The new Plausibility Checker allows Expert users to ensure high-quality building LCA assessments by providing more accurate, comprehensive, and customisable plausibility checks. The new version provides significant improvements by utilising AI that can handle more variables and scenarios. This makes it both more adaptable to specific project, regulatory, or certification scheme requirements and has the ability to improve over time based on feedback.
The checker uses data from real projects completed on One Click LCA, and multiple filters are applied to ensure their validity.
How your results are calculated
Our Carbon Heroes Benchmark tool automatically calculates results without being shown in the tool list on your project. This tool has a fixed scope for consistent calculation of projects that use different tools: embodied carbon (A1-C4), calculation period of 60 years, and only new construction. This means that results shown in the Plausibility Checker may look different from the results shown in your selected tool.
Most tools are compatible with the benchmarks, but these tools are excluded due to significant differences in calculation methods:
LCA according to Bygningsreglementet
Life Cycle Carbon, Japan (all versions)
LCA for DGNB (all versions)
RE2020
Biodiversity stress from the supply chain
Biodiversity Net Gain (UK)
How to use the Plausibility Checker
Once you have entered all building material data, the only mandatory parameter to generate plausibility calculations is Gross Internal Floor Area (IPMS/RICS).
Benchmarking is based on whole buildings, so the following elements should be included in your design scope. If any of these are missing from the design, you will still see checks based on these elements.
Foundations and substructure
Structure and enclosure
Finishes and other materials
Two scope elements are optional, and if they are not present the checks will be excluded.
External areas
Services
In addition to the design scope, the following optional project parameters are considered and will increase the relevancy and accuracy of the calculations for your specific project (in order of importance).
Building type
Frame type
Number of above-ground floors
Certification scheme
These details can be added when creating a project or by modifying a project after creation using the More actions button.
To access the new Plausibility Checker, go to the results page of a design and open the feature here.
The checker provides an overall project grade based on the number of checks that fall within the typical range for similar designs, and a detailed breakdown of each check performed in the table. The check icon is based on where the Project result falls within the Typical range:
Green check - the project result is between the 10th and 90th percentiles of benchmarked data. This is counted as 1 in the check grade.
Yellow check - the project is between the 0th and 10th percentiles or the 90th and 100th percentiles of benchmarked data. This is counted as 0.5 in the check grade, since it is at the limit of the typical range.
Red check - the project exceeds the 0th or the 100th percentile of benchmarked data. This is counted as 0 in the check grade.
By default, all checks are shown, but a dropdown is available to filter by Global Warming Potential (GWP) based checks, mass-based checks, and other checks (typically ratio-based). For each check, a tooltip provides an explanation of what data is used in the calculation.
The Benchmark values column visualises the results in a graph, and this can be expanded by hovering over it to expand into a larger detailed graph.
