Products & Equipment Roads & Bridges
Athena releases web version of LCA tool

May 20, 2016 – The Athena Sustainable Materials Institute has released a web version of Pavement LCA, its popular and free life cycle assessment (LCA) tool for roadways.

The easy-to-use software tool calculates the environmental impact of Canadian regional roadway designs.

Pavement LCA allows custom roadway design, or users can draw from a library of existing designs. The software provides environmental impact results for all life cycle stages – materials manufacturing, roadway construction, use, and rehabilitation – and enables quick and easy comparison of multiple design options over a range of expected roadway lifespans.

“Pavement LCA places the power of LCA into the hands of any transportation engineer or roadway designer,” said Athena president Jennifer O’Connor, “and now we’ve made it even easier to bring sustainability to roadway design by putting the tool in the cloud.”

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the science behind environmental footprinting. The Athena Sustainable Materials Institute is North America’s leader in bringing LCA to the construction sector.

The web version of Pavement LCA includes several improved features, such as better report graphics and spreadsheet export capabilities. Learn more and find the online tool at PavementLCA.com.

For projects in the U.S., users can download the desktop version of the software, which includes all the same features as the web tool and is suitable for both Canada and the U.S. The desktop version is available for download from Athena’s software website, calculatelca.com.

The Athena Institute provides this tool for free thanks to the support of the Cement Association of Canada and its other members.