Whole Life Carbon software for building and infrastructure projects

Collaborative Whole Life Carbon Assessment software solution for measuring, improving, and reporting on whole-life carbon emissions, along with 50 other environmental indicators (water, GWP biogenic, abiotic depletion and more).
Resource Use Advancing Net Zero

Problem Addressed

Determining the environmental impact of a construction project can be difficult especially with numerous sectors and supply chains to calculate and report. Choosing where opportunities for decarbonisation exist requires not only a detailed understanding of the project but also guidance for making the right decisions. eTool addresses the challenge of environmental sustainability in construction by providing detailed insights into the carbon footprint and other environmental impacts of projects. By identifying areas with the highest environmental impact, it assists in making informed decisions to improve sustainability.

Solution Overview

Cerclos provides organisations with robust tools to effectively and efficiently assess and mitigate the environmental and cost impacts of building and infrastructure projects worldwide, spanning the entire project life cycle. This encompasses providing a centralised platform that enables stakeholders to seamlessly gain a comprehensive overview of their project’s environmental performance, from macro to granular levels, at any project stage. Teams are empowered to compare alternatives, catalyse innovative sustainable designs and strategies for real-world implementation, and approach decarbonisation holistically and transparently, beyond simply meeting reporting requirements.

Cerclos’s flagship whole life carbon assessment software, eTool, streamlines the whole life carbon assessment process for building and infrastructure projects worldwide, ensuring precision and efficiency. It is a collaborative solution for organisations to measure, improve, and report on the whole-life carbon emissions of their building and infrastructure projects, aligning with international standards and rating schemes such as BREEAM, PAS 2080, Level(s), London Plan, Green Star, LEED, Living Building Challenge and the new RICS 2nd edition.

eTool provides comprehensive insights for informed decision-making, helping users minimise environmental impacts, and it has more than 10,000 users globally. Its flexibility allows it to model projects of varying scales, from residential homes to commercial buildings and large infrastructure projects. eTool allows users to analyse various aspects of a project’s design and operation, identify the most significant sources of emissions, and explore alternative, more sustainable options. Compared to spreadsheet-based approaches, eTool is a collaborative tool equipped with high quality data sources and robust capabilities including templates, a portfolio emissions analyser, API integration, automated reporting, and scenario modelling.

Thanks to its unique and efficient template system, eTool simplifies the process, offering pre-built or customisable templates that gather related elements in one place, ensuring repeatable, accurate and comparable assessments and more geographically relevant results. This streamlining enables project teams to simplify project take-off information and LCA data input to gain deeper insights into the construction make-ups and efficiently identify hotspots across different stages. Users have the option to build their library of templates or use the existing library, which includes thousands of templates for construction components, energy and water use, benchmarks, and more. Its scenario pioneering feature allows users to compare alternatives quickly from early-stage modelling to detailed impact analysis, finding optimal improvement strategies at the lowest cost. While eTool can function as a standalone solution for life cycle assessment, it can be used in connection with other solutions such as AutoCAD and BiM model, but its effectiveness as a standalone solution provides a more comprehensive approach to sustainable construction.

On the assurance front, Cerclos further supports eTool users with third-party design certification to ensure high-quality LCA studies.

Leveraging eTool offers significant benefits for teams and projects including long-term savings, increased project value, and achievement of sustainability goals. While cost-benefit ratios vary by project scale and user case, eTool’s robust capabilities ensure top-tier LCA studies, fostering sustainable results, and catalysing design innovations, crucial for short-term and long-term project success.

Company name

Cerclos

UK availability

Yes

Solution launch date

2011

Links

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Solutions submitted by

Cerclos

Case Study

HS2 is Europe’s largest infrastructure project, valued at £98 billion, designed to increase capacity on the UK’s railways and improve connectivity between eight out of 10 of Britain’s biggest cities, creating thousands of jobs and rebalancing our economy. The scale, strategic nature and high profile of the project required a robust selection process during which vendors were rigorously assessed.

After an extensive and comprehensive tender selection process, eTool software was selected by HS2 to measure, reduce and report on carbon emissions, materials efficiency and wider embedded environmental impacts. This demonstrated eTool’s successful application to the infrastructure sector as well as the maturity of our software, security, commercial stability and quality assurance. Since 2018, HS2 has used Cerclos’ LCA software, eTool, to drive its carbon reduction targets, including a 50% reduction for Main Works Civils, credits under BREEAM Infrastructure, and design innovations meeting PAS 2080 standards.

The HS2 project leverages eTool, an advanced whole-life carbon modelling software, to address carbon reduction across its building and infrastructure projects. eTool’s capabilities allow for precise modelling of each project’s environmental impact over its entire lifecycle, from design to deconstruction. This software facilitates scenario analysis and decision-making that prioritise sustainability, offering insights into the carbon footprint of materials and processes used in construction and operation.

As part of the HS2 commitment to reducing carbon from their operations, HS2 implemented their Carbon Management Plan to deliver its carbon minimisation objectives across the design, construction and operational phases. Through its life cycle assessment approach, eTool aided in setting baselines for design options, enabling HS2 and its subcontractors to identify opportunities for improving life cycle performance. This approach was integral to setting ambitious carbon reduction targets for the project’s supply chain.

The eTool software’s effectiveness was further validated through a PAS2080 audit by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA) on HS2’s greenhouse gas reporting processes, demonstrating eTool’s transparency and reliability.

Key benefits realised by HS2 using eTool include:

  • Consistency in data input and reporting
  • Efficiency in quantification and automated reporting processes
  • Transparency for efficient assurance and deliverable acceptance
  • Utility of Data to inform future project stages and asset management
  • Integrated Design on a single platform for whole project life cycle carbon management
  • Compliance with regulatory standards like PAS2080 & BREEAM Infrastructure

This case study underscores eTool’s ability to support major infrastructure projects in achieving sustainability and carbon reduction objectives, establishing it as a valuable tool in environmental impact assessment and collaborative project management.

Facts and Figures

70,000 +

individually modelled carbon reduction strategies

11,000 +

projects modelled

5,000 +

available materials

3,500 +

global templates

60 +

sustainability indicators

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Related members

Cerclos

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