Athena Impact Estimator — The Complete Guide: Free Whole-Building Life Cycle Assessment
Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings is free software from the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute for life cycle assessment (LCA) of buildings. You define the building systems — foundations, structure, walls, roofs — the location and the planned building life, and the program calculates the environmental impact from raw material extraction to end of life. Downloading requires creating an account, and use is subject to Athena’s licence agreement.
Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings
Athena Sustainable Materials Institute
Free tool for life cycle assessment (LCA) of whole buildings and assemblies, right from the conceptual design stage.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Whole-building LCA — already at the conceptual design stage, without a detailed model.
- Assemblies — walls, floors and roofs defined from different materials.
- Impact indicators — global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication and fossil fuel consumption.
- Comparing options — a concrete, steel or timber structure side by side.
- Life cycle stages — manufacturing, construction, maintenance and end of life.
What to keep in mind
Background data and the list of locations cover North American cities only, so for projects elsewhere the results are a comparative estimate rather than an exact figure. The program installs on Windows; Mac users run it remotely through an Athena server.
Related tools
For general open-source LCA with databases from around the world — openLCA. For an open BIM model to extract quantities from — Bonsai. For the building’s operational energy — EnergyPlus.
openLCA
GreenDelta
Open-source software for life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon footprint calculation of products, materials and processes.
Get it from the vendor
Bonsai (BlenderBIM)
IfcOpenShell
Native IFC editing inside Blender — open-source BIM.
Get it from the vendor
EnergyPlus
US Department of Energy
Annual building energy simulation — envelope, HVAC, thermal comfort and daylight. The US DOE engine.
Get it from the vendor
City Energy Analyst
ETH Zurich (Architecture and Building Systems)
Urban energy modelling — hourly energy demand for many buildings, solar potential and district heating and cooling network design.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
Athena Impact Estimator is a free, well-founded way to compare the environmental footprint of design options, especially for projects in North America.