NREL will then publish the data to its internal repository. Once you edit your Unit Processes or product systems in openLCA, you may share them through your institutional repository hosted by NREL as exported JSON-LD files. If you already work in a version of openLCA, discuss this with the NREL Data Curator at the beginning of the data submission process to ensure compatibility.Įditing guidance is provided in the Ingest & Onboarding and Guidance on Data Compilation in openLCA sections of this handbook. To minimize data formatting efforts and ensure all metadata elements persist throughout submission, unit process and product system datasets submitted to the USLCI Databaes/LCA Commons should be edited in openLCA. To facilitate compliance with this standard, the LCA Commons is structured upon the openLCA database schema, which includes the elements designated in the above figure.
#OPENLCA FREE DATABASE ISO#
ISO 14048 LCA Data Documentation Format Concepts The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) specifies data documentation formats for LCA in ISO/TS 14048:2002.
Dataset Name, US Life Cycle Inventory Database." National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), 2018. Individuals who use USLCI datasets from the LCA Commons should cite these datasets to acknowledge and credit the work of data creators.
#OPENLCA FREE DATABASE CODE#
By placing your datasets in the public domain, according to the CC0 1.0 license, you are removing “all of rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.” Please review the legal code of the CC0 1.0 Universal license before submitting your datasets, as well as the Data Use Disclaimer Agreement (“Agreement”) and Data Provider’s Content License Agreement (“Agreement”). To support increased access to and sharing of scholarly resources, as well as to promote novel and innovative uses of LCA data, NREL requires that all datasets submitted to the LCA Commons be placed in the public domain under the terms of the Creative Commons Legal Code (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)). These data are intended to cover commonly used materials, products, and processes in the US with up-to-date, critically reviewed LCI data. The USLCI provides individual gate-to-gate, cradle-to-gate and cradle-to-grave accounting of the energy and material flows into and out of the environment that are associated with producing a material, component, or assembly in the US. This ongoing effort endeavors to provide improved and coordinated access to Federal LCA data. NREL is collaborating with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Energy Technology Library (NETL), the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the US Forest Service (USFS), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) to develop a US Federal LCA Data Commons. The goals of the USLCI Database are to maintain data quality and transparency, support the use of LCA, maintain compatibility with other LCI databases, provide exceptional data accessibility, be fully and sustainably supported, and support US industry competitiveness.
This resource allows users with influence across the value chain access to transparent and representative LCI data alongside guidance for its intended use. The USLCI Database offers data providers with the opportunity to share complete, representative, and well-documented LCI data to a public repository. As public and private actors increasingly utilize LCI data for decision-making and communications along the value chain, LCI data availability, reliability, and geographic specificity become increasingly important. LCA serves as a benchmarking and comparison tool for sustainable product and process development. This page is divided into the following subsections. This Submission Overview is intended to help interested parties understand the benefits of publishing their data on the USLCI and set reasonable expectations for the publication documentation and standards.
This page provides a high-level explanation of the benefits, expectations, and general process for publishing data on the U.S. Section 1: Should I publish in the USLCI?