Enables embodied carbon calculation, reporting, and analysis in infrastructure digital twins
Bentley Systems has expanded its integrated workflows for embodied carbon calculation in the Bentley iTwin platform. The new integration enables carbon assessment in infrastructure digital twin solutions, empowered by the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3).
Developed by the nonprofit Building Transparency, EC3 is a no-cost, open-access tool that allows benchmarking, assessment, and reductions in embodied carbon, focused on the upfront supply chain emissions of construction materials.
According to Bentley, the EC3 tool is helping drive demand for low-carbon solutions and incentivizing construction material manufacturers and suppliers to invest in disclosure, transparency, and material innovations that reduce the carbon emissions of their products.
The EC3 integration allows Bentley’s infrastructure digital twin solutions, powered by iTwin, and third-party applications built on the Bentley iTwin platform, to ‘simplify and accelerate’ the generation of carbon reporting and insights.
Microsoft was the first large corporate user of the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator and is piloting the tool (hosted in Microsoft Azure) on its 17-building redevelopment project at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash., targeting an embodied carbon reduction of 30%.
WSP is applying both the EC3 database and the Bentley iTwin platform on infrastructure projects such as the Interstate Bridge Replacement program. “For WSP, carbon footprint analysis and reduction are imperative in planning, designing, building, and operating an infrastructure project from beginning to end,” said Thomas Coleman, vice president of WSP USA.
“Enabling better iTwin integration with EC3 is game-changing for us on multiple infrastructure projects. Implementing this link will significantly reduce the time and cost of generating EC3-based detailed embodied carbon analysis and reports along the design and construction stages.
“Ultimately, in the long run, we see this collaboration as one more step toward open, evergreen infrastructure digital twins, where carbon calculation and optimisation are intrinsic and transparent in all infrastructure lifecycle stages across the entire value chain.”
