Arcadis built a baseline whole life carbon model for each refurbishment in One Click LCA, then ran automated hotspot analysis to see which elements drove the most carbon before any design decisions were made. At Knowsley House, that surfaced structural steel, electrical cabling and the aluminium façade as the largest contributors, well ahead of specification or procurement.
Oakley House's Stage 4 model of 479 kgCO2e/m² was measured against both Cadogan's internal 425 kgCO2e/m² KPI and the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard's 475 kgCO2e/m² retail benchmark. One Click LCA supports benchmarking a project's modelled performance against external standards like this one directly within its reporting output, which is what gave the project team a specific target rather than a general instruction to reduce carbon.
Policy SI 2 of the London Plan mandates whole life-cycle carbon assessment for developments referable to the Mayor and encourages it for all major applications in Greater London, using a methodology based on the RICS whole life carbon standard. One Click LCA provides a dedicated GLA reporting tool built for this specific assessment format, separate from its wider carbon modelling software.
Retaining an existing structural frame and floor slabs, as Arcadis did at Knowsley House, avoids the embodied carbon of manufacturing and installing new structural steel and concrete, which is consistently one of the largest hotspots in a whole life carbon model. One Click LCA's hotspot analysis is what allowed Arcadis to confirm structural retention as the single largest saving available on that project before committing to it.