S3, E8: A Visual Biodiversity Net Gain Tool With Panu Pasanen of One Click LCA

July 23, 2024

S3, E8: A Visual Biodiversity Net Gain Tool With Panu Pasanen of One Click LCA

In this short 17 minute episode, you will discover how a new visual biodiversity net gain tool can help you do your BNG calculations and planning efficiently.

Tune into Panu Pasanen as he talks to Jackie De Burca, about this BNG tool which enables you to work without an ecologist for some phases of your BNG work. Listen to this episode below.

Click on the link to listen to the first episode with Panu about How To Fast Track Built Environment Sustainability With Panu Pasanen of One Click LCA

About Panu Pasanen

Panu Pasanen is the CEO and sole founder of One Click LCA, the world’s leading software platform for life-cycle assessment (LCA) and environmental product declaration (EPD) in construction & manufacturing.

He is an LCA, embodied carbon, and life-cycle costing (LCC) expert and entrepreneur, with a specialisation in the use of LCA and LCC for green building systems globally (primarily across Europe, North America, and Asia). Panu is a life-long advocate for the decarbonisation of the built environment.

He is driven to scale carbon performance optimisation with easy, automated, and affordable LCA. He is focused on developing One Click LCA to be the most user-friendly, automated, and robust LCA and LCC software platform on the market.

In addition to embodied carbon, LCA, and LCC, he works on Green Building credits for BREEAM, LEED, DGNB, CEEQUAL, and Energie-Carbone, among other things. He also collaborates with government bodies and large corporations to draft regulations and policies to achieve cost-effective and durable carbon reduction. He is also interested in sustainability metrics and standards — as well as sustainability software innovation.

Learn more about Panu’s work with One Click LCA here: www.oneclicklca.co

Some Episode Highlights

Podcast Episode Highlights: Interview with Panu Pasanen on the New Biodiversity Net Gain Tool

Introduction to Oneclick LCA:
- Panu Pasanen, CEO and founder of Oneclick LCA, introduces his company, a leading software platform for lifecycle assessment and environmental product declaration in construction and manufacturing. Oneclick LCA operates in around 170 countries.
Origins of the Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) Tool:
- Panu discusses the inspiration behind creating the BNG tool, highlighting his background as a Finnish software engineer and the convergence of factors like building information models and the fragmented construction industry that led to the creation of Oneclick LCA.
Global Impact and BNG Law in England:
- With the new BNG law in England, Panu explains how Oneclick LCA saw an opportunity to create a useful tool for developers and architects. The tool addresses not just carbon emissions but also other environmental challenges like biodiversity and circularity.
Five Main Drivers of Global Biodiversity Loss:
- Panu outlines the five main drivers of biodiversity loss identified by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and their relevance to the construction industry:
  - Land use change
  - Climate change
  - Pollution
  - Alien species
  - Exploitation of organisms
Functionality of the BNG Tool:
- The tool allows users to assess the biodiversity impact of their construction projects by comparing baseline site conditions with proposed changes, identifying hotspots, and running scenarios to optimize biodiversity outcomes.
Locality and Ecosystem Quality:
- The tool considers the quality of ecosystems and provides a visual, user-friendly interface to help users understand and improve biodiversity net gain.
Target Audience:
- The tool is aimed at developers, design-build contractors, architects, and especially those involved in landscaping, helping them comply with BNG regulations and optimize their projects for biodiversity.
Partnerships and Data:
- The tool design is by Oneclick LCA, using data from UKHab, ensuring alignment with English regulations while being flexible for international use in comparable biomes.
Early Use Cases and Benefits:
- Examples include using trees and water elements to improve site microclimate and biodiversity, and selecting more valuable ecosystems to enhance biodiversity credits. The tool can be used for ambitious biodiversity targets, offering scenario comparisons without upper or lower limits.
User-Friendly and Available:
- The BNG tool can be used with or without lifecycle assessment, doesn’t require users to be trained ecologists, and is immediately available for use, democratizing biodiversity assessments across projects.
Closing Remarks:
- Panu and Jackie reflect on the potential of the BNG tool to simplify and improve biodiversity considerations in construction projects, emphasizing its accessibility and immediate applicability.

About One Click LCA:

One Click LCA is a Helsinki-based tech company decarbonising construction and manufacturing with world-leading, easy-to-use, and automated life-cycle assessment (LCA) to calculate and reduce the environmental impacts of building, infrastructure, and renovation projects — as well as construction and other manufactured products. It also enables manufacturers to generate and publish third-party verified EPDs, and allows assessment of circularity, life-cycle cost, and soon also biodiversity.

One Click LCA is used in +170 countries. Its decarbonisation platform includes a unique global database with +200,000 LCA datasets, and it supports +80 standards and certifications, including LEED, BREEAM, GRESB and other national regulations. One Click LCA was founded in Finland in 2001, and has a team of +200 people on all continents.

Written by: Jackie De Burca