First progress report on
the harmonisation of exchange formats for LCI-data

CODATA Working Group on Environmental Life Cycle Inventories c/o Bo P. Weidema, Institute for Product Development, Building 424, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark

December 1999
 

Introduction
The present progress report has been prepared within the auspices of the CODATA, the Working Group on Environmental Life Cycle Inventories. The objective of the working group is to facilitate the electronic exchange of high-quality, easily comparable data on environmental product life cycle inventories (LCI-data) for materials.

This objective is pursued by several activities, one of which is the subject of the present progress report: Promoting the use of a standardised electronic format for LCI-data, ensuring harmonisation with the relevant ISO standards and procedures, especially furthering collaboration between the ISO TC 184: STEP and TC 207: Environmental management.
 

Progress of ISO TC207/SC5/WG2/TG on LCA Data Documentation Format
The work of the ISO TC 207 aims at a standard within the 14040-series. The work was started early 1999 and the present working draft WD 14048 is dated 1999.11.11. It describes the conceptual framework for a data documentation format to be used for the exchange of documented LCI-data between different users. Additional detail with respect to a machine-interpretable format and additional nomenclatures for this will be added later in the process. The next meetings of the ISO Task Group are planned for 2000.01.13-15 in Paris and in week 24 of 2000 in Stockholm.

Draft standards are regarded by ISO as proprietary material and cannot be made publicly available. However, as part of the standardisation process, drafts may be circulated among those interested in and affected by the standard. This obviously includes the CODATA Working Group, of which several members are also experts to the ISO TC 207 Task Group, and other liaison groups such as SETAC. Other interested parties may obtain the draft standards through their national standardisation bodies.

The CODATA working group has contributed to communicating the current state of the ISO draft by:


Progress of the liaison between the ISO TC207/SC5/WG2/TG and ISO TC184/SC4
The CODATA working group has taken contact to Anna Moreno of the ISO TC 184/SC4 to encourage that the planned liaison between ISO TC 207 Task Group and the ISO TC 184/SC 4 will actually take place. Anna Moreno has been appointed as contact person and the CODATA working group has encouraged the ISO TC 207 Task Group chairman and secretariat to extend a specific invitation to her for the next meeting of the Task Group.
 

Efficiency or flexibility.
Two philosophies for standardising data collection, data treatment and data communication
In the course of its discussion on the progress of the standardisation work, the CODATA working group developed an understanding of two competing, but fundamentally complementary philosophies for standardisation and communication. The text of this section is an attempt at communicating this understanding.

Traditional standardisation of data formats has been fuelled by the gains in efficiency of data transfer when the message is expressed in terms used by both sender and recipient, minimising both resource use in translation and the probability of translation errors.

A drawback of traditional standardisation is that it creates inflexibility. Standards are difficult to change, even when such changes may be beneficial to all parties involved. In relation to data transfer, a rigid standard may cause data to be lost at the data supply side, simply because the standard language does not allow reporting the full nuances of the issue at hand. On the other hand, when using a more flexible language, data may be lost at the recipient side, because the flexible format makes it less easy to identify the desired information and leaves more issues to be misinterpreted.

In areas that develop quickly, the inflexibility of traditional standardisation may be a serious problem. Nevertheless, the efficiency gains of standardisation have generally been regarded as more important than the concern for flexibility.

With the growth in data handling capacity and international access to common information sources, this priority may be shifted. Because of automatic translation facilities, it is now less problematic to send information in ones own language, although one knows that the recipient needs the information in another language. This creates a new option for standardisation on data collection, data treatment, and data communication. Instead of standardising the language, data format, and nomenclature, it may be preferred to standardise the procedural rules for creating and using languages, data formats, and nomenclatures. If a thesaurus and a procedure for amending the thesaurus is agreed upon, I can communicate in my own language, data format, and nomenclature, as long as I refer to the thesaurus, specifying what language, data format, and nomenclature I have used. The recipient will then be able to translate into his own preferred language, format, and nomenclature, again referring to the thesaurus.

The optimum trade-off between efficiency and flexibility will depend on the speed of development in the specific field. The flexible option is especially interesting to fields where rapid development and needs for adjustments to the current standards can be foreseen. In mature fields with little development, efficiency gains related to traditional, rigid standardisation that allows only one language, data format, and nomenclature is likely to remain the driving factor. Nevertheless, it is likely that procedural rules and joint thesaurus creation will play an increasing role in the future standardisation efforts.
 
 

Progress of the implementation of standardised electronic LCI-data formats
The current work of the ISO TC207/SC5/WG2/TG is to a large extend based on previous work performed by two private initiatives: The SPOLD format developed by the Society for Promotion of Lifecycle assessment Development (an international association of industries), and the SPINE format developed by a national initiative in Sweden.

