CarbonSourceFrom drawing set to embodied carbon, in minutes.
CarbonSource reads a home's PDF drawings, measures the materials, and reports A1 to A3 embodied carbon. Every quantity is traced to the sheet it came from, so the result holds up in front of a reviewer.
The takeoff is the slow part
Before any carbon tool can give an answer, someone has to measure every wall, slab and roof from the drawings. Today that step is done by hand, which is why most homes never get assessed.
| What you need | Takeoff software | LCA software | Free calculators | CarbonSource |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reads your PDF drawings | Yes | No, needs quantities or a BIM model | No | Yes, including scans and photos |
| Measures material quantities | Yes | Entered by hand | Entered by hand | Yes, from plans, sections and schedules |
| Calculates embodied carbon | No | Yes | Yes | Yes, from published EPDs |
| Shows where each number came from | Partly | Only what you typed | No | Sheet, evidence and a measured, calculated or assumed label |
| Checks the rules for your region | No | Varies | Varies | Yes, across Canada |
How it works
Drop in the drawings
A PDF set, a zip package, scanned sheets or phone photos. The tool sorts plans, elevations, sections and schedules on its own.
Check what was read
Every page is accounted for. Anything it could not read is listed, and you type the real value in before going further.
See the carbon and lower it
Totals, intensity per square metre and the biggest contributors. Swaps are ranked by how much they save and update every number at once.
Hand it on
A full report, a submission package, Excel data or a one-page carbon label, ready to carry into BEAM, MCE2 or Athena.
What you see on screen
Tested on real plan sets, not a demo file
designs in the CMHC Housing Design Catalogue read end to end, from ADUs to sixplexes, across every region of Canada.
of CMHC's published gross floor area on all 12 designs checked against it so far.
labelled measured, calculated or assumed, with the sheet and the exact text it was read from.
Know where a plan stands before the rules arrive
Pick the region and the report shows the rules that apply there, in plain language, with the source.
| City of Vancouver | Part 9 homes must stay under an A1 to A3 limit, or cut 40% from a baseline. | 120 kg CO2e/m² |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta | No embodied carbon limit for homes yet. Reports support voluntary programs, lenders and buyers. | No limit |
| Ontario | Toronto counts embodied carbon only in the voluntary tiers of its green standard. | Voluntary |
| Across Canada | Embodied carbon limits are proposed for the 2030 National Building Code. Federal projects already need a whole-building LCA. | Coming |
Two ways to run it
CarbonSource Cloud
Sign in from any browser. Your projects, drawings, prices and material sources are saved to your account and follow you to any computer, and saved projects still open when the connection drops.
- 3 projects without signing up, 15 a month with a free account
- Plans for single users, small firms and large companies
- Phone view for checking results and printing reports on site
CarbonSource Enterprise
Run CarbonSource inside your company's network. Your drawings never leave your servers; we validate the licence and send updates.
- Unlimited projects and users during early access
- Organisation dashboard, shared project folders and team permissions
- Your own factor database and supplier EPDs
See it run on your own plans
Send us a drawing set and we will walk you through the takeoff and the carbon result in 20 minutes.