You will find info on how to register on Start kit for new users.

Visit the login page here.

Please visit Start kit for new users and check our Video Guides as well. If you still have issues after that please contact support@bionova.fi.

Request your free trial here.

You can book a private demo here.

Please request your free student license here instead.

Contact hello@bionova.fi to request a quote. To buy a license and access advanced calculation tools, please navigate to the One Click LCA® Online Store. If you haven’t done so, first login to the store with your One Click LCA account or register an account. From there you can browse products by category, add them to cart, and finally buy them. Available payment options are Invoice (Direct Bank Transfer) or Credit Card (Stripe).

Please check the guidance on how to buy from the online store here.

Starter license allows row-by-row LCA generation and includes email support and pre-recorded training videos.
Business license includes (in addition to all features in the starter license) integration with commonly used design software for automated LCA import; option to download product EPDs used in the project directly from the software; industry average benchmark values; email support and live webinar training.
Expert license includes (in addition to all features in the business license) 3D LCA visualisation directly in the BIM model; sustainable materials suggestion and benchmarking and private materials database; private webinar training, email support and live chat support.

Congratulations!

Once we have received your payment, your license will be automatically created.

If you need to start with your project immediately and you need your license to be activated before we have received the payment, please forward the copy of your payment to support@bionova.fi and we will activate your license.
You can start using the tool after the activation of your license. Your license will be activated by linking it to your user account. To do so, you must be a registered user on One Click LCA and give us a notification of the user name at support@bionova.fi.

If you are a professor and want to use One Click LCA in the classroom read more here. If you are a student request your student license here. If you are a researcher contact hello@bionova.fi.

There are no renewal fees for extending project license, the reason for setting the expiration date for project licenses is to avoid misuse of the license once the project has ended. If the license expires before your project has been completed, please just inform the support and we will reactivate your license.

If the chat is not working or you cannot see our messages it is usually because you are using Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer is no longer supported by Microsoft so the chat cannot support it. Please switch to Chrome or Firefox or upgrade to Microsoft Edge. In any case, you can reach us at hello@bionova.fi.

• Read our two-parts guide on Life-Cycle Assessment: Part 1 and Part 2.
• Join a free webinar. Sign up here.
• Join a training. Check the upcoming ones here.
• Create a free account for One Click LCA. Register here.

Please contact hello@bionova.fi, we would love to hear from you! Interviews can be hold in English, Finnish, and French.

If you are using our Starter license, please check our Video Guides for Customers page in the Customer Support Center.
For Business and Enterprise license users there is a free training webinar, where all functionalities of the tool are explained based on the purposes of your LCA projects.
For all customers we also offer customer support via email. Support via Livechat is available only for Enteprise license holders. For bigger companies with many users, private live trainings can also be arranged in situ.

For each tool we have available instructions page. To access that, please click on the ‘Instructions’ button next to your tool to access the page.

Login and click on Help and User instructions to access our Customer Support Center.

Please contacts us here and we will get back to you!

Architects, structural engineers, environmental consultants, CSR specialists, Green Building professionals, and quantity surveyors.

For each tool for a specific system (e.g. LEED, BREEAM, E+C-), the assessment period is fixed to the period required by the system and is not modifiable by the user. In the other tools, it’s a modifiable parameter. The tools considering only embodied impacts do not require assessment period.

Yes, the software has many other functions. For building design we support Life-Cycle Costing, greener material tracking, site tracking, and climate resiliency, among others. You can also track your results and the emissions and material flows during the use phase of the building. Additionally, we have solutions for building material LCA and EN15804-compliant EPDs, as well as infrastructure construction assessment for roads, railways, airports, and more.

Building life cycle stages are the different periods of a building’s lifetime. For instance: raw material harvesting, manufacturing of products, use phase of the building, end of life. In the European markets the building life cycle stages are defined by EN 15978 and EN 15804 standards, which can be included in LCAs.

The following table lists all life cycle stages according to EN standards:

Life-cycle stages according to EN standards.

