SSELF: A Specific SEmiautomated Lifecycle Footprinting framework to go beyond generic data in LCA

Abstract

Advancements in life cycle assessment (LCA) and environmentally extended input–output analysis enable quick generic estimations of the environmental footprint of almost any product and service. However, going beyond a generic estimate to an assessment based on actual, specific supply chain data remains costly and impracticable and demands significant sharing of proprietary data between supply chain actors and the LCA practitioner. Achieving widespread specificity in LCA requires fundamentally changing the way inventory and emission data are collected, stored, and exchanged. This research develops the SSELF (Specific SEmiautomated Lifecycle Footprinting) framework to go beyond generic data in LCA in a way that can scale up, while safeguarding sensitive data. A key feature of the framework is decentralizing inventory collection and footprint calculations. Thus, production functions remain private and upstream impacts are calculated using an iterative approach with a database of unique product identifiers and the footprints reported by other users, capturing changes in the footprints of suppliers. Although this substantially reduces the effort of footprint assessments, implementing the framework in practice presents new challenges, which are identified and discussed in this paper along with recommendations on how they can be addressed and their implications. This work provides important insight into how to get to a point where every product and service has its unique footprint. Broad access to footprints with more specificity is necessary to help consumers reduce their consumption-based impacts and make companies take accountability for, and reduce, their indirect impacts.