ECCOLAB is an innovative building design laboratory that gives you the power to rapidly explore the lifecycle energy, carbon and cost impacts of your design proposals and make a real difference to the outcome of your projects.

Explore provides the full analysis power of ECCOLAB's energy, cost and carbon lifecycle engines - free for everyone to use.

Explore gives valuable strategic whole life carbon, cost and energy insights based on our extensive default libraries. Alongside our growing library of demo projects , Explore gives you the ability to create your own unique project with 3 customised options.

You can manage your subscription and extend the capabilities of ECCOLAB with our paid plans at any time from within the tool - adding the functionality to customise and manage your own libraries, import geometry and manually add quantities.

ECCOLAB is designed as a cloud-based application and requires an internet connection and browser for access. We recommend using Chrome, though the application has also been tested successfully on Safari.

Yes. ECCOLAB is founded on the concept that decision making should be based on a holistic view of impacts. To support this, every version of ECCOLAB provides all the engines working together in one tool.

Payment plans are for a single log-in to the tool and cannot be used simultaneously by multiple users.

With the Collaborate subscription, projects can be shared between multiple ECCOLAB user accounts and libraries can be shared and managed at an organisational level.

The ECCOLAB Design plan offers an affordable, fully customisable version of the tool, with the flexibility of monthly billing and the option to cancel anytime which is aimed at sole practitioners or smaller organisations.

This option gives you the ability to create 1 project per month during your subscription period. Once you have finished working with ECCOLAB you are free to cancel your subscription and your data will be retained for a minimum of a year. You can easily re-start your subscription when you next need access to your projects.

Yes, we will be offering educational licenses for ECCOLAB version 2 on an institutional basis. If you are interested in accessing an educational license, then please do contact us directly.

We will be in touch individually with existing v1 subscribers to set-out how you can get access to the extensive new features in version 2 of ECCOLAB.

ECCOLAB v1 will still be available to all existing subscribers, but this version of the tool will no longer be updated and will not have benefit from future interface, engine or library enhancements. We recommend that v1 users commence new projects within ECCOLAB v2 where possible.

Version 2 is a significant upgrade to ECCOLAB, with major changes to the underlying database structure of the tool that makes the automated migration of project and library data from v1 to v2 complex. If there are particular projects or library elements that you would like to transfer between the versions, then please do contact us for assistance.

The ECCOLAB component library is based on EPD, Okebaudat and ICE data and has been carefully curated to ensure that all BS EN 15978 scopes are covered, and biogenic carbon storage is handled correctly throughout the lifecycle. Additional physical performance data to support the energy modelling is based on CIBSE guidance and site wastage data is from WRAP.

The library is maintained and updated by the ECCOLAB team. There is an annual update cycle where key library data is checked and revised to meet current standards.

The ability to add cost inflation risk factors and carbon contingency factors will form part of a future ECCOLAB update.

ECCOLAB is fully customisable. You can add your own library information and build your own templates, specific to your organisational needs, to support the rapid analysis of your designs.

The central ECCOLAB libraries are locked to maintain data integrity. Individual organisation libraries have permission controls to ensure that organisational level data has gone through appropriate QA processes.

Using the combined knowledge of the ECCOLAB team, we are always adding new library information, and we can also offer a bespoke service to populate custom libraries to suit your specific requirements.

The ECCOLAB cost engine is not a replacement for cost consultancy services.

The tool provides users with a framework to assess relative lifecycle costs impacts and their interaction with carbon and energy performance. The default libraries provide a base set of cost information to illustrate functionality, and these costs are benchmarked and updated on an annual basis.

We anticipate that many users will want to adapt and customise cost data to meet their own preferences, and project specific requirements.

If you feel that your product would add to the range and quality of the ECCOLAB base library, then please contact the ECCOLAB team.

Every project is different - which is why ECCOLAB provides the flexibility to fully customise the tool - but it is also critically important that data quality is maintained.

