One Click LCA and MEP 2040 announce a strategic partnership to reduce embodied carbon emissions in buildings
The partnership aims to accelerate decarbonization in the built environment, with a focus on mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems. Through education, data sharing, and easy-to-use life-cycle assessment software tools, MEP 2040 and One Click LCA are committed to reducing embodied carbon in buildings’ MEP systems can account for up to half of a commercial building’s embodied carbon
3rd April, 2024
One Click LCA, the global leader in construction life-cycle assessment software, announces a strategic partnership with MEP 2040, a national movement dedicated to decarbonizing the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems within buildings by 2040.
Emissions from buildings & infrastructure account for 57% of carbon emissions globally. Addressing the carbon impacts of MEP systems is a critical step in reducing the environmental footprint of construction and commercial buildings. This partnership will promote the use of an easy and affordable MEP tool for MEP designers on a sufficient scale to recognize embodied carbon in MEP equipment and systems and potentially achieve a broad decarbonization impact across the whole industry. MEP contributes 15% to 50% of embodied carbon in commercial buildings and up to 50% of embodied carbon in retrofits over the lifetime of the building.
The key objectives of the partnership are to:
- Supply the MEP industry with an affordable, tailored carbon tool: the MEP Carbon Tool, available free of charge for 6 months to all signatories and supporting organizations of MEP 2040.
- Train MEP professionals to help the industry meet decarbonization goals at scale.
- Work together to create foundational MEP project LCA modeling methodologies to enable a more seamless flow of data for system, building and regional benchmarking.
- Promote the creation of high-quality MEP Environmental Product Declarations at scale.
“With the global building stock set to double by 2060, we need to develop a critical mass of MEP specialists now to rise to the challenge of decarbonization. We’re proud to partner with MEP 2040 and help the industry take an important step towards a zero-carbon future with our tools,” says Panu Pasanen, CEO of One Click LCA.
MEP 2040 aims to radically reduce total carbon emissions associated with building systems through collective action. While fugitive and operational emissions have been a core focus, mapping and addressing embodied carbon from MEP systems is a critical factor for lowering overall emissions from these products. Without understanding the carbon impact of materials, mechanical equipment, delivery and more, architects and engineers cannot fully understand the emissions stemming from their projects.
“MEP systems engineering embodies whole life carbon between embodied, fugitive and operational emissions, however we have been missing the critical piece of measuring the embodied carbon of our MEP systems at-scale. We’re optimistic that this partnership with One Click LCA will provide MEP firms the opportunity to build this foundational capability of MEP embodied carbon assessment, allowing us to grow closer to our decarbonization goals,” says Kayleigh Houde, Founding Member and Co-Chair of MEP 2040 Commitment.
Supporting organizations for MEP 2040 include global giants like Amazon, as well as leading industry organizations like the American Institute of Architects and Architecture 2030. The MEP 2040 challenge has signatories from more than 80 of the U.S. leading MEP engineering firms, who have committed to reducing emissions and collectively building the industry knowledge base.
For more information:
Media contact:
Aileen Carroll, Sustainability Communications, North America
One Click LCA
aileen.carroll@oneclicklca.com
About One Click LCA
One Click LCA is a Helsinki-based tech company decarbonizing construction and manufacturing with world-leading, easy-to-use, and automated life-cycle assessment (LCA) to calculate and reduce the environmental impacts of building, infrastructure, and renovation projects — as well as construction and other manufactured products. It also enables manufacturers to generate and publish third-party verified EPDs, and allows assessment of circularity, life-cycle cost, and soon also biodiversity. One Click LCA is used in +150 countries. Its decarbonization platform includes a unique global database with +200,000 LCA datasets, and it supports +70 standards and certifications, including LEED, BREEAM, GRESB and other national regulations. One Click LCA was founded in Finland in 2001, and has a team of +175 people on all continents. Learn more at: www.oneclicklca.com
About MEP 2040
MEP 2040 is a movement to radically reduce total carbon emissions associated with building systems through collective action. In the Fall of 2021, The Carbon Leadership Forum issued a challenge, a group of MEP engineers responded to that challenge by collectively establishing a commitment. Since that time over 80 MEP firms have joined as signatories, actively contributing to the growing body of knowledge through the working groups and quarterly forums. You can learn more about the commitment at www.mep2040.org
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