Parallel to the ISO standardisation process, these two private initiatives continue their efforts to establish a common LCI-data exchange platform. When the ISO 14048 is finalised, this platform will ensure that the standard is swiftly implemented. It is planned that both the SPOLD and the SPINE formats be adapted to accommodate the requirements of the final ISO standard. Until the ISO standard is finalised, the SPOLD/SPINE platform will serve as a forum for LCI-data exchange.

Most suppliers of LCA databases and software have implemented or are in the process of implementing compatibility with the SPOLD or the SPINE data format. The SPINE format is implemented in three Swedish software (EPS, EcoLab, LCAiT). Three other software/databases (KCL-ECO, SimaPro, TEAM) have set a deadline at ultimo January 2000 for enabling import/export to the SPOLD ’97 format, while considering upgrading to SPOLD ’99 format. Several other data/software suppliers (including Boustead, Gabi, Ecoinvent 2000, PIRA, Umberto) have announced their intentions, but not yet with a specific deadline. An exchange facility between the SPOLD and SPINE formats is planned.

Currently, the freewares SPINE@CPM Data Tool and the SPINE@CPM Site Tool are available as basis for building common database systems within groups of data suppliers, and SPOLD has finalised the free SPOLD Information System, which consists of:
a) an Internet search engine (SPOLD Data Directory) linking to data stored at local web-servers,
b) a web-server software for handling data access (password handling) for the locally stored data,
c) a data and web-server administration software that allows (local) remote control of the data on the local web-servers and ensures consistency between the data on the local web-servers and the information in the Internet search engine. The web-server administration allows to link one or more access passwords to a specific dataset or a group of datasets on the web-server.  Password restricted datasets can furthermore be linked to a (dataset specific) access text describing how to obtain the relevant password (e.g. against payment or supply of user information). The password protection can be limited to individual fields of the datasets through the use of a user-defined ‘template’ containing information on what fields should be protected and what fields should be publicly accessible in the form of a ‘restricted dataset’. The template may be specifically adjusted for each dataset.
The SPOLD Data Directory allows also placing of data that are not in SPOLD format. The SPOLD Information System is currently under internal testing by a limited number of data suppliers, and will be opened to the public as soon as this testing phase is finalised.

The role of CODATA
Given that fully functional platforms for exchange of LCI-data are already in place, the task of CODATA will mainly be to assist in persuading relevant data suppliers to place their data on these platforms. To enhance data suppliers’ awareness of the current possibilities and what it takes to have their data placed in e.g. the SPOLD Information System, it was suggested to provide the following:

  • For managers of databases and data collection programmes: General information (with graphical illustration) on the systems and how they work. Highlighting the advantages of using a standardised data format. Highlighting costs savings of collecting data in SPOLD/SPINE/ISO compatible format compared to converting data later. Countering arguments based on inflexibility of the current software or databases.
  • For web-server administrators: Information on the system with particular focus on the issues of security.
  • For software developers and designers of local data formats: Information on the standardised formats and how they map onto other formats (especially highlighting the optional nature of the standardised formats: not all fields may be relevant in all contexts), possibly including assistance for the early phases of mapping.
  • For data suppliers using spreadsheets: The procedure for converting e.g. Excel data to SPOLD/SPINE/ISO format and SPOLD/SPINE/ISO data to Excel.
  • For data collectors using questionnaires: A software that produces electronic questionnaires based on the standard format, but where irrelevant fields can be hidden, remaining fields can be pre-filled and locked if desired, field names, options and explanations can be adjusted and expanded to industry-specific or local nomenclature and/or language, and new questionnaires can be filled in by using the electronically stored response to previously received questionnaires for the same process, eventually resulting in process documentation being build up in the standard format.
CODATA has a particular interest in the interface between LCI-data and other technical, economical and environmental data structures within individual businesses, i.e. data used in:
  • Material flow accounting and budgeting
  • Energy flow accounting and budgeting
  • Economic accounting and budgeting
  • Environmental reporting
  • Environmental management systems
However, although some national projects are concerned with integration of such business information within companies, we are not aware of any current initiatives to ensure global standardisation of such data, neither within nor across the above listed data areas. Our role is therefore mainly to inform any potential standardisation activities of the current achievements in the area of LCI-data. Anyone aware of ongoing or planned standardisation activities within the above listed areas is requested to inform the CODATA Working Group, so that we can ensure an interface between the standards on LCI-data and any other upcoming standards in these related areas.


CODATA Working Group on Environmental Life Cycle Inventories c/o Bo P. Weidema, 2.-0 LCA consultants, Amagertorv 3, 2., 1160 København K. E-mail: bow@lca.dk

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Last update: 2002.06.24 BW