By David Graff, AAU Communication & Public Affairs

LCAbyg was launched in 2015 as a digital reference tool for climate calculations in the construction of BUILD, the Department of the Built Environment. Since then, the tool has helped to build competencies in the industry and create a common approach to calculating the climate footprint of buildings. For the past two years, the tool has been funded by foundations, but its operation is now being transferred to a private company. 

"It's about ensuring LCAbyg's future availability in the market," says Kasper Lynge Jensen, Head of the Department of the Built Environment.

Connection to AAU remains

Therefore, in August, the LCAbyg tool will be transferred to a user-paid model in a new company that will also be called LCAbyg. In the future, the company will maintain the tool and be responsible for customer-facing product development. 

The model is specifically designed so that the new company pays a license to BUILD to use the tool, users get access to it via subscription, while the company continuously develops it. It is a well-known innovation model often used at AAU.

"It is still the ambition that the LCAbyg tool will play a central role as a transparent reference tool that supports comparability, documentation and a common understanding of climate footprint in the industry," says Professor Harpa Birgisdottir, who is also co-owner of the new company. 

New model secures the tool's future 

Harpa Birgisdottir was the prime mover in the research development that led to the first generation of the LCAbyg tool, and her involvement in the new company helps ensure a natural link between the tool's academic origins and its ongoing life in a new organizational framework, according to Kasper Lynge Jensen, Head of the Department of the Built Environment:

"Running and developing a programme like this is an enormous task. It is a piece of software that requires operation, support and continuous updates at a level that we are not geared for as a university. Neither the industry nor authorities have shown interest in securing a free tool, so this solution ensures that LCAbyg is still available to the industry."

Kasper Lynge Jensen also believes that the transition to a private format can both secure the tool's future and at the same time maintain its professional level and development through the link to BUILD:

"BUILD is a research and teaching institution and not an operating organization for software solutions. It thus makes sense to let a company be responsible for operations and product development, while the university continues to contribute with research, method development and collaboration. The method behind the tool is open for free use."

Industry needs have changed

For users, the transition also means that there is a new web-based version of LCAbyg in the pipeline. It has been developed with a focus on stable operations, quality assurance and transparency, and it will support the climate requirements in BR18 (Danish Building Regulations 2018) for both 2023 and 2025, Harpa Birgisdottir explains. 

"My clear expectation is that the product will be better. Many of the good ideas for both professional and IT-based improvements have been there for a long time, but we have not had the necessary operating funds to implement them. This is now possible under the auspices of the new company," says Kasper Lynge Jensen. 

An important part of the rationale is that the needs of the industry have changed. Climate calculations have become a much more integrated part of construction, and according to Kasper Lynge Jensen, the market needs a tool that can be developed faster, adapted to users' needs and maintained as a professional software product. 

"For me as head of department, it is really positive that we can find a solution with one of our own researchers who has been deeply involved in the programme. This gives us confidence that the tool will live on in the best possible way, and at the same time it closely links us to future research and new knowledge," says Kasper Lynge Jensen. 

The spinout company is expected to launch the new version of LCAbyg in August, once the final formal details are in place.