A1: raw material extraction and processing, processing of secondary material input (e.g. recycling processes)
A2: transport to the manufacturer
A3: manufacturing

Module A1, A2 and A3 may be declared as one aggregated module A1-3. All stages include provision of all materials, products and energy, as well as waste processing up to the end-of waste state or disposal of final residues during the product stage. The assessment takes only the building and its parts into account, but not furniture or appliances, for example.

A4: transport to the building site
A5: installation into the building

Stages A4 and A5 include all impacts and aspects related to any losses during this construction process stage (i.e. production, transport, and waste processing and disposal of the lost products and materials).

B1: use or application of the installed product
B2: maintenance
B3: repair
B4: replacement
B5: refurbishment
B6: operational energy use (e.g. operation of heating system and other building related installed services);
B7: operational water use

Stages B6 and B7 include also provision and transport of all materials, products, as well as energy and water provisions, waste processing up to the end-of-waste state or disposal of final residues during this part of the use stage.

C1: de-construction, demolition
C2: transport to waste processing
C3: waste processing for reuse, recovery and/or recycling
C4: disposal

All C stages include provision and transport, provision of all materials, products and related energy and water use.

D: reuse, recovery and/or recycling potentials, expressed as net impacts and benefits

Different life cycle stages are either mandatory or optional for different scope of LCA. In product level EPDs only Modules A1 to A3 are mandatory under EN 15804, while all other phases are optional. In building level calculations (for instance according to EN 15978) the idea is to take into account all the meaningful impacts over the life time of the building. However, different certifications and calculation systems may limit the modules calculated.

There is also an additional module (Module D), which can be included in the scope of the assessment. Module D allows supplementary information beyond the building life cycle to be considered. For construction products, this means that the benefits and burdens of disposal after demolition can be taken into account. The use of Module D is consistent with a cradle-to-cradle approach.

One Click LCA supports calculations of all life cycle stages from Cradle to Grave as defined in EN 15978, including construction products and process in A1-A5, building use, maintenance, energy and water consumption in B1-B7, end-of-life impacts in C1-C4 and external impacts in module D.

However, in most of our tools that are targeted for whole building LCA for different certifications and calculation schemes, the amount of the life cycle stages available is restricted to match the requirement of the scheme in question. That is shown in the following table:

You can just ask the architect to give you structural drawings and the areas for them in the building.

These features are only included in the Expert level licenses. You can upgrade anytime just by paying the difference.

Our whole building life cycle assessment tools for European markets are based on the EN 15978 standard. The EN 15978 standard is in line with the ISO 14040/44 standard, which means that any EN standard based tools are also compliant with ISO 14040/44.

Our whole building life cycle assessment tools for North American markets are compliant with ISO 14040/44.

The tool is also third-party verified for EN 15978, ISO 21931–1, ISO 21929–1 and for input data for ISO 14040/44 and EN 15804 standards. Please find the verification report here.

Our building product EPD tools are based on EN 15804 standard. This EN standard is also in line with ISO 14040/44 standard, which means that calculations done using this tool are also compliant with ISO 14040/44.

The tool is also verified against EN 15804. Please find the verification report here.

For all the tools targeting for European markets the impact assessment methodology is CML –IA 2012, which is the methodology required by the European EN 15978 and EN 15804 standards. CML methodology was created by the University of Leiden in the Netherlands in 2001. Read more here.

For North American markets we use TRACI, short for “Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and Other Environmental Impacts”, which was developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The TRACI impact categories of:

• Ozone depletion
• Global warming
• Acidification
• Smog formation
• Eutrophication
• Human health cancer, human health noncancer, human health criteria pollutants and ecotoxity

were developed specifically for US conditions by using input data consistent with US locations. Read more here.

One Click LCA supports all the 24 impact categories listed in EN 15804 based on CML methodology and 6 TRACI impact categories. However, the impact categories offered for each of the calculation tool depend on the purpose of the tool. For instance BREEAM Intl Mat 01 LCA tool only shows the six impact categories required for this credit. Please find below a complete list of impact categories and which of them are shown for each calculation tool.

