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ECHO Project Life Cycle Assessment Requirements and Recommendations Released! Embodied Carbon Harmonization and Optimization (ECHO) Project The ECHO Project partners are excited to announce a second publication, Project Life Cycle Assessment Requirements: ECHO Recommendations for Alignment, Version 1.0. In 2023, ECHO Project members recognized a need for alignment around a consistent approach for performing and reporting life cycle assessment results. This publication summarizes ECHO’s findings and recommendations around project LCA requirements to drive alignment in the modeling and reporting of project LCAs submitted to the commitment and certification programs included in ECHO. ECHO organizations represent the full scope of the built environment – from buildings to parks to roads and beyond – and our publications, therefore, focus on project LCA, which encompasses whole building LCAs (WBLCA or wbLCA), sitework LCAs (covering both hardscape and softscape), and infrastructure LCAs of roadways, bridges, and other infrastructure projects. ECHO Schema Fields and Descriptions, v1.0, published in early September 2024, complements this publication by providing recommended reporting fields to encourage alignment across North American LCA reporting platforms. As organizations both within and outside of ECHO continue to update their standards and programs, we stress the importance of collaborations like ECHO in moving towards harmonization and alignment across requirements, while allowing space for leaders to continue pushing the boundaries of project LCA and strategies for reducing embodied carbon in the built environment. The less time practitioners spend navigating different requirements, the more time they will have to dedicate to pushing for actual reductions. #embodiedcarbon Meghan Lewis, Lyndsay Watkins, Colleen Loader, Michelle Lambert, CPHC, LEED BD C, Env SP ECHO is a coalition convened jointly by five leading non-profit organizations: Architecture 2030, Building Transparency, the Carbon Leadership Forum, the International Living Future Institute, and the U.S. Green Building Council. It is comprised of representatives from The American Institute of Architects (AIA) , CAGBC | Canada Green Building Council, the Contractors Commitment, the Climate Positive Design Challenge, American Society of Landscape Architects, the MEP 2040 Commitment, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (Infrastructure 2050 and SEI SE2050 Commitment), the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI), and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). https://lnkd.in/gts3m37P
