Frequently Asked Questions

The FLCAC is a a collection of freely available LCA data repos (listed here), as well as a collaborative project among U.S. federal government agencies to establish and share LCA research methods, resources, and best practices.

An official definition of the FLCAC can be found on the About Us page.

The FLCAC collaboration server is a collaborative LCA data development and version control application (think: GitHub for LCA data) through which repo owners publish data to the FLCAC. More information on openLCA collaboration server can be found here.

The FLCAC is a collection of LCA data repos, of which USLCI is one repo.

USLCI is an LCI portal for datasets submitted by consulting, academia, and industry associations; the database includes several hundred process LCIs ranging from fuels combustion, transport, metals, chemicals, plastics, and glass to paper. More information on USLCI can be found here and USLCI specific FAQS are available below.

View the available repos.

Data on the FLCAC can be accessed via the FLCAC website:

1. Click the “Browse Repositories” button on the home page.
2. Click the “Browse” button under a repo of interest, and browse the elements included in that repo by opening folders.

You can also search for data (processes, flows, etc.) across all repos via the search function in the top right, filters are available to refine your search to specific repos and elements of repos. Data on the FLCAC can also be explored within openLCA by downloading the data from the FLCAC and importing them into an openLCA database. You can look through the elements in the navigation pane or the search function.

Impact assessment methods aligned with the Federal Elementary Flow List (FEDEFL) and FLCAC data are available in two forms:

• LCIA Methods without flows: These JSON-LD files do not contain the flow objects, only the characterization factors. They can be downloaded and imported into any openLCA database. The “No flows” versions of methods must be imported into a database that contains flows, otherwise the methods will not appear in the database. Updating a local database with new data which contains new elementary flows (e.g., importing a new process from a repo on the FLCAC) may result in new, uncharacterized flows in the database. In these cases, the “No flows” methods should be re-imported to enusre that all elementary flows are charcterized.

• LCIA Methods repos: repos are available for TRACI2.1 and ReCiPe which contain the methods and all relevant flow objects. These repos are useful for reviewing all characterization factors for flows in the FEDEFL. They can be downloaded and imported into a user’s local database. However doing so will also import all FEDEFL flows characterized by the method, often resulting in over 100,000 flow objects.

See Life Cycle Impact Assessment Methods for additional details.

The LCIA methods listed in the following table are currently available on the FLCAC and have been harmonized to align with the Federal Elementary Flow List using the LCIAFormatter.

TRACI version 2.2 with updated Eutrophication Factors is currently being harmonized for compatibility with FLCAC data.

Additional LCIA methods such as CML, Ecopoint, eco-indicator, EDIP2003, EPS, IMAGE 3, LIME, LUCAS, MEEup, ILCD and NAMEA are not currently available in a harmonized format. Flow mapping would be required to use these impact assessment methods with FLCAC data.

See Life Cycle Impact Assessment Methods for additional details.

Entire repos or data objects therein (e.g., processes and flows) can be downloaded from the FLCAC as a JSON-LD file type. You can also link directly to the FLCAC from within openLCA. See Accessing FLCAC Data for more details.

To calculate LCIA results, your repo needs two elements: a database made up of process LCIs and an LCIA method. See the questions above for information on which impact assessment methods are available. Importing impact assessment methods is done the same way as importing repos (right click on database, select ‘import’, select ‘file’, navigate to the relevant file). If using the no-flows methods then import the methods file after importing the process database. You can verify that LCIA methods were imported by opening the ‘Indicators and parameters’ and checking the ‘Impact assessment methods’ folder.

Once your database has both processes and a method, open up the process that you would like to calculate results for, on the ‘General information’ tab select ‘Create product system’. For most processes the default product system selections are okay. More information on these options can be found in the openLCA manual here. Select ‘Finish’ and evaluate the ‘Reference’ section and the ‘Model Graph’ in your product system. Then, select ‘Calculate’, set the ‘Allocation method’ as ‘As defined in process’, choose your impact assessment method (if there are no options here then the LCIA methods were not imported), and use the default settings for the remaining fields. Select ‘Finish’ and navigate through the results tabs to view results.

