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U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database

NREL and its partners created the U.S. Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) Database to help life cycle assessment (LCA) practitioners answer questions about environmental impact. This database provides individual gate-to-gate, cradle-to-gate and cradle-to-grave accounting of the energy and material flows into and out of the environment that are associated with producing a material, component, or assembly in the U.S.

The goals of the U.S. LCI Database project are:

  • Maintain data quality and transparency
  • Cover commonly used materials, products, and processes in the United States with up-to-date, critically reviewed LCI data
  • Support the expanded use of LCA as an environmental decision-making tool
  • Maintain compatibility with international LCI databases
  • Provide exceptional data accessibility
  • Be fully and sustainably supported
  • Support U.S. industry competitiveness.

Read the plan to achieve the goals of the LCI Database Project in the U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database Roadmap.

LCA in the News and Related Research

Life cycle environmental impacts of selected U.S. ethanol production and use pathways in 2022

Journal of Environmental Science and Technology

Eco-LCA Adds Ecosystem Services to Life Cycle Assessment

Greener Design

How Green Is My iPad?

New York Times

NREL's Buildings research supports the U.S. Department of Energy's Building Technologies Program.

Events

Global Green Techies Forum & Exhibition (GTECHs 2011) 

March 20 - 22, 2012
Manama-Bahrain

World Renewable Energy Forum 

May 13 - 17, 2012
Denver, CO

More Events

U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database Roadmap (PDF 1.4 MB) U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database Dataset Additions