Calculate Your Footprint

Words: Dan KamysOctober 2008

Green Building

A free online calculator helps manufacturers quickly assess their products' carbon output, allowing them to take steps to greener goods. The LCA Calculator service provides a complete product life cycle assessment. It evaluates issues such as types and amounts of material used in production, location of manufacture, materials processing, energy consumption of the product, where and how it is transported, and its final disposition. The service was developed by Industrial Design Consultancy following the results of a survey of designers and engineers working in product development. The survey revealed that half of companies interviewed admitted that the environmental impact of a product was not currently a major design consideration, but 82 percent believed it would be in the future. Although 61 percent indicated awareness of life cycle assessment as a process to calculate a product's carbon footprint, only 29 percent believed their company had every carried one out during design. The calculator provides a detailed report with recommendations for improvement. It is available at http://www.lcacalculator.com. Return to Table of Contents
About: Side Story
Managing the Mysterious Job Site Slowdown
August 2026

Every contractor knows the feeling. A job looks good on paper. The schedule makes sense. The crews are lined up. The material is supposed to be there. Then, for no obvious reason, the whole job starts crawling. That is what makes it so frustrating. Nobod

Damian Lang
Contractor Tip of the Month
Read More
Sainte-Cécile Cathedral
August 2026

Imagine being handed a set of plans calling for the largest brick cathedral in the world. Now imagine building it without modern cranes, engineered scaffolding, forklifts, power tools, or structural analysis software. That was the challenge facing medie

Cass Stern
Marvelous Masonry
Read More
Why SkillsUSA is the Keystone to MCAA’s Outreach
August 2026

When I stepped into the role of the MCAA’s first Director of Youth Outreach and Education, I knew we had a massive job ahead of us. I am a fourth-generation brick mason, and I have spent over two decades teaching the trade, from working with apprentices a

Robert Melgaard
Outreach Outlook
Read More
The First Paycheck
August 2026

Several years ago, Huntley Brothers hired a young apprentice. It was his first real job, and he had never had a paycheck before. Friday rolled around, and he got paid just like everyone else. Later that day, one of the guys told me something I have never

Kent Huntley
Chairman’s Message
Read More