pACI and One Click LCA Made Smarter Schools a Reality for CPAC
To meet growing demand for high-quality, sustainable school buildings, CPAC partnered with Symetri to streamline its design and compliance processes. By implementing pACI and One Click LCA, CPAC accelerated project delivery, improved collaboration, and reduced environmental impact — all while maintaining cost-efficiency and regulatory compliance.
Meeting the Need for Smarter School Buildings
When CPAC Modular set out to deliver a new modular school project, the stakes were high. Schools need to be built quickly, cost-effectively, and now — more than ever — with a clear sustainability mandate. The challenge wasn’t just speed; it was proving low-carbon outcomes without slowing the pace of design and delivery.
Traditionally, embodied carbon was measured late in the process, leaving the design team with two unsatisfying choices: rely on rough averages or risk discovering problems too late to change course. For a modular builder like CPAC, whose success depends on efficiency, that approach was no longer acceptable.Solutions That Made the Difference
Working with Symetri, CPAC piloted a new approach that combined the predictive Assemblies Carbon Index (pACI) with One Click LCA, a cloud-based tool that helps construction professionals measure and reduce the environmental impact of buildings. pACI, derived from Symetri’s Co-Innovation Lab, gave their design team the ability to test and compare carbon at the assembly level — wall systems, floor assemblies, roof modules directly in their BIM environment (Autodesk Revit) in real time. Instead of waiting for weeks of manual analysis, they could see carbon hotspots instantly and explore alternatives before locking in design decisions.
Once confident in their options, the team verified results using One Click LCA, producing transparent, standard-compliant reporting that met client and regulatory expectations. The combination of predictive speed and verified accuracy gave CPAC something new: confidence, without compromise.
The impact was striking:
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Structural efficiency: CPAC’s modular assemblies cut embodied carbon by 74% compared to traditional steel framing.
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Architectural savings: Their optimized wall and floor systems reduced emissions by over 50%.
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Foundation innovation: Switching from raft slabs to CPAC’s foundation pads slashed emissions by 83%, the equivalent of eliminating over 250,000 kg CO₂e — or the annual energy use of 1,100 households.
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Construction site impact: Faster project delivery cut site emissions dramatically, avoiding the equivalent of 171 tonnes of CO₂ — comparable to eliminating 199 London–Paris flights.
On the school project, CPAC identified opportunities to cut embodied carbon by nearly 20% across key assemblies while reducing analysis time from several days to just hours. More importantly, they could present data-backed results to the client, proving that modular construction wasn’t just faster — it was also smarter and more sustainable.
“With pACI and One Click LCA, we’re no longer guessing. We can show clients the real carbon impact of our modular units while the design is still flexible. For this school project, it meant we delivered on time, on budget, and with clear sustainability proof.” — Mark Whitehead, Construction Director, CPAC Modular
By adopting this workflow, CPAC Modular turned carbon analysis into a competitive advantage. Their school project wasn’t just another modular build; it became a blueprint for how speed, cost, and sustainability can work together — not against each other. And with reductions equivalent to removing 1,227 cars from the road or planting nearly 200 trees, the results spoke a language every stakeholder could understand.
Co-Innovation Lab
Through our Co-Innovation Lab, we transform these insights into innovative solutions, helping the industry and our customers achieve their sustainability goals and adapt to urbanization challenges.
Decarbonisation Solutions
Symetri helps organisations build smarter, more sustainable operations— combining research, strategy, and practical decarbonisation solutions.
