This guidance supports the "Carbon assessment, GLA / RICS / Green Mark" and "Carbon assessment, GLA / RICS / Green Mark (+A2)" tools, which are designed to fulfil the requirements of RICS and those of the London plan. The assessments follow the RICS PS with several additions written to the GLA guide. Additionally, it can be used for the Green Mark Singapore scheme, the guidance for which you can find here: Green Mark Singapore

The two versions of the tool allow for the different versions of EN15804 to be used.

"Carbon assessment, GLA / RICS / Green Mark" only allows for EN15804+A1 data.

"Carbon assessment, GLA / RICS / Green Mark (+A2)" 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 WLC assessment should include all building elements that are applicable to the project. These elements should be included in the finished area of the completed project and should include temporary works. The building elements are broken down according to the RICS NRM classification system, level 2 sub-elements. A minimum of 95% of the capital cost allocated to each building element category should be accounted for at each stage of the assessment. The building elements to be included are:

Create a building project and select the GLA tool as the chosen calculation tool.

Set up your first design and go through the LCA parameters.

Two new parameters are now available with the inception of the RICS 2nd edition, these can be set as follows:

Check the mandatory scope of required elements from the RICS or GLA guidance documents.

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).

Fill in your project information in One Click LCA by entering the design either manually or by importing your data (see different import options here; guidance for data import can be found here).

Mass data for the materials is automatically added to the detailed report.

For transportation of the materials (A4), each material row will receive a default transportation distance and method based on the material type and RICS methodology. These values can be adjusted manually. If you do not have information on the exact transportation distances, you can adjust the values according to the country/region of origin, using the default values given on the RICS guidance:

Input energy and water as required by scope. Ensure that for energy consumption, you have marked if the energy is for regulated or unregulated usage. Unregulated energy should include carbon emissions from non-building-related systems, such as ICT equipment, and from the operation of building-integrated systems, such as lifts.

For your assessment, the electricity profile selected should be 'Electricity, United Kingdom, SAP 10.1 and 10.2'.

Input construction site operations data and include a C1 deconstruction/demolition scenario if you have used one of the advanced end-of-life options (market-based or EPD EOL) in the LCA parameters.

Input refrigerants, concrete carbonization and vegetation carbon withdrawals.

Input the consumption of grid electricity, water, fuels, and replacements as required for annual maintenance. Unfortunately, no accurate methodology to estimate B2 emissions exists as of today, however as per GLA guidance, for the design stage a total figure of 10 kgCO2e/m2 gross internal area (GIA) may be used to cover all building element categories and can be included with the maintenance scenario 'Average maintenance per m2 GIA', or 1 percent of modules A1-A5, whichever is greater.

For the repair rate, no accurate methodology exists to estimate this as of today; however, if filled in, this percentage is often not more than 1 or 2 % (as this is the annual repair rate). Not all materials need to be repaired annually, and their rate depends on numerous factors like material quality, how it is installed, the expertise of craftsmen installing the materials, building type, building usage, building location, and the climate zone the building is in. As per GLA guidance, these may be estimated as 25% of module B2, as per the RICS PS (item 3.5.3.3), and this repair scenario can be applied in the 'Maintenance, annual' query too.

As per the most recent GLA guidance, at present, the data is not reliable to accurately account for the decarbonisation of the UK grid's embodied carbon emissions. Applicants are therefore not required to account for the long-term decarbonisation of the electricity grid in their WLC assessments, in line with EN 15978.

Any applicants who wish to account for grid decarbonisation in their WLC assessment should discuss and agree on their proposed approach with the GLA.

In One Click LCA, the query 'discounting scenarios' you can select the 'electricity grid decarbonization scenario (RICS/GLA) which can be used to account for grid decarbonization, assuming 20% of material impacts in B2-5 and D stages derive from electricity consumption. It uses the FES 2020 Steady Progression Scenario.

Navigate to the results page, click on 'more actions' and download the detailed report.

The results report has mass data on each of the RICS categories as well which will be required for the GLA template.

Navigate to the results page and click on 'Download Results Summary' which will give you an excel report which has the results page table for easier copying into the GLA template.

Please note that you can find the results for Benefits and loads beyond the system boundary (Module D) column from the detailed result report (click the green 'More actions' tab).

Reporting templates can be found at the following link: Whole Life-Cycle Carbon Assessments Guidance