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3.4 Procurement, Origin and Quality of Data 131

Hessian Ministry for Environment, Youth, Family and Health Fritsche et al.
(1997).
Newer data sources are the network on life cycle data 147) of the Research Centre
Karlsruhe 148) andofthe European Platform on Life Cycle Assessment at the Joint
Research Centre Ispra of the European Union. 149) A goal of these programmes is to
collect existing data records, which are already available in different organisations
into a useful and uniform data format applied in LCA and material flow analysis
and to provide these free of charge to professionals.
Further important data sources are technical encyclopaedias and product speci-
fications, various Internet sites, and so on. The International Journal of Life Cycle
Assessment (Springer) publishes regularly edited versions and case histories of
LCAs and inventories, with data for special systems and regions. Further scien-
tific magazines applicable as data sources are the Journal of Industrial Ecology
(Wiley), Cleaner Production (Elsevier) and Integrated Environmental Assessment
and Management – IEAM (SETAC press); see also Section 1.5.

3.4.3.3 Purchasable Data Bases and Software Systems
A by now unfortunately outdated compilation of available data sources by SPOLD
(Society for the Promotion of LCA Development) 150) comprises, in addition to
reports, also commercial databases. Further critical comparative discussions of
altogether approximately 50 products (worldwide) are listed. 151) Many databases
are integrated into LCA software systems. These are, however, often not original
databases but are supplied by original data surveys, like, for example, ecoinvent.
No effort is made here to clarify the complex context.
The most well-known European products of this kind are
• The Boustead Model (UK), developed and licensed by Boustead Consulting Ltd.,
is the result of a collecting activity for many decades by an LCA pioneer 152) and is
considered as an extensive LCI data collection. Critical attention must be paid to
the age of the data, even if current updates are presumed.
• ecoinvent (CH) is the result of a national effort for many years in Switzerland,
which led to a qualitatively leading and (possibly worldwide) outstanding LCI
database at present in Europe. 153) The data consider both Switzerland and
Europe, which makes them applicable both nationally as well as internationally
provided it is put to correct use. The software integrated into the purchasable
product also permits the conduct of impact assessments according to different
standard methods (see also Chapter 4). Detailed additional information which

147) German: Netzwerk Lebenszyklusdaten.
148) Bauer, Buchgeister and Schebek, 2004; http://www.netzwerk-lebenszyklusdaten.de.
149) http://lca.jrc.ec.europa.eu.
150) Hemming, 1995.
151) Vigon, 1996; Rice et al., 1997; Siegenthaler et al., 1997.
152) Boustead and Hancock, 1979; Boustead, 1996b; http://www.boustead-consulting.co.uk.
153) ecoinvent 1, 2004a; ecoinvent 2, 2004b; ecoinvent 3, 2004c; Frischknecht et al., 2005;
http://www.ecoinvent.ch (Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories); http://www.ecoinvent.org/
database; version 3 (2013).