The RICS 2nd Edition was published in September 2023 and will be effective from the 1st of July 2024.

The transition from the 1st to the 2nd edition of the RICS Whole Life Carbon Assessment represents a significant shift towards a more inclusive, comprehensive, and globally harmonized approach to carbon measurement in the built environment. This shift not only addresses the immediate needs of the industry but also positions the standard as a leading framework for achieving sustainable and net-zero goals across the built and natural environments.

This guidance supports the new 'Whole life carbon assessment, RICS - 2nd Edition’ tool, which is designed to fulfil the requirements of the RICS 2nd Edition.

All modules must be included, namely A1-A3, A4, A5, B1, B2, B3, B4 to C4, D1 & D2). A0 is optional.

"Whole life carbon assessment, RICS - 2nd Edition" allows for both EN15804+A1 and EN15804+A2 data to be used in calculations, using the GWP-fossil impact indicator from the revised standard.

The RICS 2nd edition tool also supports GWP-only data, such as TM65 resources, provided they meet One Click LCA's data quality standards: How One Click LCA Works with Data

The tool can be applied to any construction type or built asset involving any of the following:

The tool is only applicable to all kinds of built assets, including all types of buildings, small projects in the UK and CANNOT be used for infrastructure assets/civil engineering works.

Create a building project and select the tool "Whole life carbon assessment, RICS - 2nd Edition"

Set up your first design and change the LCA parameters to:

NOTE: We recommend disabling the LCA parameter Material manufacturing localisation target.

If you are, however, enabling this, please choose v2.1 (Recommended) and select the Material manufacturing localisation target: "United Kingdom Electricity profile - IEA2022"

This is in the first section of the Pre-Construction tab.

Module A0 covers non-physical pre-construction activities, such as surveys and activities associated with the design of the asset.

These can be a significant economic cost, but for buildings, this do not normally have a significant environmental impact. A0 is therefore generally assumed to be zero for buildings.

Fill in your project information in One Click LCA by entering the design either manually or by importing your data. A full list of supported integrations can be found here. If you need help finding the right datasets for your building materials, check our guidance pages: Finding & Selecting the Right Material & Material Selection & Resources.

If you wish to use Excel to import your following query data, our template for the RICS 2nd edition can be found at the bottom of this article, and guidance on using the import can be found here: Updated Import Process in One Click LCA

For transportation of the materials (A4), each material row will receive a default transportation distance and method based on the table of values as stipulated in the RICS guidance.

Material or product mass should be obtained from acceptable sources, as specified in section 4.7 of the RICS guidance, and account for any material losses during transport wherever possible.

There are now three additional fields to be verified for the calculation of carbon data confidence scores. These are found on the rightmost side of each data row.

The tool is aligned to the above table.

The default answer for the Geographical and Technological representative fields in the Building Materials tab, for each row, is always the highest score. Users should select the appropriate value to each row based on the EPD they have used for their product.

A quantities uncertainty factor for key products (the most impactful products and materials used) indicates the uncertainty associated with the quantities used for the WLCA

During the detailed design, construction and post-completion phases, the quantities uncertainty factor must be assessed using the approach set out in this section, and this assessment must be included in the WLCA report.

Inputs must include all operational energy used in the building, including heating, hot water, cooling, ventilation, lighting, cooking, equipment and lifts, broken down separately by fuel type and energy end use.

The inclusion of any energy use related to external works (e.g. car park lighting) is optional.

This is available in the tool under the Usage, External Works (checkbox) and Energy Usage fields.

All carbon impacts related to water supply and wastewater treatment, as measured and/or predicted over the life cycle of the asset (excluding water use during maintenance, repair, replacement and refurbishment that are reported elsewhere), must be reported under module B7.

The tool covers all of the three sub-modules.

The A5 inputs are split and reported as four separate sub-modules.

There are several sections here where you can enter the relevant data for A5.1.

If you are choosing a scenario in the Demolition/Deconstruction scenario section, do not enter any further data for the other sections.

If there is specific data, enter these in the relevant sections, and omit inputs for the Demolition/Deconstruction scenario section.

These are section 1. Construction site scenarios through to section 7. Waste generated on the site.

If you are choosing a scenario in the Construction Site Scenarios section, do not enter any further data for the other sections.

If there is specific data, enter these in the relevant sections, and omit inputs for the Construction site scenarios section.

