Welcome

About Athena Building LCA

This free web app is a next-generation whole-building LCA tool aligned with state-of-the-art guidelines and standards. The Athena Building LCA web app is compliant with ISO 21930, EN 15978, and the National Guidelines for Whole-building LCA

The purpose of this tool is to enable advanced whole-building LCA practice in line with the national guidelines and with maximum transparency and flexibility. Import a bill of materials, set the assessment parameters, and get cradle-to-grave LCA results for the key impact categories based on our background environmental and scenario data.

Users can define their own scenarios to override our defaults. In other words, use your own data for transportation distances and modes, replacement rates, and end of life fates. And create your own custom products.

Highly detailed and disaggregated LCA results are provided, to enable contribution analysis by building element, material, work result, and year.

You will need a bill of materials to use this tool. If you don’t have one yet for your building (for example, if you are in early design), use the Impact Estimator to generate a bill of materials, for import into the web app.

See the user manual/transparency document for standards compliance statements and for details on data and methods.

By using this tool, you agree to our terms and conditions, and you understand the limitations of the tool.

Development of this tool was made possible by funding from these Athena members:

  • American Institute for Steel Construction
  • American Iron and Steel Institute
  • Canadian Pre-cast/Pre-stressed Concrete Institute
  • Canadian Wood Council
  • Cement Association of Canada
  • Forest Products Association of Canada
  • Metal Building Manufacturers Association

And by funding from:

  • US Endowment for Forestry and Communities
  • USDA Forest Service
  • BC Forestry Innovation Investment
  • University of British Columbia

Other Athena software

Impact Estimator for Buildings
This is our original whole-building LCA software, a PC-based desktop tool. It can also be used to generate a bill of materials in early design, for import into the web app. Click here to get it.

Pavement LCA
This is our LCA web app for roadways and other paving projects. Click here to use it.

About the Athena Institute

The non-profit Athena Sustainable Materials Institute has been a leading voice in data-driven sustainability research, tools and advocacy since 1997. We are specialists in life cycle assessment (LCA) for construction materials and works. Our Impact Estimator for Buildings is free desktop software that has been putting the power of cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment in the hands of design professionals, students, and sustainability consultants since 2002. Our Athena Building LCA web app is a next-generation tool first released in 2025.

Whole-building LCA practice has come a long way since 2002. As advocates for adherence to standards, guidelines, and best practices in whole-building LCA, we have a responsibility to keep our tools state-of-the-art. We also have a responsibility to ensure the background environmental data on materials and energy is high quality. This is possible thanks to our work as leading LCA and EPD consultants for the construction materials industry. Our public service work is dependent on contributions from our members, our donors, and our research sponsors. Learn more about our work and how you can help at www.athenasmi.org.

Release History

  • α Phase 3 (v1.3.5) (February 2025)
    Alpha Test Phase 3 release is the last major alpha test cycle for internal testing as we prepare for β test.
    v1.3.5 February 2025 Features:
    1. Improved automatic mapping of OmniClass21 (Elements) and OmniClass23 (Products) during BOM Import
    2. Updated Bootstrap library to v5.3.3
    3. Miscellaneous bug fixes
    4. Miscellaneous database updates
    v1.3.4 February 2025 Features:
    1. Added default unit info for Flow records
    2. Improved behaviour and performance of the Flow selection modal
    3. Improved behaviour and performance of the Environmental Dataset selection modal
    4. Corrected BOM Import merge|replace behaviour
    5. Improved auto-mapping of Environmental Dataset and Product Flow Scenario info for imported BOM info
    6. Miscellaneous bug fixes
    7. Miscellaneous database updates
    v1.3.3 December 2024 Features:
    1. Introduction of the Flow Mapping Library module
    2. Integration of the Flow and Unit of Measure Mapping Libraries into the BOM Import Utility
    3. Miscellaneous bug fixes
    v1.3.2 December 2024 Features:
    1. Introduction of the Unit of Measure Mapping Library module
    2. Miscellaneous bug fixes
    v1.3.1 November 2024 Features:
    1. Introduction of the Product Flow Scenario Library module
    2. Database updates for Environmental Dataset and Flow data
    3. Switch widget display bug fixes
    4. Miscellaneous bug fixes
    v1.3.0 September 2024 Features:
    1. Database and app user interface now align with the Whole Building LCA Guidelines (NRC and Athena)
    2. Adoption of OmniClass 23 (Products)
    3. Abandonment of Material and Energy "Product" records and per-unit basis Cradle to Gate LCA data
    4. Adoption of Environmental Dataset per unit ISO21930 LCA data (Cradle to Gate and beyond)
    5. Adoption of Environmental Dataset specific Product Flow Scenarios for modeling Bill of Material Line Item life cycle flows
    6. Separation of Environmental Data from flows
    7. and so much more
  • α Phase 2 (v1.2.00) (December 2022)
    Alpha Test Phase 2 release was supposed to be the last alpha test cycle for internal testing as we prepare for β test, but then the Whole Buildings LCA Guidelines document was published, and that changed everything.
    Features:
    1. New and improved user experience (v2.0)
    2. Quick start for new Project
    3. Quick start for new Building design
    4. Bill of material import
    5. Assessment scope result filtering
    6. Page context specific help information

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