Athena Environmental Impact Estimator 2.0

Software package from the Athena™ Sustainable Materials Institute, PO Box 189, Merrickville, Ontario, K0G 1N0, Canada; 613/269-3795, 613/269-3796 (fax),

www.athenasmi.org Athena EIE software: $390; LCI Database reports: $325; package of both products with one-year interpretive support: $715; educational and multicopy discounts available.

We have followed the progress of the Athena Sustainable Materials Institute closely over the years, beginning with an in-depth review of a series of life-cycle analysis reports from Athena’s previous incarnation as a project of Forintek Canada Corp. and Wayne B. Trusty & Associates in 1994 (

EBN

Vol. 3, No. 2). With this new software release, Athena has taken one more step towards the goal of making life-cycle analysis accessible as a tool for building designers.

Athena’s Environmental Impact Estimator (EIE) is basically a simple modeling tool in which the user describes the primary building elements by inputting dimensions and choosing materials from the menu of options. Based on this model, the software computes a bill of materials (which you can view but not edit directly) and then tabulates the environmental burdens of the project for each life-cycle stage across six environmental impact categories: energy consumption, solid waste emissions, air pollution index, water pollution index, global warming potential, and weighted resource use. With the goal of keeping the data manageable, issues such as toxicity, acidification, and ozone depletion are embedded within these six categories.

The software does not predict energy use from building operations, but it does now include an option to input that information. Based on these inputs of predicted operating energy by fuel type, the impacts of that energy use can be included in the LCA results using either annual energy use or energy use for the entire building life. It is indicative of how sophisticated this tool is that the data on emissions from energy use include the upstream (precombustion) effects of extracting, processing, and delivering energy, not only for electricity but also for fossil fuels.

Athena’s initial focus has been on structural systems, so it is not surprising that structural and envelope assemblies are still the strongest areas of this software. Data in Version 2.0 that is either new or updated covers a broad range of materials, including structural materials, cladding products, residential and commercial roofing systems, insulation materials, vapor barriers, paints, and glazing systems. The data sets themselves, and the assumptions used in compiling them, are available in a series of technical “LCI Database Reports” on a separate CD-ROM. (They are also being used to develop the U.S. LCI Database, a collection of publicly accessible life-cycle inventory information that may help bring consistency and transparency to other life-cycle assessment tools as well.)

The Athena EIE is not something most architects will use as part of their everyday design process. But for people seeking specific information on the impact of their material choices, it is a significant new resource, providing relatively easy access to information that was previously only available in the high-end tools used by LCA consultants. An online tour, showing how the program works, is available on the Athena SMI Web site.

 

– NM