Other EN standard impact categories included in One Click LCA:

• Use of renewable primary energy excluding renewable primary energy resources used as raw materials (MJ net calorific value)
• Use of renewable primary energy resources used as raw materials (MJ net calorific value)
• Total use of renewable primary energy resources (primary energy and primary energy resources used as materials) (MJ net calorific value)
• Use of non-renewable primary energy excluding non-renewable primary energy resources used as raw materials (MJ net calorific value)
• Use of non-renewable primary energy resources used as raw materials (MJ net calorific value)
• Total use of non-renewable primary energy resources (primary energy and primary energy resources used as materials) (MJ net calorific value)
• Use of secondary material (kg)
• Use of renewable secondary fuels (MJ net calorific value)
• Use of non-renewable secondary fuels (MJ net calorific value)
• Net use of fresh water (m3)
• Hazardous waste disposed* (kg)
• Non hazardous waste disposed (kg)
• Radioactive waste disposed (kg)
• Components for re-use (kg)
• Materials for recycling (kg)
• Materials for energy recovery (kg)
• Exported energy (MJ per energy carrier)

LCA for LEED, USA and Canada uses all 6 TRACI 2.1 categories.

CML / EN/ TRACI standard impact categories and units:

Global warming potential (GWP): Global warming potential is a relative measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere. The global warming potential is calculated in carbon dioxide equivalents meaning that the greenhouse potential of an emission is given in relation to CO2. Since the residence time of gases in the atmosphere is incorporated into the calculation, a time range for the assessment is defined to be 100 years. For CML methodology unit kgCO2-Eq and for TRACI kgCO2-Eq/kg substance is used.

Ozone depletion potential (ODP): Ozone depletion potential represents a relative value that indicates the potential of a substance to destroy ozone gas as compared with the potential of chlorofluorocarbon-11 which is assigned a reference value of 1, resulting in an equilibrium state of total ozone reduction. For CML methodology unit kgCFC-11-Eq and for TRACI kgCFC-11-Eq/kg substance is used.

Acidification potential (AP): The acidification of soils and waters occurs predominantly through the transformation of air pollutants into acids, which leads to a decrease in the pH-value of rainwater and fog from 5.6 and below. Acidification potential is described as the ability of certain substances to build and release H+ions and is given in sulphur dioxide equivalents (kgSO2-Eq for CML and kgSO2-Eq/kg substance for TRACI).

Eutrophication potential (EP): Eutrophication is the enrichment of nutrients in a certain place. It can be aquatic or terrestrial. All emissions of N and P to air, water and soil and of organic matter to water are aggregated into a single measure. The unit for CML methodology is kgPO4-Eq and kgN-Eq/kg substance for TRACI.

Photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP)/ Smog formation: Radiation from the sun produces aggressive reaction products, like ozone, in the presence of nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons. Photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP) for CML methodology is expressed using the reference unit in ethylene-equivalents (kgC2H4-Eq), for smog formation of TRACI methodology the ozone formation is used as reference (kgO3Eq/kg substance is used).

Abiotic depletion potential (ADP)/ Fossil fuel depletion: Abiotic depletion describes the reduction of the global amount of non-renewable raw materials and is determined for each extraction of minerals and fossil fuels based on the remaining reserves and rate of extraction. The results are calculated in reference case for Antimony kg Sb-eq or in MJ for CML methodology and in MJ for TRACI methodology, which includes the fossil energy carriers (crude oil, natural gas, coal resources).

Human health cancer; Human health noncancer; Human health criteria pollutants, Eco-toxicity: Used in TRACI methodology only, it focuses on covering those chemicals of concern within the US (e.g., TRI chemicals). It has since been recognized that today’s global economy often requires the inclusion of suppliers who are outside of the US within countries who may have their own lists of reportable chemicals. The USEtox expanded set allows this expansion into chemicals of concern globally. USEtox is developed with two spatial scales: continental and global. The environmental compartments within the continental scale includes: urban air, rural air, agricultural soil, industrial soil, freshwater, and coastal marine water. USEtox includes most of the pathways found in the original EPA Risk Assessment Guidelines, including inhalation, ingestion of drinking water, produce, meat, milk, and freshwater and marine fish. The recommended units for the USEtox human health cancer, noncancer, and ecotoxicity are: CTUcancer/kg, CTUnoncancer/kg, and CTUeco/kg, respectively. Read more here.

