Join GBI for the Manufacturers’ Life Cycle Assessment Briefing at Ecobuild Fall

As part of Ecobuild Fall, GBI will host a briefing session on its new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool for green building.

LCA is an important part of sustainable design because it allows the impartial comparison of materials, assemblies and even whole buildings, over the course of their entire lives, based on a range of environmental impact indicators such as global warming potential. In the past, its use has been limited by the perception that it’s too complex or time consuming for mainstream practititioners—but, thanks to a new software tool commissioned by the GBI, that is no longer the case.

Developed for use with the Green Globes™ environmental assessment and rating system, the new tool provides instant LCA results for close to 400 common building assemblies. It was created by Morrison Hershfield Consulting Engineers in association with the University of Minnesota’s Center for Sustainable Building Research and the Athena Institute, and features results generated by the ATHENA® Impact  Estimator for Buildings.

The tool is being reviewed by the GBI’s ANSI technical committee prior to its integration into Green Globes. However, recognizing its value to the entire North American building community, GBI also supported the development of a generic version, the ATHENA® EcoCalculator for Assemblies, which is available free of charge from the Athena Institute (www.athenasmi.ca).

At the Life Cycle Assessment briefing, an expert panel will demonstrate the tool, provide insight on the benchmarking data that forms its basis, and highlight some of its many practical applications. Representatives of the GBI will also be on hand to describe the various opportunities for producers to participate in this and other GBI activities.

We hope you and your colleagues will join us at the LCA Manufacturers’ Briefing:

Ecobuild Fall
Dec. 10, 3:30 – 5:30 p.m., Room 156C

Please RSVP to info@thegbi.org. For more information, contact the GBI’s director of development, Lori Hardwick at (503) 223-5052 or lori@thegbi.org.