The LCA Commons—How an Open-Source Repository for US Federal Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Data Products Advances Inter-Agency Coordination

Ezra Kahn,Erin Antognoli,Peter Arbuckle

doi:10.3390/app12020865

Ezra Kahn, Erin Antognoli + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app12020865

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Abstract

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a flexible and powerful tool for quantifying the total environmental impact of a product or service from cradle-to-grave. The US federal government has developed deep expertise in environmental LCA for a range of applications including policy, regulation, and emerging technologies. LCA professionals from across the government have been coordinating the distributed LCA expertise through a community of practice known as the Federal LCA Commons. The Federal LCA Commons has developed open data infrastructure and workflows to share knowledge and align LCA methods. This data infrastructure is a key component to creating a harmonized network of LCA capacity from across the federal government.

Highlights

Repository for US Federal Life CycleThe Federal Life cycle assessment (LCA) Commons is a US federal government community-of-practice of program managers, researchers, and regulators using life cycle assessment (LCA) in support of several US government agency missions
The LCA Commons recommends the use of the Federal Elementary Flow List, a standardized list of environmental flows developed by the US EPA consistent with the latest EPA impact methods
The LCA community often talks about LCA data as a type of scientific or empirical data, like economic data, surveys, or meteorological observations

Summary

Introduction

The Federal LCA Commons is a US federal government community-of-practice of program managers, researchers, and regulators using life cycle assessment (LCA) in support of several US government agency missions. The community coordinates around the open access and reusability of federally funded and federally produced LCA data, models, and research results. The LCA Commons community makes its work available through an open repository at www.lcacommons.gov. LCA data and models produced by LCA commons participants cover the breadth of government interests, including agriculture, energy, transportation, buildings, construction, defense, human health, and environmental protection. LCA Commons expertise covers a large part of the US economy.

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