Federal LCA Commons

Peter Arbuckle, USDA-Agricultural Research Service

National Agricultural Library

National Institute for Standards and Technology:

Data Harmonization to Improve the Circularity of Plastics

January 25, 2023
Overview

• Theory of Change and Innovation Diffusion

• What is the Federal LCA Commons?

• Federal LCA Commons Data Repository

– Data management and access infrastructure

– LCA methods consistency

– Consistent reference models and data

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Theory of Change and Innovation Diffusion

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Emerging 

Requirements, 

Qualitative 

Analysis, 

Enhancing Data 

& Identifying

Hotspots

Improved 

Standardization, 

Measurement, & 

Reporting

Reliable 

Market and 

Product 

Information

Strong 

Market 

Demand 

Signals 

Major 

Industrial 

Changes

Major Impact 

Reductions

Market Uptake

Adoption

Context of Environmental Information
The Nutrition Label Analogy

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This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
The Nutrition Label Analogy: Why does this work?

Inter-agency collaboration

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https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/

Collaboration: FDA, USDA, NIST and Industry on Policy, Science, Standards and Measurement, and 

Data Management
The Federal LCA Commons

Collaboration between Federal Agencies to advance LCA

Our Mission:

– Advance LCA data, research and information systems

– Improve modeling methods consistency

– Enhance public access to Federal LCI data

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https://www.lcacommons.gov/memorandum-understanding-0
Community of Practice

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Policy and Deployment

Knowledge 

Management

Research and Methods

Model and Data 

development

- Energy supply chains

- Energy generation and 

transmission

- Transportation systems

- Waste management

- Environmental impacts

- Construction materials

- Carbon capture and 

storage

- Agricultural production

Knowledge Management

- Whole building LCA analysis tools

- Open access data repositories and 

publication workflows

- Tools and resources for interoperability 

and data reuse 

LCA Deployment and Policy 

Support 

- Use of LCA in pavement design 

and procurement through 

FHWA LCA PAVE tool 

- Guidance and technical 

reviews of LCA in support of 

Internal Revenue Service 45Q 

tax credit 

- Conduct LCAs for DOE, Loan 

Program Office greenhouse gas 

analysis loan requirements
Work Products to Increase Consistency and 

Access

• US Electricity Baseline:

Consistent Background 

Models

• Elementary Flow List: 

Consistent Elementary 

Flows and LCIA

• Data Portal

www.lcacommons.gov

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Managing community data and reference models

Federal LCA Commons Knowledge Management

Open Data Services

Internal Data Curation 

and Management

Public Access to 

Data and Models

Sector specific LCA 

modeling and reporting

Research groups and 

Background 

data sources

Common data model and 

machine-readable exchange 

formats are critical 
Federal LCA Commons Knowledge Management

Open Data Services

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• Integrated open data workflow

• Metadata services

• Interoperability and reuse 

guidance and standards
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LCA Commons Role

*US LCI is part of the Federal LCA Commons. 

Labels

Product Specific 

Modeling/Data

Background Data

Data and Informatics Best 

Management Practices

*
Summary

• Federal LCA Commons plays a key role in laying 

the foundation for more consistent use of life 

cycle assessment in markets and policy. 

• At this stage, collaboration is critical to 

coordinate policy, standards, data, and 

infrastructure to support applications.

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Thank you! Questions?

Peter.Arbuckle@usda.gov