If there is further transportation-related data and that of worker transportation to the site, you can enter these independently.

Any non-energy-related carbon removals or emissions arising from components during the life of the built asset must be reported in B1.

This can be input in the Emissions and Removals tab of the tool. There are 3 available sections:

Particular attention should be paid to any emissions arising from refrigerants and insulation blowing agents with GWP over the life cycle of the project.

Annual refrigerant leakage from MEP equipment must be accounted for, as detailed in CIBSE TM65.

Module B2 must account for the carbon impacts from any activities relating to maintenance processes, including cleaning, as well as any relevant products used and waste produced over the calculation period.

Module B3 must take into account carbon impacts from all activities that relate to repair processes, and any products used and waste produced over the RSP. All impacts from the production, transportation to and from site, and installation of the repaired items must be included.

Module B4 must take into account any carbon impacts associated with the anticipated replacement of built asset components, including any impacts from the replacement process, over the RSP. All impacts from the production, transportation to site and installation of the replacement items must be included, as well as any losses during these processes, as well as any impacts associated with the removal and end-of-life treatment of replaced items.

The repair and replacement impacts must be considered using the same data for materials and products as was used in modules A1–A5 for installation and modules C and D for their end of life.

You can input the data for these modules in the Maintenance, annual tab.

In section 3. Repair scenarios - B3, the input must be set to "Default scenario applied" for B3 calculations.

If you have specific data for maintenance, you can enter these into the various sections available in this tab.

If there is no specific data, you must choose the scenarios in the sections Building level maintenance scenario - B2 or Maintenance scenarios for building parts - B2.
For B4, any loads and benefits beyond the system boundary from the recovery of materials from A5 or C1–C4 will also be used for the recovery of any materials in B4, reported in D1.

A module B5 assessment should include the same scope as module A, i.e. A1 to A5.

All impacts arising from the production, transport to site and installation of the components used for a change or refurbishment planned prior to project completion, but undertaken during the in-use stage, must be included in B5.

Adjustments must also be made to all modules B, C and D in the WLCA from the point of change, in order to accommodate the impact of the altered asset.

Before undertaking a B5 assessment, please check the RICS guidance (pg. 92) on how this is defined.

To account for uncertainty in this standard, the WLC assessor must consider contingency for the project based on the uncertainty at the time of the assessment.

Choose one of the following for input in this section. This is applied to all modules A-D, excluding operational energy (B6) and operational water (B7) consumptions. The selected factor is applied to all elements and scenarios used in the calculations.

The UKGBC’s Embodied Carbon: Improving Modelling and Reporting provides useful guidance on aspects that may affect contingency relating to uncertainty.

In the revision of the RICS guidance dated 3 August 2024, RICS has appended to Table 10, another column. For project at early design phase, the carbon data and quantities uncertainty factors are NOT to be applied. These are ONLY applied at Technical and post-completion phases.

In the tool, your settings for a project at early design phase should be as follows for the Top-up factors tab:

There are two choices here:

Enabled: Data quality uncertainty factor is calculated from the top 10 most contributing materials of the design. The factor consists of data quality metrics depending on the year, verification and standard the material is based on of each resource with the addition of technological and geographical representativeness answers in the building materials query.

Disabled: No data quality top up is added in the calculations.

The impacts arising from any on or offsite deconstruction and demolition activities at the assets end of life, including any energy consumption for site accommodation and plant use, must be considered in C1.

The tool is aligned with the prescribed scenarios, as given in the guidelines (Table 25: C1 values as a proportion of A5.2, to be adjusted after reporting to allow for appropriate grid decarbonisation at the assumed date of recovery).

The options are:

Set the calculation period to 60 years by opening ‘Calculation Period’ and inputting 60 years.

Fill in the Building area question form by entering the GIFA (Gross Internal Floor Area), using this specific datapoint "Gross Internal Floor Area (IPMS/RICS)"

Navigate to the results page, click on 'More actions' and download the RICS v2.0 - XLSX results report.

The results report is aligned exactly with the RICS 2nd edition reporting requirements, as outlined in Chapter 6 Reporting Requirements for WLCAs.

The results report is in a single Excel workbook, with 6 separate worksheets, covering all of the reporting templates, as required.

The tool adheres to the guidance for the reporting of decarbonised results. This is automated in the tool.