Evaluation Tools
Evaluation tools available today may be qualitative and/or quantitative, and can assist in decisions ranging from building materials and components up top whole building systems. Many of the links to the evaluation tools described below were obtained from the Building Energy Software Tool Directory. Look under Whole Building Analysis and then click on Sustainability/Green Building.

GBTool (Canada)
click here to go to Greenbuilding website
This spreadsheet tool is available as a free download and supports the Green Building Challenge.Green Building Challenge is an international collaborative effort to develop a building environmental assessment tool that exposes and addresses controversial aspects of building performance and from which the participating countries can selectively draw ideas to either incorporate into or modify their own tools. Green Building Challenge 2002 is a continuation of the GBC '98 - 2000 process and a multi-year period of review, modification and testing of the GBC Assessment Framework and Green Building Tool (GBTool) - the operational software for the assessment framework.

Athena Sustainable Materials Institute (Canada)
click here to go to Athena website
ATHENA is a practical, easy-to-use decision support tool that provides high quality environmental data and assists with the complex evaluations required to make informed environmental choices. With Athena all the basic LCA work is done out of the sight and mind of the user. Give ATHENA a design for all or part of a building and you get back an environmental profile without having to be concerned with the intricacies of LCA or even knowing you are doing LCA. Better still enter two or more comparable conceptual designs and ATHENA will compare them across as many as six environmental measures.

BEES (USA)
click here to go to BEES website
BEES (Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability) is based on consensus standards and designed to be practical, flexible, and transparent. The Windows-based decision support software, aimed at designers, builders, and product manufacturers, includes actual environmental and economic performance data for a number of building products. BEES measures the environmental performance of building products by using the environmental life-cycle assessment approach specified in ISO 14000 standards. All stages in the life of a product are analyzed: raw material acquisition, manufacture, transportation, installation, use, and recycling and waste management. Economic performance is measured using the ASTM standard life-cycle cost method, which covers the costs of initial investment, replacement, operation, maintenance and repair, and disposal. Environmental and economic performance are combined into an overall performance measure using the ASTM standard for Multi-Attribute Decision Analysis. For the entire BEES analysis, building products are defined and classified according to the ASTM standard classification for building elements known as UNIFORMAT II.

ENVEST (Great Britain)
click here to go to ENVEST
Assessing the life-cycle environmental impacts of a proposed design can be difficult and time-consuming, even for those with specialist knowledge and experience. ENVEST makes it possible for users to assess the life-cycle environmental impact of a proposed building and to explore various design options. Configured for rapid and easy use, ENVEST also assesses the operational energy use and is particularly helpful at the early design stage.

LISA (Australia)
click here to see LISA website.
Combined life cycle analysis (LCA) decision support tool for construction. It was developed in response to requests by architects and industry professionals for a simplified LCA tool to assist in green design. LISA stands for LCA in Sustainable Architecture.

EQUER (France)
click here to to go EQUER website
Performs yearly simulations of buildings life cycle, in order to provide mechanical, energy and architectural engineers or architects with environmental indicators (e.g. global warming, acidification and eutrophication potentials, exhaust of natural resources, etc.). The Swiss Oekoinventare database and other data collected in the frame of the European REGENER project are used for material fabrication and other processes (energy, water, waste, transport). EQUER is linked to the energy simulation tool COMFIE. Replacement of components at the end of their life is automatically accounted for.

BLCC 5.0 (USA)
BLCC 5.0 is a life cycle costing program available through the Office of Applied Economics at the Building and Fire Research Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

EE4 Screening Tool (Canada)
A highly useful evaluation tool associated with Natural Resources Canada's Commercial Building Incentive Program (CBIP) is the Screening Tool. The Screening Tool can be used to help designers determine if their new building design may qualify for an incentive under the Commercial Building Incentive Program (CBIP). By entering information about the design the screening tool will provide an estimate of the annual energy use and cost savings. It will compare the design to a "reference" building that just meets the requirements of the Model National Energy Code for Buildings. The new building design must be at least 25% more energy efficient than the reference building in order to qualify for CBIP.

Commercial Life Cycle Assessment Software
click here for assessment software site
A number of internationally recognized life cycle assessment software applications are described at the Environmental Software House.