Buyer’s Guide: LCA Tools For The Building Life Cycle (2025)

Table of contents

Summary for decision-makers
The Verdantix Buyer’s Guide to lifecycle assessment (LCA) software for the building life cycle
Firms leverage LCA solutions to achieve carbon savings and boost asset value
Criteria buyers should consider when selecting an LCA solution provider
Inclusion criteria for the 2025 Buyer’s Guide to LCA software
Building Transparency’s EC3 delivers a free, open-access, construction-specific tool for quantifying embodied carbon and decarbonizing the built environment
Cerclos’s eTool platform streamlines regulatory compliance and building certification attainment, and centralizes data ownership
emersus significantly reduces LCA generation time compared with manual processes, while ensuring high accuracy of assessments
Makersite’s scalable platform delivers comprehensive digital twin capability, providing users with full transparency into each stage of the life cycle
One Click LCA focuses on maximizing user experience by leveraging AI capabilities and a global training academy
PRé Sustainability caters to individual customer needs with SimaPro Craft for experienced LCA practitioners and SimaPro Synergy for non-experts
Preoptima facilitates whole life carbon assessments and early-stage design optimization for private and public sector projects
Sphera’s LCA for Experts provides an extensive LCA database to help customers manage supply chain risk and enables LCA automation across large building product portfolios

Table of figures

Figure 1. Glossary of terms
Figure 2. The nine aspects of functionality for LCA software across the building life cycle
Figure 3. LCA across the building life cycle
Figure 4. LCA process for new-build vs retrofit projects
Figure 5. List of LCA software providers for buildings
Figure 6. List of vendors providing LCA software for buildings through integrations
Figure 7. Key purchase criteria in LCA vendor selection process for two prominent buyer personas
Figure 8. Building Transparency overview
Figure 9. Cerclos overview
Figure 10. emersus overview
Figure 11. Makersite overview
Figure 12. One Click LCA overview
Figure 13. PRé Sustainability overview
Figure 14. Preoptima overview
Figure 15. Sphera overview