There are many variations of this process to run results so please reference the openLCA manual for more information, the steps above provide instructions for running a basic process.

See the Running LCIA Results page for more information.

Two problems could be occurring:

1. Your methods did not import. To solve this issue please follow the instructions above under ‘How do I calculate LCIA results for data on the FLCAC?’. If this does not solve the problem then ensure that problem 2 is not occurring and then contact the data curators at FederalLCACommons@erg.com.
2. You are using the “No flows” version of a method and imported the method package before a process database with flows. The “No flows” versions of methods must be imported into a database that contains flows, otherwise the methods will not appear in the database.

The library feature in openLCA 2.0 and later versions enables the use of databases together without needing to import them on top of one another. A library serves as a read only database that can easily be combined with other databases. Processes and other elements that are part of a library database are not editable but can be utilized as part of processes or product systems in the main database.

Libraries are beneficial for the current set-up of the FLCAC as they allow for multiple distributed repos to be self-contained, while still promoting interoperability between repos. The connections provided by libraries benefit multiple repos on the FLCAC. It’s important to note that libraries are currently an experimental feature in openLCA and will be updated based on user feedback and identified issues.

A provider in openLCA is the upstream process that produces a flow. Providers can be chosen in the ‘Inputs/Outputs’ tab in openLCA under the ‘Provider’ column for product and waste flows. Product and waste flows can have one or more provider, but elementary and cut-off flows do not have a provider because these flows have no upstream process producing them. It is important that data providers select the provider fields in their inventories to ensure that a flow is connected to the correct upstream process.

Follow the guidance provided in the FLCAC Submission Handbook. An overview of the FLCAC Submission Handbook is provided in the Data Submission Toolkit and a YouTube training video that covers this process is located here.

All data on the FLCAC must use elementary flows that conform to the Federal Elementary Flow List. For detailed guidance on flow mapping, see Flow Mapping).

Technosphere flows (i.e., product or waste flows) that come from another database (e.g., ecoinvent, Agri-footprint, GaBi, etc.) must be mapped to technosphere flows that exist within the FLCAC repos or new processes should be created that produce these flows. Cut-off flows may be created if neither of the previous options are possible.

To map technosphere flows, you may either create a new process within openLCA and manually add the desired technosphere flows to your life cycle inventory (LCI) or you may use openLCA’s flow mapping function which allows you to apply mappings to your whole database.

Please review the Technosphere Flow Section of the FLCAC Submission Handbook for detailed guidance.

All data on the FLCAC must use the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) folder structure NAICS - Census Bureau. To align new or existing processes and flows with NAICS, import the Commons Core database in order to add the NAICS folder structure to your openLCA database. Then organize flows and processes into the relevant folders. Use the NAICS Census Bureau link above to determine the appropriate 4 digit NAICS code.

Please review the NAICS Categorization Section of the FLCAC Submission Handbook for detailed guidance.

Please submit questions to the FLCAC data curators via the Issues page or email us at FederalLCACommons@erg.com.

The USLCI Database project began in 2001 when the US Department of Energy (DOE) directed NREL and the Athena Institute to explore the development of a national public database. The US LCI Database was created and has been publicly available at www.nrel.gov/lci since 2003. The project strives to provide publicly available LCI data following a consistent protocol, thus allowing users to objectively review and compare data based on similar data collection and analysis methods.

The advantages of such a data source include:

• It provides comprehensive information for policymakers to make consistent comparisons between policy options regarding environmental decisions.
• It enables better evaluation of environmental opportunities and trade-offs of alternative product systems.
• Indirect sources of environmental impacts can be addressed in the redesign of products for better overall environmental performance.
• Legitimate, verifiable environmental market claims can be better substantiated based on quality LCI data.
• Environmental hotspots can be identified and targeted for improvement.
• It provides input to measure and monetize environmental externalities through, for example, a cap-and-trade system.

