European Life Cycle Database and International Reference Life Cycle Data System
The Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES), a subgroup of the EC Joint Research Center (JRC), provides guidance and data to help companies and practitioners in conducting their Carbon Footprint or Life Cycle Assessments. Momentarily two core projects are implemented, namely the European Life Cycle Database (ELCD) and the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD). The ELCD contains approved input and output data from european business associations and LCA institutes and consultancies. New datasets are added subsequently. Until now there are more than 300 process data sets online. Access and working with the data is free of charge.
The ILCD is still work in progress. Recently the ILCD Handbook was published. This handbook combines international methodologies and technical guidance documents to support LCA in business and policy. It is described as a “parent” document for sector specific methodologies and guidances.
The upcoming ILCD Data Network referenced in the aforementioned publication will integrate ELCD data and datasets from all over the world.
Further information can be found here: http://lct.jrc.ec.europa.eu/assessment