A survey of Life Cycle Inventory database implementations and architectures, and recommendations for new database initiatives

Fritter, Matthew; Lawrence, Ramon; Marcolin, Barbara; Pelletier, Nathan

doi:10.1007/s11367-020-01745-5

Cited by 17 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Evolution of the ecoinvent database Fritter et al (2020) proposed the nomenclature and format used in LCI databases as the core criteria for their interoperability. According to this proposal, the ecoinvent database is highly interoperable because more than a dozen LCA software tools are compatible with its nomenclature conventions and its format.…”

Section: 11mentioning

confidence: 99%

Data implementation matters: Effect of software choice and LCI database evolution on a comparative LCA study of permanent magnets

Xicotencatl

Kleijn

Nielen

et al. 2023

J of Industrial Ecology

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Life cycle assessment (LCA) databases and software evolve. We analyzed to which extent software and evolving life cycle inventory databases affect the comparison of technology alternatives, using a comparative LCA on permanent magnets as a case study, with two selected software tools: CMLCA and Brightway LCA. We migrated the system models from the CMLCA to Brightway LCA software and alternated between the ecoinvent database versions 2.2 and 3.1 to 3.6 in the system background.When using ecoinvent v3.6 instead of v2.2, the change of the indicator results ranged from −34% to 283%. The evolution of the ecoinvent database impacted the absolute amounts of the characterized results and the relative performance between alternatives. The impact category with the highest variability was ionizing radiation, which even showed a ranking inversion with ecoinvent v3.4. In contrast, the impact of using CMLCA or Brightway was negligible because the same data and modeling assumptions caused percentage differences below 0.4%. During the semi-automated data migration to Brightway, we identified 23 environmental flows in the CMLCA model that were not paired with their corresponding characterization factors in the published study of reference. This error had led to an underestimation of 63% in the photochemical oxidation indicator of one of the alternatives. This underestimation relates to an interoperability issue regarding the nomenclature of environmental flows in software alternatives and is a matter of data implementation rather than an issue intrinsic to the selected software. Finally, we identified improvement opportunities for the transparency and reusability of LCA models. This article met the requirements for a Gold-Gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.

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Section: 11mentioning

confidence: 99%

Data implementation matters: Effect of software choice and LCI database evolution on a comparative LCA study of permanent magnets

Xicotencatl

Kleijn

Nielen

et al. 2023

J of Industrial Ecology

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“…ILCD (EC 2010) or EcoSpold2 (Meinshausen et al 2016) -that have been already investigated in previous reviews (e.g. Fritter et al 2020), are out of the scope of the present study because not relevant for the understanding of the modelling of regional inventory data in LCI DBs.…”

Section: Step 1: Selection Of Lci Dbs That Deal With the Food Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…different regions, when referring to a particular crop/plant, can have a different number of harvests per year, or a differing lifetime). • Technological aspects (Balafoutis et al 2017;Fritter et al 2020). Non-specific datasets found in DBs may not account for the use of different irrigation systems and soil management practices of a particular context (for example, in terms of machinery use or of different fertiliser or pesticide application approaches) or even of different energy sources used in the agricultural or industrial phases in various regions/nations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle inventory data for the Italian agri-food sector: background, sources and methodological aspects

Notarnicola

Tassielli

Renzulli

et al. 2022

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose For the development of any life cycle assessment study, the practitioner frequently integrates primary data collected on-field, with background data taken from various life cycle inventory databases which are part of most commercial LCA software packages. However, such data is often not generally applicable to all product systems since, especially concerning the agri-food sector, available datasets may not be fully representative of the site specificity of the food product under examination. In this context, the present work investigates the background, sources and methodological aspects that characterise the most known commercial databases containing agri-food data, with a focus on four agri-food supply chains (olive oil, wine, wheat products and citrus fruit), which represent an important asset for the Italian food sector. Methods Specifically, the paper entails a review of currently available LCI databases and their datasets with a twofold scope: firstly, to understand how agri-food data is modelled in these databases for a coherent and consistent representation of regional scenarios and to verify whether they are also suitable for the Italian context and, secondly, to identify and analyse useful and relevant methodological approaches implemented in the existing LCI databases when regional data are modelled. Results Based on the aforementioned review, it is possible to highlight some problems which may arise when developing an LCI pertaining to the four Italian agri-food supply chains, namely: 1. The need for specific inventory datasets to tackle the specificities of agri-food product systems. 2. The lack of datasets, within the existing DBs, related to the Italian context and to the abovementioned supply chains. In fact, at present, in the currently available LCI DBs, there are very few (or in some cases none) datasets related to Italian wine, olive oil, wheat-based products and citrus fruit. The few available datasets often contain some data related to the Italian context but also approximate data with that of product systems representing other countries. Furthermore, the present study allowed to identify and discuss the main aspects to be used as starting elements for modelling regional data to be included in a future Italian LCI database of the abovementioned four supply chains. Conclusions The results of the present study represent a starting point for the collection of data and its organisation, in order to develop an Italian LCI agri-food database with datasets which are representative of the regional specificities of four agri-food supply chains which play an important role in the Italian economy.

