US Federal LCA Commons Life Cycle Inventory Unit Process Template
Citation:
Kahn, E., W. Ingwersen, A. Henderson, A. Edelen, AND M. Bergmann. US Federal LCA Commons Life Cycle Inventory Unit Process Template. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, 2016.
Impact/Purpose:
The US Federal LCA Commons Life Cycle Inventory Unit Process Template provides a standardized form of organizing and documenting life cycle inventory data that can be automatically imported into the openLCA 1.5 software for using in building life cycle assessment (LCA) models. The template is intended to serve as a common format for life cycle inventory in US federal agencies that may also be useful for other organizations seeking a template for organizing and documenting life cycle inventory data.
Description:
The US Federal LCA Commons Life Cycle Inventory Unit Process Template is a multi-sheet Excel template for life cycle inventory data, metadata and other documentation. The template comes as a package that consistent of three parts: (1) the main template itself for life cycle inventory (2) a ‘validator’ that consists of a VBA macro that can be run to validate data entered into a completed template against openLCA and Federal LCA commons requirements and guidelines, and (3) a compiled Java archive (.jar) that can be dropped into a users’ openLCA program files to provide a plugin to import this template into openLCA. The template was developed by the USDA National Agricultural Library and the US EPA Life Cycle Center of Excellence through their collaboration as leading parties in the Technical Working Group on US Federal LCA Data Interoperability.