Powered by data from One Click LCA, the Planet People Profit Impact (P3I) Platform connects LEED v5 compliance to measurable financial outcomes.

What if you could quantify the cost of meeting building codes — and the added value of doing more? The P3I Platform, developed with One Click LCA, equips stakeholders to quantify the financial ROI of sustainable design decisions. By linking environmental impacts to asset value, life-cycle cost, and regulatory risk, the platform shifts sustainability from a compliance issue to a capital allocation strategy.The built environment faces a critical challenge: moving beyond the prevailing "lowest first-cost, minimum-code" mentality: a practice that involves delivering projects at the lowest possible cost by meeting only the most basic regulatory requirements. While building codes are essential for ensuring health, safety, and functionality, they rarely encompass the broader and more ambitious goals of sustainability. In this context, the "minimum code" refers not to sustainable performance in its full sense, but merely to achieve legal compliance. The most valuable assets always seek to maintain marketplace relevancy. From a business case perspective, setting the highest expectation as the lowest minimum requirement can make assets lose value over time. This gap leads many stakeholders to ask: what is the ROI of green building when going beyond the minimum?
There’s also a growing disconnect between what building occupants expect — healthy, efficient, and future-proof spaces — and what developers often deliver. Building occupants may assume that design and construction practices reflect their expectations for health, safety, and performance. In practice, minimum regulatory standards, which vary widely and are inconsistently applied, often define the baseline rather than the potential. As a result, high-performing, lower-carbon solutions may be overlooked if they are not explicitly required or financially justified. However, when the gap between occupant expectations and market delivery is clearly quantified, particularly in terms of long-term cost, risk, and asset value, it is possible to align investment capital with performance. Doing so has the potential to shift how buildings are financed, designed, and evaluated, with financial benefits for those able to act on reliable, forward-looking data.
The United Nations defines sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This calls for a more comprehensive forward-thinking approach than what meeting the minimum code alone can offer. Supported by One Click LCA's tools and expert consultants, the newly launched Planet People Profit Impact (P3I) Platform enables stakeholders to assess the financial, environmental, and social impacts of sustainable building decisions — quantifying the dollar value of sustainability and helping answer: what is the ROI of green building? By applying defendable, data-driven insights, project teams can move beyond basic compliance and unlock measurable financial value from smarter, forward-looking design choices.
Breaking free from minimum code
Developed by P3I.GLOBAL and ESG IMPACTS in collaboration with One Click LCA, the P3I Platform was launched on Earth Day 2025 to convert real-world project data into decision-ready insights. Originally envisioned as an “Opportunity Awareness” tool, it enables investors, developers, building owners, facility managers, and public-sector leaders to quantify the long-term financial return on sustainable building practices. By linking environmental and social impacts to long-range cost savings, asset value, and risk mitigation, the P3I Platform supports financially sound decisions that go beyond minimum compliance.
David MacLean, founder of P3I.GLOBAL and Partner of ESG IMPACTS, brings over 30 years of experience in the built environment, sustainability consulting, and real estate. He argues that the building industry has defaulted to treating minimum code requirements as the ceiling for performance, not the floor.
"If those minimum codes truly made buildings healthier, more efficient, and more equitable, we might be in a different place — but that's not our reality.”
- David MacLean, Founder of P3I.GLOBAL and Partner of ESG IMPACTS
The latest climate data highlights an alarming "emissions gap" – the difference between what countries have promised to cut in emissions and what's actually needed to limit warming to 1.5°C or 2°C, as outlined in the Paris Agreement to avoid catastrophic climate impacts. According to the 2024 UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report, current national pledges, even if implemented, fall significantly short of what's required by 2030, 2035, and 2050. According to the WGBC, buildings are currently responsible for 39% of global energy related carbon emissions. For the built environment sector, there is a key takeaway: meeting the minimum code is no longer enough. Closing this gap requires trustworthy, transparent data and tools that enable stakeholders to scale up effective, measurable sustainable strategies quickly.
Figure ES.3 from the 2024 UNEP Emissions Gap Report: Global GHG emissions under different scenarios and the emissions gap in 2030 and 2035
Building trust through transparent data
"Change happens at the speed of trust. And trust depends on how data is collected, who collects it, and whether it's third-party verified — all of which are essential to building credible systems that reflect real value. We chose One Click LCA for life-cycle assessments (LCA) because it allows for a structured, transparent process that keeps up with evolving regulations and global standards."
–David MacLean, Founder of P3I.GLOBAL and Partner of ESG IMPACTS
The P3I Platform integrates multiple disciplines — building science, economics, real estate appraisal, LCA, and triple bottom line cost-benefit analyses — to show not just the impact of decisions, but who benefits and who bears the cost when sustainability is ignored. Its core objective is to shift industry behavior by making the long-term value of sustainable strategies both visible and verifiable.
