Using the Federal LCA Commons Elementary Flow List Toolkit

This course will provide step-by-step instruction for the use and application of Federal LCA Commons Elementary Flow List (FEDEFL) and associated tools.

The FEDEFL is a new standardized list of elementary flow created to serve as a foundational data component for use by federal agencies and others. Use of the FEDEFL is now a requirement for posting LCA data to the Federal LCA Commons (lcacommons.gov).

We will demonstrate tools developed to map existing LCI and LCIA datasets to this list for use on the Commons.

The course is recommended for LCA practitioners interested in using or helping to prepare datasets for the US LCI or other data repositories on the LCA Commons, and for software providers interested in incorporating these datasets and tools into their software packages.

The course will be broadly applicable for participants interested in using standardized approaches and tools for managing elementary flows for data interoperability. We will walk attendees through the following topics:

1. Introduction to the Federal Elementary Flow List (FEDEFL) and structure of flow names and environment contexts available.

2. Access to the FEDEFL and downloading datasets mapped to the FEDEFL from the Federal LCA Commons.

3. Use of existing LCI and LCIA mapping files such as mappings to TRACI and ReCiPe impact assessment methods and mappings to US LCI and openLCA reference flow list.

4. Using the FEDEFL template for new mappings of elementary flows.

5. Importing the mapping into the openLCA software to automatically convert databases to the standardized elementary flow list.

6. Creating a new flow mapping directly in openLCA.

7. Use of EPA’s LCIA formatter tool to convert LCIA source data to the FEDEFL.

These topics will give users the ability to leverage federally developed tools to integrate existing datasets with harmonized background LCI data and LCIA methods within openLCA. These tools could also be used by LCA software providers with the ability to work with files in JSON-LD format or in any export format available in openLCA (e.g., ILCD, Ecospold). The guidance presented in this course will also apply to the generation of new LCA databases and can help inform the process of inventory data collection by defining the flows and environmental contexts included in FEDEFL.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this abstract are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. This research was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Contract No. EP-C-16-015 to Eastern Research Group, Inc.