Athena Sustainable Materials Institute launched the latest version of its Impact Estimator for Buildings software (IE for Buildings) with the most current environmental impact data for concrete and cement. The software, which has become the industry standard for conducting life cycle assessments (LCA) for buildings, is the only software that fully complies with the US Green Building Council's LEED v4 technical requirements. This latest software release incorporates the most current environmental impact data published in the NRMCA Industry Wide Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and Industry Benchmark report.

NRMCA, along with Portland Cement Association (PCA), commissioned Athena to include this most recent impact data to help design professionals quantify environmental impacts of buildings. IE for Buildings is often used to demonstrate compliance for impact reduction in LEED v4. The process involves conducting an LCA to measure the environmental impacts for a "reference building" and then conducting an LCA on the "proposed building" to compare impacts. If the impacts for the proposed building are lower than those of the reference building by specified percentages, the design is credited toward green building certification.

Designers have already used IE for Buildings to demonstrate compliance with LEED v4 by demonstrating that impacts for a concrete building can be more than 10% lower when using concrete products with higher volumes of fly ash and slag cement. The reference building is analyzed using industry average data provided in the NRMCA Industry Benchmark report and then compared to data from the NRMCA Industry Wide EPD or a Product Specific EPD provided by a concrete company. Generally, concrete products designed to have lower environmental impacts, including global warming potential and smog formation, among several others, can readily meet the impact reduction targets specified in LEED v4 and other standards.