Please review the Benefits and Expectations Section of the FLCAC Submission Handbook for more information.

1-3 months, depending on the size of your data submission and the quarterly release date of USLCI. Read more about the publication process in the FLCAC Data Submission Handbook.

Once your data have been reviewed and completed, the dataset(s) are ready for publication. NREL will publish the data to its own internal repo. The USLCI Database is updated with new and revised data on a quarterly basis as new data and updates are received. The timeframe is heavily dependent on the response times between you and NREL during the iterative communications of the review phase. Assuming you respond to NREL within one week’s time for each communication, the curation workflow can occur in as little as a month for small datasets (i.e., fewer than 10 processes) and take as long as three or four months for larger datasets (i.e., more than 10 processes).

The quarterly publication dates are as follows:

• March 31
• June 30
• September 30
• December 31

Your role in the publication process is to transform your raw LCI data into a polished product that is ready for publication in the USLCI Database. Transform means putting your data into the USLCI Database’s chosen data format and pairing your data with robust metadata so that users of your data understand how to use it properly. See: Working with the Data Curator.

The data publication process is a collaborative effort between you (i.e., the Data Provider) and the NREL. Practically speaking, that means you will be working closely with one of NREL’s LCI Data Curators throughout the publication process.

The Data Curator’s role is to guide you through the publication process. This person is trained in LCI data curation and can help you troubleshoot technical issues related to exporting and/or importing LCI data formats, completing dataset metadata fields, and the openLCA platform.

See: Working with the Data Curator.

NREL and NAL do not claim ownership of the materials (each “Submission” and collectively “Submissions”) you provide to NREL or NAL (including feedback and suggestions, if any). However, the data is subject to specific terms under the Creative Commons Legal Code.

The data is available for use by anyone and increases data accessibility to the public. Providing the public with quality LCI data increases the level of transparency of LCA studies. Ensuring public LCI data are accompanied with complete documentation (i.e., metadata) enables and promotes the responsible use of the LCI data. A comprehensive and transparent public LCI database has the potential to facilitate more consistent LCA studies verifiable across sectors.

See Placing Your Data in the Public Domain.

Data posted to the FLCAC is subjected to the review process as described in process-level metadata. The FLCAC Data Curators do not perform an additional critical review of submitted data or check for ISO compliance.

Currently, metadata fields are not consistently filled out within USLCI or all federal LCA or LCIA repos on the FLCAC. Data users will need to assess the available metadata to ensure that utilized LCI datasets meet the data quality standards associated with their project scope.

The FLCAC Data Curator is engaged in an ongoing task to assess data quality on the FLCAC and retroactively assign data quality scores that will help practitioners assess the sufficiency of a given dataset for their project.

Moving forward the FLCAC Data Curator will also work to ensure that metadata is consistently filled out for all new data submissions. At this time, there is no plan to retroactively update process metadata (aside from data quality scores) for data previously submitted to the FLCAC.

Multiple LCA platforms outside of openLCA support repos that are provided on the FLCAC, although not all of this data is up to date. For this reason, when using FLCAC data on other platforms please check the version or release date and compare to what is currently hosted on the FLCAC. Please contact the individual software companies for more information on the repos supported.

Currently, repositories on the FLCAC have data gaps, for this reason some data users may want to combine LCI databases (e.g., combine USLCI + ecoinvent). There are multiple ways to do this based on the databases being combined, the main part of this process is to align elementary flows from other databases outside of the FLCAC with the Federal Elementary Flow List (FEDEFL).

To combine FLCAC repositories with those on openLCA’s Nexus site it is recommended to use this flow mapping file that maps openLCA flows to FEDEFL flows.