Choosing Ecoinvent Datasets For Your Account

This article considers using limited Ecoinvent data. We will show you how data can be chosen along with what to do when the limit is close to exceeding. 

Ecoinvent is a database that provides environmental performance information on various processes and products across different industries. Ecoinvent is the most common generic database used with One Click LCA. During your life cycle assessment, you can use generic data if you do not have access to specific data (supplier’s EPD).

How is Ecoinvent datapoint usage limit being tracked?

When you have limited access to Ecoinvent data, your used datapoints will be added to your company account. Each time you add a new datapoint, this will reduce the amount of available datapoints yet to be added. This limit will not be affected by using data from another source, such as EPDs or data from another database than Ecoinvent (for example, One Click LCA). Datapoints can be added by two ways:

1. Directly from the design

When searching for an Ecoinvent datapoint in the design and then clicking on it, a pop-up window will emerge (see image down below). This is for you to ensure you have not exceeded the limit of Ecoinvent datapoints and you want to include this in your used datapoints.

2. From the company account

Please note that you do need to be a main user to access your company data lists.

To navigate to your company account, please click on your username in the top right corner and select 'Company account'.

You can add datasets under the section 'Data Management', click edit 'Enabled data lists', shown below:

Next, click on 'Create a new data list', give it a name, select Ecoinvent (the most recent version) as the data list type, and click 'Create':

After creating the list, you can click on 'Edit' to find resources from the Ecoinvent 3.8 database:

 

Once you have found a resource you want to use in your list, you can save the list, and also rename (alias) the resource for your convenience:

 

What to do when I am exceeding my Ecoinvent datapoint limit value?

You will receive an email once 90% of your Ecoinvent limit has been used. In order to avoid limit exceeding by a surprise, we recommend you to implement either one (or both) of the two options below:

 

1. Removing datapoints

It is possible to remove already added datapoints via your company account. You can follow the steps of “Adding datapoints: 2. From the company account “. Instead on changing the name of the datapoint as the last step, you may click on “delete” at this point. Please note that you are able to delete only datapoints under “company list” and “reference list” section can be deleted by the One Click LCA admin only. If you find any unnecessary datapoints under “reference list”, please let your mentor know via [e-mail]

2. Acquiring a larger pack of Ecoinvent datapoints

One Click LCA offers 150, 300, and unlimited Ecoinvent datapoint packs. Please contact [e-mail] to discuss your options further.