Normalisation is generally used to produce a single numerical score by weighting each of the impact categories and summing them up into a single score. Environmental impact scores in life cycle assessment are shown their physical units presenting the potential to cause environmental impact and the results of different impact categories cannot be compared with each other or combined as such. One way to normalise is to divide your scores by a reference situation’s scores. This reference situation could be one building product’s share of all emission and resource use in the building over service life of 50 years.

Normalisation converts complicated units into fractions of building product’s scores per impact category.

According to the EN ISO 14044 standard, normalization is the calculation of the magnitude of the category indicator results relative to some reference information. The aim of the normalization is to understand better the relative magnitude for each indicator result of the product under study.

One Click LCA is using this method only for BRE Eco Points, which uses certain rules for normalization provided by BRE.

Source

The Impact compliant tool uses the IMPACT database, which is an average UK construction material database licensed by BRE. To enable the IMPACT-compliant module, you need purchase the IMPACT database license. It is not required for BREEAM, but it is for Home Quality Mark.

The IMPACT Equivalent tool uses manufacturer specific environmental product declaration (EPD) data from manufacturers who have published their data in BRE EPD system or with some other EPD publisher. There are also differences in scope of the analysis.

The IMPACT compliant tool calculates all 24 environmental indicators according to EN standards, while the IMPACT Equivalent tool focuses on carbon footprint. Both of them are verified for compliancy and provide same credits for BREEAM UK NC calculations.

Yes. We use a data regionalization methodology according to CEN/TR 15941:2010 to adjust the emissions to match with local manufacturing conditions.

The methodology has been verified by BRE and based on the robustness of the method they have granted One Click LCA 100 % software quality rating for BREEAM Int’l anywhere in the world.

Yes. Both the software and its databases have been third-party verified against ISO 14040 / ISO 14044 and EN 15804 standards, which are the ones the LEED credit is based on.

GBCI does not pre-verify software solutions for this credit anymore but they verify them once a project using it is submitted. One Click LCA has already passed this verification for both LEED v4 MRc1 and LEED v3 respective pilot credit.

One Click LCA integrates with Building Information Models in IFC2x3, IFC4, Revit, ArchiCAD and Tekla Structures formats. It integrates with all energy modeling software supporting gbXML format (including DesignBuilder and IES-VE). It also integrates with Microsoft Excel and other data formats. There is also a direct integration into IES-VE software. Read more here.

One Click LCA allows you to extract and refine the data available in the models you have. It does not require perfect models, however the types of models suitable for life-cycle assessment are architectural and structural models. Typically, mechanical models do not contain the required information.

No. There are many other input modes you can use: a bill of materials on Excel, energy models in gbXML format, or manual import on the web application. Other BIM software models besides Revit can also be used, as long as the model can be exported in an IFC format.

If you have a model without the material layers you can import that data via Excel. To calculate the embodied impacts of the building you need to have a rough idea of what materials will be used.

If a specific material you are using is not in our database you can either send the EPD to support@bionova.fi to have it added or select a generic material with the same characteristics as yours (for example, strength class in the case of concrete).

The new data added must pass our quality control. The main requirement to data is to be at a minimum ISO 14040/44 compliant and the study must be conducted no more than 10 years ago. The EPDs issued in Europe are commonly also EN 15804 compliant and in that case valid 5 years from the issue date.
Find which kind of data can be found in our software here. 

In most cases the technical similarity (e.g. the physical material content of the product) defines the emissions so the first option would be to choose technically similar material from some other local manufacturer. If this cannot be found, a technically similar material from our generic database or neighboring area could be the best option. However, both the best option and technical similarity depend on the material type. Therefore we provide our clients with material choosing guidance that gives material group level guidance.

Our database includes only EPDs that have been assessed and verified by our engineers so it is not possible to add materials to the database. However, manufactures can use our software to calculate an EPD for their material and then request it to be added to our database.

Is it also possible to modify the life expectancy of a material.