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“…In recent years, significant developments were made, especially in context of the European Commission-Joint Research Centre (EC-JRC) to integrate planetary boundaries and environmental footprints into E-LCA in order to allow mesoeconomic and macroeconomic assessments and conclusions by sector and product-specific bottom-up approaches (Sala and Castellani 2019;Sala et al 2020;Bjørn et al 2020;Robert et al 2020;Fazio et al 2018). Most of the shown issues go hand in hand with implementation of LCA and LCSA within a software environment, since development of LCA software, databases, and LCIA methods is mutually connected and depends on each other, as well as most LCA practitioners depend on them (Fritter et al 2020). There are further practical challenges in the operationalization of LCSA and integrated LCSA, e.g., definition of coherent system boundaries, methods to conduct sensitivity and uncertainty analysis (Costa et al 2019), rebound effects (Guinée 2016), trade-offs, biased decision making between social, economic, and environmental aspects (Fauzi et al 2019) among others.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, in case studies, it is necessary to fill crucial data gaps by own data acquisition by questionnaires and stakeholder or expert interviews. Ideally, this goes hand in hand with establishing common standards for data modeling and exchange for interoperability in LCA(Fritter et al 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

A framework for implementing holistic and integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of regional bioeconomy

Zeug

Bezama

Thrän

2021

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose Currently, social, environmental, and economic risks and chances of bioeconomy are becoming increasingly a subject of applied sustainability assessments. Based on life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) aims to combine or integrate social, environmental, and economic assessments. In order to contribute to the current early stage of LCSA development, this study seeks to identify a practical framework for integrated LCSA implementation. Methods We select possible indicators from existing suitable LCA and LCSA approaches as well as from the literature, and allocate them to a sustainability concept for holistic and integrated LCSA (HILCSA), based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In order to conduct a practical implementation of HILCSA, we choose openLCA, because it offers the best current state and most future potential for application of LCSA. Therefore, not only the capabilities of the software and databases, but also the supported methods of life cycle impact assessments (LCIA) are evaluated regarding the requirements of the indicator set and goal and scope of future case studies. Results and discussion This study presents an overview of available indicators and LCIAs for bioeconomy sustainability assessments as well as their link to the SDGs. We provide a practical framework for HILCSA of regional bioeconomy, which includes an indicator set for regional (product and territorial) bioeconomy assessment, applicable with current software and databases, LCIA methods and methods of normalization, weighting, and aggregation. The implementation of HILCSA in openLCA allows an integrative LCSA by conducting all steps in a single framework with harmonized, aggregated, and coherent results. HILCSA is capable of a sustainability assessment in terms of planetary boundaries, provisioning system and societal needs, as well as communication of results to different stakeholders. Conclusions Our framework is capable of compensating some deficits of S-LCA, E-LCA, and economic assessments by integration, and shows main advantages compared to additive LCSA. HILCSA is capable of addressing 15 out of 17 SDGs. It addresses open questions and significant problems of LCSAs in terms of goal and scope, LCI, LCIA, and interpretation. Furthermore, HILCSA is the first of its kind actually applicable in an existing software environment. Regional bioeconomy sustainability assessment is bridging scales of global and regional effects and can inform stakeholders comprehensively on various impacts, hotspots, trade-offs, and synergies of regional bioeconomy. However, significant research needs in LCIAs, software, and indicator development remain.

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A survey of Life Cycle Inventory database implementations and architectures, and recommendations for new database initiatives

Cited by 17 publications

References 16 publications

Data implementation matters: Effect of software choice and LCI database evolution on a comparative LCA study of permanent magnets

Data implementation matters: Effect of software choice and LCI database evolution on a comparative LCA study of permanent magnets

Life cycle inventory data for the Italian agri-food sector: background, sources and methodological aspects

A framework for implementing holistic and integrated life cycle sustainability assessment of regional bioeconomy

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