One Click LCA becomes first software to be validated by RICS under their Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLCA) validation programme

One Click LCA has become the first software platform to be validated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) under its newly launched Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLCA) Software Validation Programme. This validation highlights that One Click LCA supports practitioners in delivering carbon assessments aligned with the WLCA standard (2nd edition), which is rapidly becoming the global benchmark for consistent, transparent, and comparable whole-life carbon reporting.

RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment criteria

The RICS validation process reviews whether a software tool meets two core criteria:

• Inputs and calculations must align with the WLCA standard's mandatory methodology.
  
  
• Outputs must match the WLCA reporting format and support the delivery of compliant carbon reports.
  
  

The validation spans all critical life-cycle modules — from upfront carbon (A1–A5), in-use stages (B1–B7), and end-of-life (C1–C4), to beyond-life-cycle benefits (D1–D2) and biogenic carbon. This enables construction professionals to generate fully compliant outputs for building projects across all carbon stages — a requirement increasingly embedded in planning regulations, green building standards, and sustainable finance reporting frameworks.

“This milestone underscores our long-standing commitment to enabling transparent, standardised, and high-quality environmental impact assessments. We are proud to support the industry in aligning with the RICS WLCA standard and driving progress toward a decarbonized future.”

— Panu Pasanen, CEO at One Click LCA. 

Why this matters now

The second edition of the RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment standard has quickly become one of the most widely referenced frameworks in Europe and beyond. It provides a methodology to measure carbon impacts consistently throughout the life of a building or infrastructure asset. As governments and financial institutions increase pressure on the built environment to demonstrate climate performance, software validation under this program will likely become a precondition for demonstrating credibility in carbon reporting.

According to RICS, the validation programme aims to ensure consistency and comparability across the industry:

“The RICS WLCA Software Validation Programme is a critical step in bringing consistency to how carbon emissions are measured and reported. We are pleased to announce that One Click LCA is the first software to be validated. This marks an important milestone in advancing credible, standard-based whole life carbon assessments.” 

— Anil Sawhney, Head of Sustainability at RICS. 

What the validation covers

One Click LCA is validated across all the following:

• Building assessments per RICS WLCA standard (2nd edition)
  
  
• All life-cycle modules (A, B, C, and D stages)
  
  
• Biogenic carbon tracking
  
  
• Alignment with RICS WLCA digital reporting formats
  
  

The software supports both new construction and renovation projects, and is used in early-stage planning, regulatory submission, and carbon benchmarking — including for national schemes aligned with RICS, such as the UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard, LETI, and the Greater London Authority's Whole Life Carbon reporting requirements.

This validation gives assurance to architects, engineers, developers, and investors that the carbon results produced are aligned with a recognized methodology — critical for planning approvals, sustainable finance disclosures, ESG ratings, and net-zero roadmaps.

Faster path to compliant carbon reporting

One Click LCA has consistently invested in helping the construction sector meet carbon reporting requirements across more than 80 global standards and certifications. It already offers automated tools for:

• LEED, BREEAM, GLA, DGNB, and GRESB
  
  
• ISO 14040/44, EN 15804, and EN 15978 compliance
  
  
• Data integrations with Autodesk Revit®, Tekla Structures®, and other major BIM platforms
  
  
• Early-stage carbon optioneering through Carbon Designer 3D
  
  

The addition of RICS validation now means that professionals can generate RICS-aligned carbon reports with minimal rework, directly from a compliant digital toolset. This also supports national authorities and clients requiring proof of standard-aligned assessment from early design to post-completion audit.

A better industry standard

In line with the RICS programme, validation confirms that specific reporting requirements of the WLCA standard (2nd edition) are correctly implemented — including data inputs, calculation methodology, and output alignment.

Annual checks are required to maintain this validation, ensuring that the platform keeps pace with evolving requirements and digital reporting standards.

About One Click LCA

Used in 170+ countries, One Click LCA is the leading end-to-end sustainability platform for construction and manufacturing. The AI-powered software decarbonizes and drives sustainability across the construction value chain with scientific, easy-to-use, automated life-cycle assessment (LCA) and environmental product declarations (EPDs) to calculate and reduce the environmental impacts of building, infrastructure, and renovation projects and products. The platform also allows assessment of circularity, life-cycle cost, and biodiversity.

One Click LCA is used by blue-chip enterprises like AECOM, Arcadis, Foster+Partners, WSP, ArcelorMittal, Geberit, and Saint-Gobain, among others. It offers a unique global database with +300,000 LCA datasets; supports +80 standards and certifications, including LEED, BREEAM, GRESB and other national regulations; and seamlessly integrates with +20 of the most widely used BIM software tools, including Autodesk Revit®, Tekla Structures® and Bentley iTwin®. One Click LCA was founded in Helsinki, Finland in 2001, with a team of +200 people on all continents. Learn more at: oneclicklca.com