The Life Cycle Data Network

Joint Reseach Centre - Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Italy The Life Cycle Data Network, available through the European Platform on Life Cycle Assessment (EPLCA) aims at providing a globally usable infrastructure for consistent and quality assured LCA data (i.e. Life Cycle Inventory and Life Cycle Impact Assessment datasets) from different organisations. It is a web-based infrastructure to ensure LCA data are easy to access via searches, filtering, and sorting, and, thus, it helps reducing assessment cost overall. The provision of authoritative requirements by the European Commission, may lead to the availability of coherent, quality-assured life cycle data and studies is aimed to harmonize the LCA and the environmental footprint methods in business and in policy. Any data provider from any country can join. The datasets in the web-based, remote network may come from any kind of data developer/owner/ provider, e.g. industry, single organizations, national and international LCA projects, research groups, and consultants. The data will be published by the contributors under its own conditions (e.g. free, for fee, or via registration). Metadata needs to be accessible for free. Businesses, governments, academia, and consultancies can hence provide their data to this decentralized network, based on their own conditions. Dataset quality within the ILCD DN is ensured through the ILCD Entry-Level requirements1. The compliance with at least these requirements (or the full ILCD compliance) is a pre-requisite for the registration to the ILCD DN, both at the EU and international level, towards the agreement on common strategies and harmonisation. The ILCD format provides the technical format (using XML technology) basis for ILCD Data sets and Databases. It has been released after an extensive international consultation, and has been developed starting from the ISO/TS 14048. It’s suitable both for aggregated and unit processes, and gives the possibility to include additional and pictures/charts.JRC.H.8-Sustainability Assessmen