By making this data accessible and actionable, the platform empowers not only developers and designers but also building occupants and public-sector stakeholders, giving them agency to advocate for decisions that align with broader social and environmental values.
Crucially, all data comes from real projects led by P3I.GLOBAL and ESG IMPACTS, grounding insights in applied experience rather than abstract theory. The information on the platform is designed to be accessible and actionable for users regardless of their expertise in construction, design, or green rating systems. It offers sustainable pathways for a project by offering data visualizations, tangible potential outcomes, and a space for knowledge exchange and collaboration among key stakeholders.
ESG IMPACTS worked closely with One Click LCA to ensure that all data, including best practices, environmental product declarations (EPDs), and baseline models, was accurate, reliable, and consistently aligned with evolving regulatory frameworks.
Meeting LEED v5 requirements
"I’ve been helping clients earn LEED credits through life-cycle assessment for years, and One Click LCA makes that process straightforward. It integrates with the tools I already use — like Autocase for cost-benefit analysis — and that integration helps me deliver services other firms simply can’t."
–David MacLean, Founder of P3I.GLOBAL and Partner of ESG IMPACTS
With the launch of LEED v5, life-cycle assessment (LCA) is no longer optional. It is now a core requirement for certification. One Click LCA streamlines LEED v5 compliance by enabling building professionals to meet embodied carbon and LCA requirements with ease. The platform supports early-phase carbon assessments and full building or component-level LCAs using a verified database of over 300,000 global construction products and systems.
On the P3I Platform, users can explore a dashboard that features a 'better' model for buildings, designed to meet the new LEED v5 requirement by showing the potential value of incorporating best practices, such as indoor environmental quality monitoring, individual lighting control, and more. The model illustrates how even meeting the minimum threshold can lead to a 20% reduction in global warming potential (GWP). This approach defines a clear baseline (“Point A”) and improvement scenario (“Point B”) tailored to each project.
The 'best' model goes further by assessing the carbon impacts of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems and furniture, fixtures, and equipment (FF&E) — areas traditionally overlooked in carbon modeling. By leveraging One Click LCA, the P3I Platform enables deeper, more expansive analysis. Additionally, it helps manufacturers and project teams visualize the financial, environmental, and social impacts of their material and design decisions.
Are you ready for LEED v5? See how One Click LCA can help you comply with new mandatory requirements
Visualizing impacts, the business case, and long-term value
"As regulatory pressure and stakeholder expectations evolve, One Click LCA allows us to anticipate these changes and proactively support clients with business-case-aligned generationally responsible sustainability strategies. The result is not only more resilient, healthier buildings, but also a clear path to meeting — and exceeding — emerging market demands."
— David MacLean, Founder of P3I.GLOBAL and Partner of ESG IMPACTS
The P3I Platform, powered by One Click LCA, shows how teams that only meet minimum LCA standards often leave significant carbon reduction opportunities on the table. More than just identifying gaps, it builds a compelling business case for adopting best practices that align with a project's core values. In other words, it helps quantify what is the ROI of green building.
MacLean explains that the platform quantifies this "opportunity cost," or the gap between what's required and what's possible with existing technology and design practices: "I’m talking about real tools and systems that are already in the marketplace but not widely used, often because they cost more upfront, even though they deliver far greater long-term value."
Forward-looking teams are already acting on this insight. The platform helps them lead — not follow — by putting data, impact, and business case all in one place.
Materials Compass: Data you can trust. Find and compare low-carbon materials from around the world
Collaborating to change the narrative
"What sets One Click LCA apart is its depth of accessible experts...not having to worry about hiring and training new staff until we reach a significant plateau of work, allows us to focus on multiple initiatives and scale knowing One Click LCA always has our back."
— David MacLean, Founder of P3I.GLOBAL and Partner of ESG IMPACTS
For consultants, firms, and platform developers, One Click LCA is more than a tool — it's a collaborative partner. In developing the P3I Platform, MacLean worked closely with One Click LCA through multiple sessions to refine the Carbon Designer 3D model to align with MacLean's specifications to create more relevant and representative building models that help users go beyond compliance metrics.
By integrating robust technical tools with expert guidance, the partnership between P3I.GLOBAL, ESG IMPACTS, and One Click LCA demonstrates how aligned actors across the value chain can unlock deeper carbon reductions and long-term asset value. As the industry shifts from reactive compliance to proactive performance, this collaboration offers a model for how consultants and developers can scale climate impact — even without large internal teams.
P3I trusted One Click LCA to deliver the verified data behind their platform — and you can too.
Whether you're a developer, consultant, or sustainability leader, One Click LCA gives you the tools to quantify embodied carbon, meet LEED v5 requirements, and unlock the financial value of building greener. Backed by the world’s largest construction LCA database and expert support, we make it easy to move beyond compliance with results you can trust.
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