Open Source LCA Tools
LCA = Life Cycle Analysis (where do all the ingredients in a product come from)
Discussion
Evan Andrew:
"There are currently two major LCA data formats, EcoSpold and ELCD. EcoSpold is controlled by the Swiss Non-Profit, EcoInvent, and ELCD is the data format of the European Life Cycle Data System. While these formats may not be technically open source, they may be able to serve many of the needs listed above. It remains to be seen if they can offer the necessary flexibility.
It is also important that there is at least one open source LCA-browser. This browser is software that enables a user to access the datasets, explore how processes are connected to each other, and identify major environmental hotspots in the supply chain. It allows users to create their own unit processes and publish them to the LCA network. The primary argument for at least one open source browser is to provide a basic platform on which individuals or small teams can innovate. The browser analogy can be continued by calling these small innovations add-ons or plug-ins. LCA is a quickly evolving field, and an open source core would encourage small-scale experimentation and learning. Major breakthroughs could then be integrated into the core open source browser.
As with the software, it is beneficial to have some open source datasets. High quality generic LCA data will always be required to fill gaps where companies are not reporting, and this is especially true for the next 10-20 years when those gaps will be significant. Collaboration on open source datasets can be a key component to improve generic LCA datasets. Transparent and open datasets may enable faster quality improvement because of their transparency. Industries and companies that perform poorly in these datasets are able to understand why and then fix the dataset, fix their production processes, or both. Transparency enables non-profits and research institutions to spot weak assumptions and offer better information.
One of the largest barriers to wide-spread implementation of LCA has been its high costs. It is expensive to collect the data and to design analysis tools. These costs are not operating costs, but rather startup costs. Once the data are collected, they can be re-used by everyone in the world at a small marginal cost. In this sense, the LCA community faces the same situation as many software makers and the music industry. However, the world needs LCA to become ubiquitous to address our current environmental imperative. As we build the LCA infrastructure, it can be extended to other aspects. Once we have detailed LCA models, we can go beyond environmental pollution and ask human rights questions of supply chains.
It is necessary to lower the costs of LCA for smaller enterprises and to show its value to larger corporations. This is achievable, provided we put the infrastructure in place, so that the world achieves maximum benefit. All interested parties must collectively work to foster an open ecosystem that promotes participation, innovation and the transformation of our economy by making it self-aware." (http://www.osbr.ca/ojs/index.php/osbr/article/view/909/878)
Examples
From http://www.osbr.ca/ojs/index.php/osbr/article/view/909/878:
Earthster
URL = http://www.earthster.org/
"The vision of the Earthster project is to create an open source application that enables confidential LCA calculation and linkage. The project is still in early phases, but it is safe to say that an application of this nature will emerge in the near future. Such software must ensure good data quality, confidentiality, and scalability to operate in a world where billions of economic transactions happen every day. This software should not be just one application. It should be many, operating in an ecosystem that has been built to encourage low-cost of participation and innovation. The ecosystem must be open, and at least some of these applications should also be open."
Open LCA
"To date, the LCA data and software model has been to develop centralized datasets and encapsulated desktop applications. Open LCA, an open source java application accessible through Eclipse, is one notable project. Such efforts have enabled the LCA profession to blossom as software greatly simplifies the gargantuan task of maintaining millions of links between unit processes in the economy, and the datasets are a reliable set of average information on which good LCA studies can be conducted. The database initiatives painstakingly map out the unit processes of many agricultural, industrial, and service processes in the economy at significant cost. Great care is taken within the LCA database initiatives to guarantee data quality and consistency, which is no small feat." (http://www.osbr.ca/ojs/index.php/osbr/article/view/909/878)
Data formats
= the world needs an open source, flexible data exchange standard for LCA data
"There are currently two major LCA data formats, EcoSpold and ELCD. EcoSpold is controlled by the Swiss Non-Profit, EcoInvent, and ELCD is the data format of the European Life Cycle Data System. While these formats may not be technically open source, they may be able to serve many of the needs listed above."