In eTool, we have 2 main LCI group/datasets.

  • eTool Default

  • BRE IMPACT

At the moment, the ‘BRE IMPACT’ and ‘eTool Default’ LCI dataset/group and templates are kept completely separate and are not interchangeable. Once a Project is created using one LCI group, you will be unable to change it to another LCI group after that. If you need your project to be in the other LCI group, you can only do so by creating a whole new Project in the correct LCI group. This also means that you will need to remodel your whole Design again since there are two separate collections of templates for the two LCI groups and the original Design can’t be translated into the new LCI group.

This also applies to templates that are created in one LCI group. Once a template is created, it can not be swapped over to the other LCI group since the material library for the two datasets are completely separate and different.

eTool Default – LCI Sources

Under the ‘eTool Default’ LCI group, there are a number of sub- LCI Sources as per the list below:

  • Australasian
  • European
  • Global
  • New Zealand
  • North American
  • United Kingdom

These LCI Sources relate to the location of the project and provide more refined LCI data for industry average transportation/shipping distances for various construction materials.

eTool Default – Electricity, Gas, Water & Waste Water Grids

The eTool Default group also has a set of grids that can be specified independently of the LCI Sources. For example, you can have an Australasian LCI Source Project with an ‘EU Poland’ electricity grid. This ability to ‘mix-and-match’ allows some flexibility to help refine the LCA study to more accurately match the location & grid intensities of the Project. If this approach is used, the study author must be able to provide reasonable justification for the selection to study audiences and/or the reviewer.

 

Our users have previously requested a feature to make it possible to have the two LCI groups within the same Project in eTool, please read more about it here: Use Multiple LCI Sources In the Same Project