How to select lower-carbon materials for more sustainable construction projects

How to select lower-carbon materials for more sustainable construction projects | One Click LCA

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Materials Compass from One Click LCA helps construction professionals find and compare lower-carbon materials for sustainable construction projects. It provides access to environmental product declarations (EPDs) and life-cycle assessment(LCA) data for over 250,000 construction products.

Why do construction material choices matter?

The construction industry bears a significant responsibility when it comes to global carbon emissions:

39% of global energy-related carbon emissions are attributed to buildings, encompassing both operation and construction.
11% of these building-related emissions come specifically from materials used in construction and renovation.

Material choices matter. By selecting lower-carbon materials, construction professionals can significantly reduce the environmental impact of their projects and contribute to global sustainability goals.

What is Materials Compass?

Materials Compass is a comprehensive database for information about construction products, including EPDs, carbon footprints of products (CFPs), unverified environmental impact declarations such as TM65, and generic LCA data. It offers a user-friendly experience for architects, specifiers, buyers, and professionals interested in finding environmental information about building materials.

Find lower-carbon materials worldwide

Materials Compass helps professionals find and select lower-carbon construction materials to reduce project emissions and meet sustainability goals.

Your advantage with Materials Compass

Extensive database: Materials Compass hosts over 250,000 construction materials, representing a significant portion of One Click LCA's vast LCA database.
User-friendly interface: The platform offers both gallery and list views, similar to popular e-commerce sites, making it easy to browse and compare materials.
Advanced filtering: You can filter materials by category, country of manufacturing, EPD programs, and more, allowing for precise searches. Filtering for place of manufacture based on visible map view or distance to construction site helps you optimize environmental impacts of transportation.
Bookmarking: Save materials of interest for quick access later or mark company favorites for team-wide reference.
LCA project integration: For One Click LCA users, materials can be directly added to LCA projects within the software.
Bill of materials (BoM) creation: You can create and manage lists of materials for specific projects, with upcoming features for quantity input and other key BoM data.

Find & compare materials with ease

Materials Compass simplifies the process of finding and comparing lower-carbon materials:

Intuitive search: You can quickly locate materials using categories, subcategories, or specific search terms.
Side-by-side comparison: The tool allows for easy comparison of materials, focusing on key sustainability metrics like Glocal Warming Potential (GWP).
Standardized data: To ensure fair comparisons, Materials Compass presents impact data according to consistent standards and life cycle stages.
Manufacturer-specific searches: You can explore products from specific manufacturers, making it easy to find preferred suppliers or compare alternatives.

How can Materials Compass streamline construction material selection?

Materials Compass is designed to facilitate collaboration among construction professionals:

Share materials: When you find interesting materials, share them easily with anyone. In a few clicks, your colleague or client will receive a neat list of materials by email.
Shareable lists: Create and share lists of materials with team members or clients.
Company favorites: Highlight preferred materials across your organization to ensure consistency in material selection.
Direct integration: For One Click LCA users, seamlessly integrate selected materials into ongoing LCA projects.

By fostering collaboration and providing easy access to comprehensive material data, Materials Compass enables construction professionals to make sustainable choices throughout the design and construction process.

How to compare construction materials for informed decision-making

The Materials Compass helps in comparing different materials, displaying EPDs side-by-side with clear unit presentations. It focuses on Global Warming Potential (GWP) for stages A1-A3, ensuring fair comparisons despite different inventory methodologies. The tool offers a wide variety of materials suitable for diverse projects, incorporating data from EPDs and other regulatory databases like TM65, CO2data.fi, and Boverket. You can filter EPDs by country and publication date, with plans for more precise geographical filtering options in the future.

How Materials Compass integrates with other design tools

Each material in the Materials Compass has a unique OCLID (One Click LCA ID), allowing seamless integration with design tools like Revit for keynotes and specifications. This feature streamlines the coordination between material selection and design processes. To keep you informed about new additions, the tool allows filtering by publication date, with plans to introduce a "New" indicator for recent updates. The Materials Compass includes both EN 15804+A1 and +A2 EPDs, though you should be aware of potential differences in environmental indicators due to varying standards.

How Materials Compass ensures data quality and comparability

Data quality is a top priority for the Materials Compass. All data undergoes a rigorous quality assurance process, with clear warnings for any potential issues. To ensure fair comparability, the tool displays environmental impacts for stages A1-A3 only, with all units clearly shown. This approach allows you to make informed decisions based on reliable and comparable data, despite the complexities of different EPD standards and methodologies.

As the construction industry continues to focus on reducing its carbon footprint, tools like Materials Compass play a crucial role in bridging the gap between intention and action. By making it easier to find, compare, and select lower-carbon materials, your choices in material selection are driving the industry toward a sustainable future.