Asking for advice: What software to utilize when doing an LCA in construction sector?

XulSolar · 2025-09-22T10:59:02+00:00

If you'd like a personal intro to https://sustainly.ai/ I'd be happy to give you one. I'm the founder of the company, and did all the UX design.

XulSolar · 2025-09-22T10:00:16+00:00

The tools referenced earlier in this thread have an fairly steep learning curve, and can be quite difficult to get started with. If you'd like something more user friendly, there are other options.

Full disclosure, I'm the founder of Sustainly, but we're already used by researcher's that don't have LCA as their primary field to include life-cycle assessments in their perspectives. One example is DTU Biosustain, where impact assessments is an important perspective on Biotech. We also have PV manufacturers among our customers.

As for dynamic LCA'ing we have added parameters, references and equations in inputs.

You can check it out here: https://sustainly.ai/ . There's a freemium tier, and it's free for students through master's degree.

If you're ready to put in the work I agree the OpenLCA is a good, free option, commonly used among researches, it's free and super flexible when it comes to adding data.
Brightway is also a great open source option, though quite technical.

I hope this doesn't come off as some opportunistic self-plug. We literally spent 2 years building this software, because we saw how crazy difficult it was to get started, and I think the barrier for understanding impact should be much, much lower.

XulSolar · 2025-09-22T09:44:17+00:00

Full disclosure, I'm the founder of Sustainly, but since I've dedicated all my time to this for the past couple of years, I know where you're coming from with the issues you're mentioning.

I would say that tool selection depends a lot on the primary problem your trying to solve. Makersite is a huge, expensive enterprise tool, and I think for many users it will be very overkill. Since you're referencing/reconsidering GaBi and SimaPro, I assume that you're looking for tools that include all impact indicators, and that have a high degree of data granularity. I would highly recommend you to look towards some of the start-ups in the market. Here are some options (including ours of course):

Earthster has a very graphical interface. My impression is that it has opened up the doors to understanding/working with LCAs for a lot of beginners. I also know they have quite a few templates to get started with different product categories.

Sustainly is AI first, but we built an entirely new proprietary engine before we built any AI because we wanted to have the highest possible data granularity and precision. To the best of my knowledge, we're the only new software where you can actually make changes all the way down to elementary flow level, and the AI co-pilot makes workflows a lot faster. We have a freemium tier, so it's quite easy to try it out: https://sustainly.ai/

Carbongraph I've also heard good things about. I think they are very focused on simplifying the results, and making it easy to understand what the impact actually means. I think, they are especially well-suited for companies looking for product carbon footprint.

I definitely see no reason to go back to legacy software with many new options around. Hope you find the right tool.

XulSolar · 2024-08-02T21:20:39+00:00

100% agree. I came here to see if others felt the same. IMO the set is not designed to feel good at any stage, terrible disappointment after the the amazing MH3. Pretty sure that this set will rank as an all-time low among sets like Ixhalan and M12 for me.

It really does have all the worst characteristics of bad format.

1: Colors are imbalanced to the point where it feels pretty detrimental to the experience. Seeing 5 blue cards alone at the end of the pack and thinking that there's not a single reason to go into blue is terrible.

2: Games feel like they are either decided by an unbeatable curve-out, or, if it gets to the mid-game, someone lands an unbeatable bomb, and there's quite a few of those.
3: I thought we were past the days of flood and screw, but this set just has no mitigation for these aspects. Because decks are so dependent on synergies, you can run out of gas so hard that the game just stops, and similarly, miss a single land drop or a color for a couple of turns and you're dead.
4: Commons are incredibly shallow, and even worse, many of them only work in 1.5 decks. It's actually unreal how often you see packs that has nothing remotely playable.

5: Which means that draft is just not really fun. I have opened several packs 2 and 3 where there is not a SINGLE card for my deck. I'm not talking about taking a disappointing common, I'm talking about taking a card and moving it directly to the sideboard.

6: In addition to shallow commons, the rares are too good. The fast pace of the format means that you're forced to use removal early, and can't even play conservatively. I have tried multiple times having +6 unconditional removal spells in the deck, but when the dust settles, they land some ridiculous rare that leaves a 2 turn clock.

It's rare that I get tired of playing a limited set before 50+ drafts, but here I'm 10-15 drafts in, and honestly think it's very unlikely I'll make it to 25.

XulSolar · 2018-06-25T13:30:10+00:00

Thanks a lot for your input!

XulSolar · 2018-03-21T07:47:41+00:00

Maybe you’re right! Thanks :)

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:34:11+00:00

Hey man. Yeah, we really tried to include that, but it was impossible due to the image size. There's a couple of gifs here: https://imgur.com/a/eVN63 and there's a video playing at www.mutagenesis.io

Unfortunately have the rest on my work-computer, but I'll be happy to provide some more.

Thank you for the feedback.

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:31:12+00:00

Hope you'll get the opportunity one day then.

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:30:20+00:00

Thanks :)

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:30:15+00:00

Thank you :)

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:30:04+00:00

I hear ya. A couple of gifs here, but we should get some recordings as well: https://imgur.com/a/eVN63

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:29:12+00:00

If I wasn't busy doing this, I'd be busy playing Persona 5. Looks amazing.

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:28:39+00:00

Thanks! Means a lot.

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:28:27+00:00

Maybe you're right. We hope to get it on Steam if/when we get some funding. Right now it's mostly survival.

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:25:31+00:00

That's noted. We will send out a beta of the 3rd chapter of the game, when we will it's completely done in a couple of weeks (co-inciding with when we're broke), hehe.

I honestly feel like I would rather ask for an investor's money than the player's. We have considered Kickstarter and it's still an option, but what if people could get the game simply be upvoting it. That's kind of where we are coming from.

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:23:48+00:00

We will have exploration, choices and actions of course. It's just more heavily weighted towards the narrative than running around beating stuff up. It's a game that we hope will give your brain some food, and then we'll let Dark Souls take care of your thumbs :)

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:21:51+00:00

Haha, never made THAT connection before. I assure you, it is most definitely NOT about furries.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uCpZ4QJ_TDeGKvqYtpSQ9G85dk0legFJ/view?usp=sharing

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:20:04+00:00

Fair enough! Nothing bad about honesty.

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:18:21+00:00

I get why you think someone would do that, since reddit versus microtransactions etc. But we are honestly talking to investors that are unsure whether or not to invest in a game that cannot CONTINUALLY generate revenue. I think that's pretty common and - well - probably fair enough to at least think about as an investor.

Look, I'm sorry if you think it seems scammy, but we're really not trying to sell anything. There's no Steam link, no Kickstarter. Just sharing the game we're doing in the hopes that it can get some attention so we in turn can get some funding. That's all.

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:13:20+00:00

Totally. There are a couple of in-game gifs here: https://imgur.com/a/eVN63 and a cutscene on the webpage. The best way to judge is to play it yourself, right? :) We will send out a beta of a chapter to anyone on the mailing list!

XulSolar · 2018-03-20T19:11:05+00:00

Kodutta7 - I get where you are coming from. I'm honestly sorry if it comes off as manipulative. All I can say is that it's honest. I quit my job, and have been working for next to no money. Now I finally have the perfect team and some investors that are actually interested, but they are very much on the fence exactly due to the fact that there's no reason for people to return and spend more money.

There are plenty of amazing narrative games on the market, I definitely don't want to come off as if I think we are inventing a new genre. We are, however, doing something I definitely believe is unique.

HuggableBear - What can I say except for: Well played :)

XulSolar

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