Athena Sustainable Materials Institute Releases Update to Its Impact Estimator for Buildings Software

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Building Product Manufacturers take note – Athena is now accepting brand name LCA or EPD product data in the Impact Estimator.

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (PRWEB) November 18, 2013

The Athena Sustainable Materials Institute today released an update to its popular life cycle assessment (LCA) software package for North American building designers - the Impact Estimator for Buildings (v4.5). The Impact Estimator is a free and compliant whole building LCA software for those seeking the LCA credits in Green Globes® and LEED® (v4 and MR pilot credit 63). The update is available for download from Athena's LCA Tools site, calculatelca.com.

Enhancements and updates captured in this version:

•     New and updated cradle-to-grave North American steel product data;
•     New GAF TPO roofing membrane data;
•     Supports new user defined concrete mix designs and blended cements;
•     Includes latest CORRIM US regional wood product data;
•     New Canadian wood products data (LVL, I-joists and CLT);
•     Updated end-of-life landfill process data;
•     New bio-products carbon accounting scenarios including end-of-life effects;
•     Updated metal building systems LCI data and assembly quantity take-offs;
•     Full compatibility with US EPA’s TRACI v2.1 characterization method; and
•     New software “Auto Update” capability.

More detail on enhancements and updates.

This release was made possible by support from the following: American Iron and Steel Institute, Steel Recycling Institute, World Steel Association, GAF, CORRIM (Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials), the Metal Building Manufacturers Association, the Structural Engineers Institute, the USDA Forest Products Lab, and Athena Institute members.

FAQs, video tutorials and an updated user manual are available at calculatelca.com/Resources. Athena will also be at Greenbuild in Philadelphia – drop by Booth #1842 in Exhibit Hall B for a personal demo of the new software and its features.

Building Product Manufacturers take note – Athena is now accepting brand name LCA or EPD product data in the Impact Estimator. Find out how.

About the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute
The Athena Sustainable Materials Institute is a non-profit research group bringing tools and data to the construction sector for the next generation of sustainability in the built environment. Since 1997, the Athena Institute has focused on quantifying the environmental footprint of design decisions. We work with leading edge architects, engineers, building owners and material manufacturers to measure the environmental impact of buildings, infrastructure and construction materials using life cycle assessment (LCA). The only North American organization dedicated to construction-sector LCA, Athena develops and maintains a large LCA database for construction materials and provides the LCA-based Impact Estimator software tools for building and roadway designers. Contact us to learn more about LCA in design practice, get our tools, join our mailing list or support us in our work to advance the tools and the construction databases.

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