We have a tool that shows the contribution of all the individual structures and materials, and highlights those with higher emissions. This enables you to easily locate the components with the highest emissions.

In building life cycle assessment or EPD declared/functional unit is the unit per which the results are provided.

Functional unit defines the impact results for certain service level the product provides. For instance for insulation product it could be 1 m2 of insulation which ensures a thermal resistance of 1.5 m2/WK during 50 years. It is normally used in product EPD calculations when impacts related to product use phase are also given. If the function of the product in the building level is not known (e.g. if the product has several applications in the building) or when the study does not consider all the life cycle modules declared unit is used instead of functional unit. It represents physical quantity of the product such as 1 m2 of 50 mm thick insulation or 1 kg insulation.

Which units does One Click LCA support?

For product level calculations, the unit can be freely chosen based on the product and life cycle stages studied.

For buildings, most of the LCA tools of One Click LCA provide results as a total for whole building and per 1 m2 of building area (different area definitions can be used). Additionally, other units such as impacts per 1 m2 of building / year of building use or impacts per user amount may be available for some tools.

An Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is essentially an externally verified and standardized description of the environmental profile of any product. Having an EPD for a product does not necessarily mean that the product is environmentally better than others, but it is a way to obtain transparent information on the environmental impact of the product during its whole lifetime.
EPDs are based on Life-cycle assessment calculations according to ISO 14040, ISO 14044 and usually EN 15804 standard in European countries. An EPD is created and verified in accordance with the International Standard ISO14025, developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). In Europe, the European Committee for Standardization has published EN 15804, common Product Category Rules (PCR) for EPD development in the construction sector.

You can read more about EPDs in our guide here.

When calculating Life-Cycle Assessment you should always choose the best quality data available, which means that, if the material manufacturer you are planning to work with has product EPDs available following your calculation standard, you should use them. However, this might not be possible in all cases. If you are in an early design stage you may not yet know which manufacturer you are going to choose. When no exact information is available, you should use the second best option, which may mean similar products from another manufacturer, product category level EPD, or average LCA data for the product in question.

One Click LCA provides both an extensive database of EPDs and average data for the products. We also offer more detailed guidance to our clients to help them choose the most relevant datasets.

If the EPD you need for your LCA calculations is not available in our database, please send the EPD url link or the file in pdf format to support@bionova.fi, and your EPD will be included once it has been verified by our engineers.

The new data added must pass our quality control. The main requirement to data is to be as a minimum ISO 14040/44 compliant and the study must be conducted no more than 10 years ago. The EPDs issued in Europe are commonly also EN 15804 compliant and in that case valid 5 years from the issue date.

Find which kind of data can be found in our software here. 

We will provide extra guidance on how to select the best data sets for your calculations.

For One Click LCA most of the materials’ environmental impacts are based on manufacturer or product category EPDs, collected from 26 (and counting) different EPD databases, as well as information from building material manufacturers. Moreover, we incorporate some generic building material databases including Oekobau.dat and IMPACT. At the moment our database covers over 10.000 different building material resources.

All the incoming building material data is checked for its validity, reasonability, and coverage before being added to the database. In many cases the data is also enhanced by additional parameters. As a last step the data is filtered according to the requirements of the calculation tool/scheme.

Product Category Rules (PCR) define the rules and requirements for EPDs of a certain product category. PCRs define the methods for the collection of data, the calculation of environmental impact, and how the information should be presented. PCRs enable transparency and comparability between EPDs.

Generic PCRs are a key part of the ISO 14025 standard, whereas the EN 15804 standard provides a core PCR for the Europe-wide generation of construction sector EPD and can be used as such or with additional PCRs. Usually all EPD publishing platforms such as IBU or EPD Norge have either one PCR as a set of additional rules for published EPDs, or a set of PCRs for different construction product categories.

Find the list of current databases here. In addition to listed databases, the system also contains EPD data that is not published under any of the above-mentioned databases.

EPDs entered in One Click LCA database include detailed technical description about building products and comply with EN15804 and/or ISO 14025 standards. All EU databases included comply with the EN 15804 standard and North-American databases comply with the ISO 14040/44 standard.

