Interoperability between ecoinvent ver. 3 and US LCI database: a case study

Challenges and opportunities for web-shared publication of quality-assured life cycle data: the contributions of the Life Cycle Data Network

“…One solution to increase availability is to use LCI data from multiple database sources (Suh et al 2013). This appears to align well to worldwide community needs, where data are foreseen to come from many companies, associations, governments and research projects.…”

“…In fact, when two or more LCI databases are combined in an LCA study, the practitioner has to ensure that the underlying assumptions, methods and level of completeness (intrinsic properties) are comparable between the databases used (Suh et al 2013). Intrinsic properties reflect data content and quality, while the use of different data exchange formats and nomenclature of elementary flows (extrinsic properties) is a technical issue when exchanging datasets from multiple databases and using different LCA software applications; currently left to the expense and technical competence of users of multiple databases, with associated risks.…”

“…In order to enhance datasets interoperability, it is necessary to move towards datasets harmonisation and provide guidance for their coherent use (Frischknecht 2006;Ossés de Eicker et al 2010;Suh et al 2013); intergovernmental activities are currently on going on this topic.…”

“…In such a context, the documentation provided together with the inventory plays a key role: LCA practitioners can choose the appropriate LCI datasets only if they have access to a clear and concise documentation of the datasets ( JRC 2010) Continual/periodic guidance and harmonisation activities are essential for greater consistency, broadening acceptance, improving data exchange, reducing costs and efficiently highlighting key research needs (Pennington et al 2007). Moreover, common understanding and rules are required (Frischknecht 2006;Skone and Curran 2005), and there is a growing international consensus that LCI datasets should conform to shared criteria, including methodology, format, review and nomenclature that allow for effective interoperability (Sonnemann and Vigon 2011). It is in such a context of broad international consensus that the so-called Shonan Guidance Principles where created (Sonnemann and Vigon 2011), following a workshop held in Japan in 2011, as a set of recommendations for the development of interoperable LCA databases.…”

“…Moreover, common understanding and rules are required (Frischknecht 2006;Skone and Curran 2005), and there is a growing international consensus that LCI datasets should conform to shared criteria, including methodology, format, review and nomenclature that allow for effective interoperability (Sonnemann and Vigon 2011). It is in such a context of broad international consensus that the so-called Shonan Guidance Principles where created (Sonnemann and Vigon 2011), following a workshop held in Japan in 2011, as a set of recommendations for the development of interoperable LCA databases. In particular, such guidance principles recommend the use of a globally harmonised reference list of elementary flows as the primary condition for interoperability of datasets and databases.…”