Running a whole building LCA (WBLCA) is a powerful way to show a project’s complete carbon profile, and now it has a home in BuiltCold. With this latest release, agencies can now accept it, project teams can submit it with the tools they already use, and the tool providers get a clearer picture of what a program needs. Easier participation, all around.
What’s Inside
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One portal for every submittal, whatever the pathway
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Bring the WBLCA tool you already use
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Enabling the tool ecosystem
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The Cold Plunge Series: a round table for agency admins
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Where to find us this fall: California, New York, and Palermo
New to Whole Building LCA? The Carbon Leadership Forum has a great primer on how it works.
01One program, every pathway
Most Buy Clean programs give project teams more than one way to comply, since no single pathway fits every project. Until now, each of those pathways was tracked on its own, and it fell to the agency to pull mismatched submittals into something it could actually review. Every pathway an agency offers, a product specification, a carbon budget, building reuse, or a WBLCA, now runs inside one program. One place to define them, one place to review them.
The challenge was even greater with WBLCAs, where teams work across many different tools, each with its own format, methodology, and outputs. BuiltCold now brings those results into one consistent view. Two levels of complexity fall away, and the program costs less to run and grows easier to manage over time.
02Bring your own WBLCA
The WBLCA tool landscape has grown, with several strong options that many teams have already incorporated into how they work. To streamline reporting, BuiltCold now makes it easy for teams to use the tools they already know and then submit the results for compliance. Nothing new to learn, nothing to switch.
The practitioner who runs the analysis chooses the tool and signs for the numbers, keeping data ownership with the team. BuiltCold does not reanalyze the raw results or play the referee. What we do is make the last step easier, giving teams a single place to enter their results, attach supporting data, and see whether the submission meets the program’s requirements.
03Tool ecosystem enablement
Every WBLCA application produces its results a little differently, leaving each agency deciding what a valid submission looks like, one tool at a time. BuiltCold now gives program administrators an easy way to set those expectations once and then publish them in the open, so no tool providers are left guessing.
Agencies can establish what a submittal must include, how it needs to be prepared, and how reports are reviewed. Any WBLCA submittal that meets those requirements qualifies. This gives tool providers a known target to work toward, and gives agencies consistency in what comes back. Looking ahead, BuiltCold will support API connections with tool providers so submissions are even more straightforward.
04The Cold Plunge Series
This fall we are starting a round table for any agency admin currently managing, planning, or exploring a clean construction program. One hour, off the record, made for candid conversation. Each session will include a partner agency case study, a walk through of BuiltCold’s newest features, and an open floor for questions and product requests.
The series is still taking shape, and we’d welcome input on how to make it most useful to our government partners. Reply to let us know if you would like to join and what you would want us to cover. We will gather interest and set a time from there.
Simply reply to this email to confirm your interest.
05Out and about
A few places you’ll find us this fall.