ECCOLAB maintains a strict hierarchy within its libraries and provides for fully transparent data reporting. The default ECCOLAB libraries are QA checked by the ECCOLAB team and uneditable by users. Data sources, assumptions and standards are fully declared.

In Design and Collaborate, users can create their own library items either at a Project or User level where required. We recommend that users only create library items where they have the competency to do so, and that only expert users create new Component level materials. Data sources and standards should be fully declared, alongside relevant QA information.

With Collaborate, organisations can manage their own organisational level libraries with permissions to facilitate quality control.

Using the combined knowledge of the ECCOLAB team, we are always adding new library information, and we can also offer a bespoke service to populate custom libraries to suit your specific requirements.

Yes, we have successfully used ECCOLAB to model retrofit projects. When components are assigned to make up assembly construction build-ups, users can specify whether the each material is new, existing to be retained or to be disposed of, and define a specific service age, which gives a high degree of flexibility in representing retrofit options.

A retrofit demo project is in development which will illustrate how the tool can support optioneering for existing buildings.

We recognise the critical importance of prioritising retrofit to achieve zero carbon goals and have plans to substantially develop ECCOLAB’s retrofit functionality in the future.

ECCOLAB’s flexible option-based structure is well suited to handling the analysis of multiple buildings at varying levels of detail in one workspace.

A unique estate version of the tool is in development that will enable decision makers to model, analyse and optioneer quickly across multiple current and future built assets on an estate. Please contact us for further information.

The current version of ECCOLAB is focused on building analysis, but the architecture of the tool enables the support of many other types of analysis through the import of geometry and the direct entry of material quantities.

The version 2 database structure is highly flexible and supports the modelling of a wide range of assets in terms of carbon and cost on an area, weight, volume, area and unit basis.

If you have specific non-building modelling requirements, then please contact the ECCOLAB team to see how we can assist.

ECCOLAB can import detailed building geometry into your project either from Sketchup with the Gmodeller plug-in or using gbXML and IFC files. ECCOLAB assemblies can be assigned to imported geometry.

We are currently in the process of developing further enhancements to the model import / export functionality.

Not yet – but we are keen to explore co-ordination with PHPP as part of the future road-map.

A major update to ECCOLAB’s energy engine will be made available in an upcoming release to all users.

This will include a fully integrated lifecycle carbon, cost and energy model for building services including extended libraries and support for CIBSE TM65, alongside modelling of future energy source carbon intensity profiles and carbon pricing.

We are exploring the potential of charting overheating risk analysis results and additional compliance functionality.

ECCOLAB approximates frame structural quantities at early design stage with either a dynamic model that considers use loadings and spans, or the application of fixed material rates per m2.

Current dynamic frame models cover insitu reinforced concrete, steel and glulam and are limited to a maximum height of 15-storeys.

Foundations are estimated using either a simple parametric model that is independent of the frame model, or the application of fixed material rates per m2. To get accurate results, users are required to manually choose a foundation strategy that is appropriate to the context and scale of their project.

When detailed structural engineering information is available, the ECCOLAB estimates can be easily overridden with absolute design quantities.

Current reporting functionality allows for the download of a rich range of charts and underlying data for inclusion in your own reports.

ECCOLAB can also export directly to the LETI embodied carbon declaration, and it is possible to export details of individual options along with the underlying EPD and carbon data for full transparency.

We currently report total values and per m2 of GIA but see the value in considering impacts per occupant and will implement this in a future update.

No - given the breadth of the analysis the tool carries out, our view is that compliance with the the BRE IMPACT specification and the BRE IMPACT database would impose a signficant limitation on the functionality and flexibility of the tool and reduce potential for innovation.

ECCOLAB's provides robust lifecycle analysis to internationally recognised standards with transparent reporting. ECCOLAB's databases have been carefully curated from robust certified EPD data and other recognised data sources by industry experts. We are constantly working to update the tool to reflect the very latest thinking in whole life energy, carbon and cost analysis.