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Sustainability Information ~ A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Digital Commons

Sustainability Information ~ A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Digital Commons. February 24, 2011 Simon Liu, Ph.D. Director, National Agricultural Library. Agenda. Product Life Cycle – Soybean. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

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Sustainability Information ~ A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Digital Commons

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  1. Sustainability Information ~ A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Digital Commons February 24, 2011 Simon Liu, Ph.D. Director, National Agricultural Library

  2. Agenda

  3. Product Life Cycle – Soybean

  4. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) • Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) – The assessment of the environmental, economical, and social impact of a given product (e.g. Soybean) throughout its lifespan. LCA Goal & Scope Definition • Applications • Policy decision making • Corporate management • Product development • Environmental product labels • “Green” procurement programs • Carbon, greenhouse gas & other reporting Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) Interpretation Inventory Assessment Impact Assessment

  5. LCA Is Data Driven

  6. Global LCA Information Landscape LCA Digital Commons

  7. Need A LCA Digital Commons 1. Identification 5. Quality Review LCA Practitioners 4. Calculation LCA Digital Commons LCI 3. Transformation 2. Extraction 6. Analysis & interpretation

  8. Project Approach • Phase I • Organize project team & committees • Develop project plan • Collaborate with partners • Develop system architecture, standards, guidelines & procedures • Phase II • Develop a prototype • Acquire, harvest & adapt existing LCI data • Collect, analyze, and review new LCI data • Phase III • Disseminate data • Expand the database & network • Conduct research

  9. Collaborators & Partners • Data Producer Community • USDA (NIFA, ERS, NASS, FS, ...) • EPA • DOE • Others • International Partners • Ecoinvent (Switzerland ) • CIRAIG (Canada) • European Life Cycle Database • Others LCA Digital Commons • LCA Practitioner Community • Commodities: soybean, cotton, etc. • American Center for Life Cycle Assessment • Keystone Field to Market • The Sustainability Consortium • Specialty Crop Stewardship Index • Others • Software & Tool Community • OpenLCA Framework • International Reference Life Cycle Data System • Earthster • Others

  10. Expected Outcomes – LCI Datasets • Data collection in tiers • Tier 1 data: crop production with unit processes by year-state-crop (2005-Nebraska-corn) • Tier 2 data: agricultural means of production/work processes (e.g., pressure irrigation, surface water, KY, 2003) • Tier 3 data: supporting processes (e.g., diesel production) • Tier 1 and 2 data derived from NASS (yield) and ARMS; Tier 3 data derived from a variety of sources including ARMS

  11. Expected Outcomes – A Digital Commons Data Producers Data Collection Tools Subject Matter Experts Submission/ Editing Tools Local Databases Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) Management Tools Computation & ModelingTools Central Administrators LCA Tools Retrieval Tools LCA Standards – 14xxx Data Consumers

  12. Expected Outcomes – Advance Sustainability • Provide open access • Move sustainability datasets from deep to surface web • Maximize return on sustainability research investments • Reuse sustainability datasets • Preserve sustainability datasets • Avoid duplication efforts • Mature sustainability practices • Speed up sustainability research • One-stop resource • Integrated view • Intelligent tools LCA Digital Commons USDA, EPA, DOE & other sustainability databases

  13. Success Factors • Data Transparency • Data Quality • Comprehensiveness • Reliability • Interoperability with partners & tools

  14. Q&A Simon Liusimon.liu@ars.usda.gov301-504-5248 14

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