Embodied Carbon Calculator / LCA for landscape

[Poot]

I am just wondering if anyone here has worked with the VECC or done Life Cycle Analysis using VW/Landmark?

There is some material and tutorials online, but its geared towards architecture (lots of talk on windows) and with very little adaptation to the negative carbon aspects of vegetation. The VECC tool looks promising, as it allows material properties to be used for carbon budgeting...but perhaps could use a landmark specific format.

Anyhow, hoping someone here has some experience with this under their belt 🙂


Cheers

POOT

 

[rDesign]

I have not used it, but a quick google search came up with the web application ‘Pathfinder’ which seems geared toward estimating the carbon footprint and time to carbon neutrality for landscape projects.

Pathfinder: Landscape Carbon Calculator

[Poot]

12 hours ago, rDesign said:

I have not used it, but a quick google search came up with the web application ‘Pathfinder’ which seems geared toward estimating the carbon footprint and time to carbon neutrality for landscape projects.

Pathfinder: Landscape Carbon Calculator

I've used that a little, and it is pretty good for early phase to help make design choices as well as very easy to use -- but it is more of a guideline since its not directly linked to specific products, materials, and plants. I think it's good to help make better choices, but wouldn't be enough to use with clients for many projects.

I am more thinking about adjustments to tools like the Energos/VECC tools in VW architect packages which use your resources/material information to make exact calculations, but tailored to Landmark. It may be some Landscape architects have used the existing worksheets for our hardscape/landscape areas and fixtures/furnishings....but I haven't been able to find anything.

 

Maybe @Luka Stefanovic has a better idea?


ArchiCAD has a nice plugin for Life-Cycle Analysis, Design LCA which would be something to shoot for. I think there are also similar options for REVIT, as these are becoming very valuable/necessary tools for many projects.

 

 

[Marketa Hermova]

Hello @Poot,

 

I used the VECC calculator for a landscape restoration project. I had numerous features, such as a wall garden that needed a complete re-design. As part of a design proposal we looked at various ways to work with historic features while proposing the new layout. We were able to calculate the EC for all major structures and evaluate different scenarios. 

 

It really depends on a project's specifications and what do you need the EC for. Is it for the internal decisions, is it for a planning application (meaning you need to submit calculated figures)?

 

Feel free to get in touch with more questions 🙂 

 

Marketa

[Luka Stefanovic]

Hi @Poot

 

The VECC can be used in any industry or project really, and the latest version (2024) has no Door/Window section, only Materials and individual objects, which are handled through Record Formats. In short, if you assign Materials to Vectorworks objects their quantities will be calculated automatically in the worksheet and EC obtained based on Material property (such as density and EC factor). Additionally you can attach a Record Format to any object that has a manufacturer's EPD data, say a bench Symbol in your model, you can add declared EC for the bench as a product and the worksheet will count how many of those are there in your project and tell you the total EC for all benches. 

In terms of negative carbon, you would simply enter a negative value for the EC in the Material property and the calculation would take that into account. 

I hope that makes sense, but to repeat - VECC is really adaptable to handle different projects as it is based on model quantities of Materials and Material properties, the only reason it has an architectural flavour in the presentation is because I am an architect! 

[Poot]

Thanks for the info @Marketa Hermova. I am thinking of this, at the moment, more useful as an early-stage tool and for client presentations where it can be used to support arguments for various design choices. However, here in Denmark LCA(ECC) analysis is now required for all new building projects, and I can see that it won't be something required for landscape architects but probably desired.

 

I will set up some sample/concept materials that are populated with the right information so I can use it on some sample projects, or perhaps used in future template/resource files. I am going to be doing some training for a large consultancy that is switching to VW, but to convince other firms this tool will be a good selling point.

 

 

@Luka Stefanovic, do you know if there is any further development planned on this tool? I think it is definitely very useful as is, but am wondering if there might be improvements in terms of graphics/report output, and automation for materials entry (e.g. populating the list automatically with material quantities in use from project/model)? I think it is probably a lot of work to go from the current VECC to add some of these features (like LCA plugin below for archicad), but surely something that is going to be increasingly important especially for architects as LCA/ECC becomes required in more locations.

 

Edited January 18 by Poot

[Marketa Hermova]

Hi @Poot,

 

Building your own library with custom Materials (and EC values) that you use regularly in your projects is a great start. I believe there are around 400 materials in VW Libraries ( @Luka Stefanovic correct me if I am wrong) that you can customise further by adding data and saving them in your own User Library.

 

It would be interesting to see a landscape project example from Denmark and your approach on how do you use VECC!