Press Release ·
San Francisco, CA – April 7, 2026 – C.Scale, a building performance data platform, today announced its acquisition of the Tally life cycle assessment (LCA) tool from Building Transparency, the nonprofit organization behind the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3). The acquisition connects C.Scale’s early-stage carbon modeling with Tally’s BIM-integrated analysis and EC3’s product-level data, giving design teams a continuous workflow from concept through construction. The transfer sharpens Building Transparency's focus on its core nonprofit mission: long-term stewardship of the EC3 Tool and EC3’s open data infrastructure to enable broad and swift action across the construction industry in addressing embodied carbon’s role in climate change.
Disconnected data and analysis across project phases remains a major pain point in building design. This fragmentation makes it difficult for teams to track whether projects remain on target, how material quantities and selections add up against initial goals, or where opportunities for improvement exist as design progresses.
The connection of C.Scale to Tally and EC3 enables design teams to maintain workflow continuity throughout the project process. This means:
A continuous workflow from early-stage carbon modeling to BIM-based life cycle assessment
Better tracking of embodied carbon from concept through construction
Clear alignment between design intent and material-level outcomes
More actionable data for low-carbon material selection
What’s Next
Following the acquisition, C.Scale will set its focus on bringing the next generation of Tally – Tally 2.0 – to market with development support from its original developers KieranTimberlake and in coordination with Building Transparency. It will bring together team members who developed the original Tally methodology and helped incubate EC3.
"Tally 1.0 set the standard for BIM-integrated LCA, but it’s in need of an upgrade to better support users today," said Jack Rusk, CEO and co-founder of C.Scale. "We're bringing it into the present and integrating it with C.Scale so designers, contractors, and owners can trace carbon impact from concept through construction and benchmark performance across their entire portfolios."
Building Transparency is concentrating resources on EC3 2.0 development to expand global coverage, improve data quality, and support emerging standards, procurement programs, and regulations. The new version of Tally will maintain the integration with EC3, supporting the export of material quantities from Revit to EC3 and allowing synchronization between them. Through the new version of EC3, the integration with Tally will allow users to access updated data and models, while still offering the ability to see in real time the impact of their decisions on a project’s overall carbon footprint.
"The Tally transition allows us to put full momentum behind the EC3 tool and the open, LCA-driven data ecosystem the industry needs," said Alison Kinn Bennett, Executive Director of Building Transparency. "Commercial tools and nonprofit data infrastructure aligned and evolving in parallel: this is the model that will enable climate action into the next decade."
Growing LCA Adoption
Whole building life cycle assessment has become core to how buildings get designed and delivered:
More than 1,400 architecture firms have carbon-neutral design commitments through the AIA 2030 Commitment
Major building owners increasingly require embodied carbon analysis for Scope 3 emissions reporting
Over 100 U.S. policies reference supply chain emissions in project requirements
In 2025 alone, enterprise partners modeled more than 200 million square feet of construction on C.Scale’s platform.
"LCA is fundamental to how we reduce climate impacts on our projects," said Jesce Walz, Senior Research Lead at Perkins&Will. "Pairing Tally's data-rich rigor with C.Scale's early-stage modeling enables end-to-end continuity in whole-life carbon assessment."
Marty Brennan, principal at ZGF, adds: "C.Scale taking on Tally 2.0 strengthens data continuity from early design through construction and puts credible, trackable carbon analysis within reach for more teams and more projects."
For building product manufacturers, growing LCA adoption creates clear opportunities. As architects model materials against performance targets and carbon budgets, products with transparent environmental data make it into specifications. The integration of C.Scale and Tally increases the resolution and reach of this workflow, giving high-performing products more pathways into projects.
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C.Scale is a Public Benefit Corporation building the data platform for low-carbon building design and materials procurement. Co-founders Jack Rusk and Brad Jacobson incubated the technology at architecture firm EHDD before spinning out in 2024. Based in San Francisco, C.Scale combines deep building science expertise with advanced data infrastructure to give design teams actionable material intelligence from concept through construction. Sign up free at app.cscale.io. Contact Brad Jacobson, Co-Founder and COO, at [email protected]
Building Transparency is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to open, decision-ready LCA data and tools for the global construction industry. Its flagship platform, the Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3), is the world's largest nonprofit-led, open-access repository of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), including product comparison and project planning tools used by governments, technology companies, manufacturers, designers, and builders globally to decarbonize. As a neutral data steward, Building Transparency works across industry and standards bodies to align methods, improve data quality, and enable carbon-smart material decisions at scale. Learn more and explore EC3 at https://www.buildingtransparency.org/. Contact Alison Kinn Bennett, Executive Director, at [email protected].