2013 was a busy year for the LCA Digital Commons (LCADC). Up front, we have expanded the metadata for our crop production unit processes, developed crosswalks for EcoInvent V2.2, refined our user interface. Behind the scenes a number of exciting projects have gotten underway, including a data submission web application, data conversion and harmonization tools, and the development of some new agricultural datasets.

Information and Access to the Innovation Center for US Dairy Greenhouse Gas, Carbon Footprint Data - To proactively meet the needs of the marketplace, the U.S. dairy industry is working together to further improve environmental performance in a way that makes good business sense for the entire supply chain. Download data here. In January 2009, the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy -- which represents approximately 80% of the dairy industry -- endorsed a voluntary goal to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of fluid milk by 25% by 2020.

Cooper, J.S., E. Kahn, R. Ebel. (2012) “Sampling error in U.S. field crop unit process data for Life Cycle Assessment.” Accepted to the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Volume 17, Number 6, Pages 185-192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11367-012-0454-3

The National Agricultural Library team will review the project vision and goals; and demonstrate the prototype database at the LCAXI conference in Chicago at a special session on Tuesday, October 3 @ 3:30 PM. Read the session description at http://lcacenter.org/lcaxi/list/session-display-approved.php?id=16

Thanks to everyone participating in our usability survey. We expect a new release of the database application within the next few days which will incorporate many of the suggestions from the survey.

Please send us an email if you are interested in participating in the survey.