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Environmental Impact

The Environmental Impact feature enables environmental impact parameters to be assigned to the structure, and for the environmental impact of the structure to be reported both as a summary and to be represented graphically.

Environmental Impact Parameters​

The following environmental impact parameters can be assigned:

  • Embodied energy (eE)
  • Embodied carbon (eCO2)
  • Recycled content (%RC)
  • a user defined parameter

A set of environmental impact parameters can be assigned to the structure for each material type: Steel, Concrete, Rebar, FRP, Aluminium, Timber, Glass, and Fabric. These global values are assigned in the Environmental Impact Specification dialog.

The global environmental impact parameters can be overridden by parameters assigned to material grades via the Grade wizards.

Note that the parameters are based on material type. Elements and members must be assigned to materials of a defined type to accrue environmental impact.

Where an element refers to a concrete material type, the parameters assigned to the element are both the concrete and rebar parameters in the specified proportion.

Environmental Impact Wizard​

Environmental impact parameters are assigned via the Environmental Impact Wizard.

Output of Environmental Impact​

Environmental impact can be output as follows:

In Output Views: the ‘Environmental Impact Summary’ output reports environmental impact totals per property, per material property and for the whole structure. Recycled content is proportioned by the quantity of total material, resulting in total recycled content for the structure. The user should judge whether the summation of the user defined impact is valid.

In Graphic Views: environmental impact parameters can be contoured on elements, for the current stage, and on members.