The ATHENA® EcoCalculator for Commercial Assemblies provides instant LCA results for common building assemblies based on detailed assessments previously conducted using the ATHENA® Impact Estimator for Buildings..

Please note that the the current version of the EcoCalculator for Commercial Assemblies is v3.6

As data for other building assemblies becomes available, those assemblies will be added to the EcoCalculator for Commercial Assemblies.

To freely download and use the EcoCalculator for Commercial Assemblies, you will first need to pick the most appropriate climatic region and the height of your building. Both of these choices affect the specific assembly definitions.

Although the EcoCalculator for Commercial Assemblies is presented in an easy-to-use Excel spreadsheet format, you may find it useful to review or download the User’s Guide . Detailed assembly definitions, assumptions and related information are provided in a separate Definitions and Assumptions document that can also be downloaded in a pdf format.

Please note that the EcoCalculator for Commercial Assemblies was developed for and is supported only on Microsoft Excel. Any other spreadsheet software that is reportedly Excel compatible is not supported. The OpenOffice CALC spreadsheet opens EcoCalculator files, but we have not verified the results on that application. Apple’s Numbers application cannot open EcoCalculator files because they are password protected: they have formatting and content that needs to remain locked in order to ensure results are reliable. The EcoCalculator Excel files contain NO MACROS.

---

EcoCalculator for Commercial Assemblies Release Notes

Version 3.6

January 2011 : Version 3.6 has been released to reflect the updates and enhancements to its parent software, the Impact Estimator (versions 4.1.12 and 4.1.13), details of which can be found here.

Version 4.1.12 of Impact Estimator introduced a change in the energy consumption summary measure, from "Primary Energy Consumption" to "Fossil Fuel Consumption", and as such, EcoCalculator for commercial assemblies now presents the "Fossil Fuel Consumption" summary measure.

Two bugs have also been corrected:

• In the summary page, the Global Warming Potential and Weighted Resource Use pie charts were displaying the wrong data (GWP showed WRU's data and vice versa).
• The values for Modified Bitumen roofing and #30 felt were being overestimated and have been corrected.

Version 3.5.2

September 2010 : Version 3.5.2 has been released to correct a bug, there are no changes to the database.

• The results of concrete footings were not being included in the percentages table and graphs on the summary page, if the footings were the only assembly chosen in the Foundations & Footings page. If a foundation wall or slab were also chosen (i.e., one of the Total Square Footages was not equal to zero), then the footings results were correctly included in the Summary graphs and percentages tables. The concrete footings results were correctly included in the Environmental Impact Summary table values, this bug only affected the percentages tables, and hence the graphs as well. This has been corrected.

Version 3.5.1

August 2010 : Version 3.5.1 has been released to correct some bugs, there are no changes to the database.

• The New York City and Seattle EcoCalculator files were not including the Exterior Wall results in the Summary table. This has been corrected.
• The Calgary, Halifax, Minneapolis, Montreal, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Quebec City, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg and US Average Zone 6 EcoCalculator files were not including Foundations & Footings Assembly #4, Concrete Block with EPS Insulation results in the summary table. This has been corrected.

Version 3.5

July 2010 : Version 3.5 has been released to reflect the updates and enhancements to its parent software, the Impact Estimator (version 4.1.11).

Updates in version 3.5 include the addition of Los Angeles and Seattle (with accompanying seismic calculations) to the list of U.S. regions, new assembly options and updated background data for several building materials including steel.