Reference Data
Background LCIA Data
Building Material Emissions
C.Scale’s material database has been built from a collection of current North American Industry-Average EPDs. When no Industry-Average EPD is available, a generic material is developed based on either representative product EPDs or a published LCA dataset. C.Scale uses the following data sources for EPDs and LCIA data:
Building Transparency. EC3 (Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator). buildingtransparency.org
Ökobaudat (German Federal Ministry generic LCA database). oekobaudat.de/en.html
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). (2025). US Life Cycle Inventory (USLCI) Database. Version 1.2025-06.0. https://www.lcacommons.gov/lca-collaboration/National_Renewable_Energy_Laboratory/USLCI_Database_Public/datasets
National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). (2026) U.S. Electricity Baseline. Version 1.2026-6.0. https://www.lcacommons.gov/lca-collaboration/Federal_LCA_Commons/US_electricity_baseline/datasets
NIST. (2026) Construction Materials Database. Version 1.2026-07.0. https://www.lcacommons.gov/lca-collaboration/NIST/construction_materials/datasets
Swiss Federal Office of the Environment. (2025). Database of the Swiss Federal Administration, BAFU:2025. https://nexus.openlca.org/database/BAFU
Circular Ecology. (2024) ICE Database (Inventory of Carbon and Energy). circularecology.com/embodied-carbon-footprint-database.html
Flux / Healthy Building Network / thinkstep / Google (2019). Quartz Database.
Carbon Conscience. carbon-conscience.web.app (hardscape carbon intensities)
de Wild-Scholten, M. (2013). Energy payback time and carbon footprint of commercial photovoltaic systems. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells. doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2013.08.037
Transportation Emissions
Federal LCA Commons. (2025). US Life Cycle Inventory (USLCI). Transportation process datasets, June 2025 (version 1.2025-06.0). https://www.lcacommons.gov/lca-collaboration/National_Renewable_Energy_Laboratory/USLCI_Database_Public/datasets
US Census Bureau. (2017). 2017 US Commodity Flow Survey Tables. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2017/econ/cfs/aff-2017.html
ASHRAE/ICC. Standard 240P (Public Review draft, 2025), Table 6.5.2.1 — default per-mode transport emission factors
End-of-Life Emissions
End-of-Life values (C3/C4) from regionally appropriate industry-average EPDs are used in calculations when available and in accordance with a valid Product Category Rule (PCR). When not available emission factors have been sourced from the following datasets:
US Environmental Protection Agency. (2025). US Environmental Protection Agency/Construction and Demolition Debris (CDD) Management Dataset. https://www.lcacommons.gov/lca-collaboration/US_Environmental_Protection_Agency/Construction_and_demolition_2022_update_2/datasets
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). (2025). US Life Cycle Inventory (USLCI) Database. Version 1.2025-06.0. https://www.lcacommons.gov/lca-collaboration/National_Renewable_Energy_Laboratory/USLCI_Database_Public/datasets
Niblick, B., D. Hage, S. Cashman, J. Smith, P. Jain, A. Edelen, T. Townsend, and W. Ingwersen. (2021) “Life Cycle Inventories of End-of-Life Pathways of Construction and Demolition Materials.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-21/162, 2021. https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_record_Report.cfm?dirEntryId=354357
Swiss Federal Office of the Environment. (2025). Database of the Swiss Federal Administration, BAFU:2025. https://nexus.openlca.org/database/BAFU
Operational / Electricity Emissions
NREL. (2025) Cambium 2024 Dataset. https://www.nlr.gov/analysis/cambium.
C.Scale internal extrapolation algorithm used to project scenarios outbound from (2051–2110).
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). (2026). Electricity Canada Provinces/Territories 2026 EN Annex 7 tables. data-donnees.ec.gc.ca
European Environment Agency (EEA). (2026) Greenhouse gas emission intensity of electricity generation. eea.europa.eu
UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. (2024) Greenhouse gas reporting: conversion factors 2023. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greenhouse-gas-reporting-conversion-factors-2023
Refrigerants & Non-CO2 Characterization
CIBSE. (2021). TM65: An internationally-applicable methodology for the calculation of embodied carbon in building services engineering. cibse.org
IPCC. (2021). Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis — AR6 Working Group I (source of GWP100 characterization factors). ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1
Carbon Storage & Sequestration Factors
ACLCA (2019). Guidance to Calculating Non-LCIA Inventory Metrics in Accordance with ISO 21930:2017. lcacenter.org/products/iso-21930-guidance
CEN (2014). EN-16449 — Wood and wood-based products: calculation of biogenic carbon content and conversion to CO2.
Hoxha, E., Passer, A., Saade, M.R.M., Trigaux, D., Shuttleworth, A., Pittau, F., Allacker, K., & Habert, G. (2020). Biogenic carbon in buildings: a critical overview of LCA methods. Buildings and Cities, 1(1), 504–524. doi.org/10.5334/bc.46
Carbon Conscience. carbon-conscience.web.app
Pathfinder. climatepositivedesign.com
McPherson, E.G. & Simpson, J.R. (1999). Carbon dioxide reduction through urban forestry. USDA Forest Service. fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/6779
Ingram, D.L., Hall, C.R., & Knight, J. (2016). Carbon footprint and variable costs of production components for a container-grown evergreen shrub using life cycle assessment: An east coast US model. HortScience, 51(8), 989–994. doi.org/10.21273/HORTSCI.51.8.989
Gu, C., Crane, J., Hornberger, G., & Carrico, A. (2015). The effects of household management practices on the global warming potential of urban lawns. Science of the Total Environment. sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479715000092
Jones, K. (2010). Landscaping Carbon Footprint [PDF]. University of Florida IFAS. buildgreen.ifas.ufl.edu
FAO. Global Soil Organic Carbon Map (GSOCmap). fao.org
Material Quantity & Energy Use Estimates
Material Quantity Estimates
Price & Myers. Climate Action Dataset. pricemyers.com/climate-action
MIT Building Technology Program / ETH Zurich Circular Engineering for Architecture Lab. deQo — Database of Embodied Quantity Outputs. carbondeqo.com
RASMI (2024). Harmonized building material intensity database. Scientific Data. nature.com/articles/s41597-024-03190-7
Payette. (2021). Kaleidoscope Embodied Carbon Design Tool. payette.com/kaleidoscope (Reference cladding and roofing assemblies with typical quantity take-offs)
Carbon Leadership Forum (2018). Interior Fit-Out (TI) Study and MEP Study. carbonleadershipforum.org/office-buildings-lca
C.Scale internal structural-quantity assumptions — internal, info on request.
Refrigerant & Equipment Quantities
Rodriguez, B. (2019). Embodied Carbon of Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigerants (HVAC+R) Systems [dissertation]. University of Washington. digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/44736
Baseline Energy Use & On-Site Generation Estimates
Architecture 2030. Zero Tool. zerotool.org/zerotool. (References CBECS 2003 / RECS 2003 baselines)
NREL. PVWatts Calculator, Version 8. pvwatts.nrel.gov/version_8.php. (solar resource and PV array generation estimates)
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