For several European and world building material producers, One Click LCA has available manufacturer specific data, which allows for highly precise calculation results.

For those who do not yet know which specific building product (manufacturer specific EPDs) they will use, One Click LCA has also country-specific average data (e.g. Ökobaudat and INIES).

If One Click LCA is used in areas where there is not yet a comprehensive local building LCA database available, we have a local compensation methodology that allows to localize the data to get results that match the local manufacturing conditions for a specific area.

We integrate data that is publicly available, free to use, relevant for the purposes of our users, meeting our quality requirements, including validity of the data, and for which the right to use is not ambiguous. Please note that when using the software, some of the data may be filtered by the tools you are using to ensure compliance with the requirements of the calculation tool. Some commercial databases, such as IMPACT or Ecoinvent, are available as well, subject to specific license. Please reach out to us if you believe a certain dataset would meet the above criteria but is not available.

In the One Click LCA database the impacts of electricity and district heat have been calculated using the energy production fuel mixes provided for each country by IEA (2017, International Energy Agency). The impacts of the fuels (both production and exhaust) have been modelled based on the Ecoinvent 3.3 -database. IPCC Guidelines (Gómez & Watterson 2006) and Emission Inventory Guidebook (Trozzi 2010) have also been used to compliment the exhaust emission data.

The impacts of the electricity mix are calculated using the obtained fuel mixes and the impacts of the different fuels and using the output of energy as denominator, thus resulting in impacts per kWh of energy.

Finnish electricity impacts have been calculated using data from Energiateollisuus (2017b) and Statistics Finland (2017). The data includes the used fuel mixes, imported energy, as well as production output and transmission losses. The impacts of heat from Finnish district heating plants have been calculated based on Kaukolämpötilasto (Energiateollisuus 2017a), which provides statistics for each district heating plant in Finland. The statistics include fuel mixes as well as provided district heating and losses. The chosen district heat supplier provides heat to the plant/area and was thus chosen to represent the impacts of used heat.

In our basic view the results will be shown separately for each of the Life-Cycle stages and LCA emission category. Additionally, you’ll have the possibility to see graphs of the results and a detailed result/analysis report that shows the results separately for each of the inputs e.g. building material.

The tool has been verified against EN 15978 and EN 15804 standards and you’ll have the possibility to cover all life-cycle stages of the building according to the standard requirements.

In different certification schemes the scope of LCA may differ and some additional requirements might be included. To ensure compliant results, we have templates for different certification schemes based on the specific requirements. For example, in the case of DGNB we have a separate tool that ensures that the results match DGNB requirements.To ensure transparency you’ll be able to see all the data sources and separate results for each data point and download EPDs used in the calculation.

Yes, you’ll be able to see the results separately for each input and life cycle stage.

lf you haven’t submitted your project to BRE it can still be classified as being in the design stage and you can therefore still get the credits.

We are providing two types of LCC tools: Automated tool with LCA integration and an easy template based LCC tool.

The Automated LCC tool uses your imported construction materials as a basis for your construction costs. Operation and maintenance costs are calculated based on automatically generated location parameters. Replacements are calculated based on the service life of your construction materials. All other costs can be added manually. The tool enables to change the automatically generated costs, so if project’s specific information is available, the figures can be easily edited.

The Template based LCC tool provides easy row-by row template to be filled with the project specific cost data. The templates are based on ISO 15686-5 & EN 16627 standards for international projects and PD 156865:2008 for projects in the UK. The tool enables to calculate LCC over different calculation period and to change the discount factor and add/remove VAT.

Maintenance costs are calculated based on hourly work time per building m2 of each trade. Different trades like cleaning, security, street clearance and other are divided between worker and craftsman labor rates, which are defined by the parameters set by the user (or generated automatically based on the project location).

As per EN standard 16627, operating costs must include operational energy and water costs. Cleaning costs are commonly reported together with maintenance costs, which also include all costs maintaining the building functional and technical performance. One Click LCA uses EN standard classification. For the UK market the British standard PD 156865:2008 is used for the cost classification.