, the One Click LCA, the EC3 — the software), and the benchmarks (the CLF's — the Carbon Leadership Forum's; the targets — the 20-40% reduction goals).

Using the results

The hotspots (the concrete — the cement's carbon; the steel; the envelope — the aluminum), the reductions (the SCMs — the fly ash, the slag; the low-carbon concrete; the mass timber — the biogenic credit; the EPD-specified procurement), and the policies (Buy Clean — the GWP limits; the LEED v5 — the embodied carbon credits; the jurisdictions' — the emerging mandates). The WBLCA is the design's carbon conscience — the numbers guiding the specifications.

The bottom line

WBLCA (EN 15978) quantifies embodied + operational carbon over 60 years — model quantities with EPDs, target the concrete/steel hotspots, and procure to GWP limits.

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