Swiss Company Ecoinvent Joins Sustainability Consortium
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Ecoinvent Centre, the world’s leading supplier of reliable and transparent life cycle inventory data, has joined the Sustainability Consortium to support the organization’s life cycle assessment work with its comprehensive LCI database. The Sustainability Consortium, co-directed by the University of Arkansas and Arizona State University, is an independent organization of diverse global participants ranging from consumer product manufacturers, retailers, service providers and non-governmental organizations.
“It was a straightforward decision for the Ecoinvent Centre to join the Sustainability Consortium, seeing that our mission to promote the use and good practice of LCI through supplying LCI data for optimal assessment of the environmental and socio-economic impact of decisions is strongly aligned with the mission of the Sustainability Consortium to develop and promote science and integrated tools that improve informed decision making for product sustainability throughout the life cycle,” said Bo Weidema, executive manager of the Ecoinvent Centre. “Global access to high-quality inventory data is indispensable for our society to achieve a sustainable future. We are happy to join forces with the highly motivated consortium members and are eager to start work on developing the database tools for the Sustainability Consortium.”
“The Ecoinvent Centre brings a fresh perspective and valuable new ideas to the consortium,” said Jon Johnson, co-director of the consortium and executive director of the University of Arkansas Applied Sustainability Center. “We are excited about their membership, and look forward to new developments related to life cycle assessment and sustainable decision-making. They are true leaders in the world of life cycle assessment.”
Life cycle assessment is a powerful tool based on solid scientific foundations. However, it depends strongly on the availability of quality-ensured, transparent data. And exactly this is the key competence of the Ecoinvent Centre – the provision of quality-ensured, reliable and transparent life cycle inventory data on a more and more global level. The cooperation with the Sustainability Consortium can be seen as a logical consequence on the way towards a globally accessible, transparent database.
Created in 1997, the Ecoinvent Centre is a competence center of institutes and departments of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Zürich and Lausanne, the Paul Scherrer Institute, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research and the Swiss Federal Research Station Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon. Its strategic objective is to provide the most relevant, reliable, transparent and accessible LCI data for users all over the world to assist every-day work related to, but not limited to, integrated product policy, design for environment, environmental management systems and product stewardship. With Ecoinvent data v2.2, the centre offers one of the most comprehensive international LCI databases currently available. Its high-quality generic LCI datasets are based on industrial data and have been compiled by internationally renowned research institutes and life cycle assessment consultants. Behind the Ecoinvent Centre there are more than 20 years of experience in the life cycle assessment methodology development and LCI data compilation for different industrial sectors. With a broad international network of resellers and partners, the Ecoinvent Centre accommodates the needs of its clients worldwide. Learn more at www.ecoinvent.org.
About the Sustainability Consortium
The Sustainability Consortium is an independent organization of diverse global participants who work collaboratively to build a scientific foundation that drives innovation to improve consumer product sustainability through all stages of a product's life cycle. It drives scientific research and the development of standards and information technology tools, through a collaborative process, to enhance the ability to understand and address the environmental, social, and economic implications of products. The Sustainability Consortium advocates for a transparent process and system, not individuals or organizations. The University of Arkansas and Arizona State University jointly administer the Sustainability Consortium, which began in 2009 and currently has more than 60 members. Learn more at www.sustainabilityconsortium.org.
Contacts
Danielle Strickland, director of development communications
University Relations
479-575-7346,
strick@uark.edu
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