1. European Platform for LCA data (Life Cycle Assessment) David Leal david.leal@caesarsystems.co.uk

2. EU LCA InfoHub A useful set of LCA data –somewhat sparse – but an pilot which can extended –material products and energy products –generic data for typical products Contents defined by ISO 14048 Environmental management Life cycle assessment Data documentation format Contents represented according to the ELCD (European Life Cycle Database) XML schema –a concrete implementation of ISO 14048

3. What ISO 14048 is about make 1kg of steel rebar output flow 1 what steel rebar how much 1 kg destination technosphere output output flow 2 what chromium how much 9.5E-7 kg destination atmosphere output output flow 3 input flow 1 what zinc how much 0.0027 kg source resources input input flow 2 what water how much 3.8 kg source rivers input input flow 3 reference flow

4. What ISO 14048 is about ISO 14048 is about processes –perhaps the process of making a product For a unit magnitude process the flows are specified: –to the process from the environment (e.g. use of fresh water) –to the process from resources (e.g. use of minerals) –from the process to disposal (e.g. solid waste) –from the process to the environment (e.g. emissions to water systems or the atmosphere) The unit magnitude is defined by a reference flow: –output of 1 discrete manufactured item –output of 1 kg of material –output of 1 kWh of electricity There is lots of meta-data –Where the information came from –Time period of validity –Geographic region of validity

5. Mode of publication HTML documents –derived from XML representation by XSLT – XML documents also have HTTP URIs, but they are not linked The LCA data base as a huge ZIP file –Unzip to get a directory of XML files for each technical domain –XSLT transforms to HTML are also provided Support for both: –Computer processing of XML –Display of XML to people as HTML

6. Life cycle phases

13. Mode of publication http://lca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/lcainfohub/datasets/elcd/processes/ Steel_rebar_Eurofer_268a11fb-baf2-4b9e-8867-38bea0e76ef6_01.00.001.xml URI of data set about the process - Steel rebar manufacture: http://lca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/lcainfohub/datasets/elcd/flows/ Carbon_dioxide_Emissions_to_air_8864ce84-9967-11da-a72b-0800200c9a66_01.00.001.xml URI of data set about the flow - CO 2 to air: http://lca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/lcainfohub/datasets/elcd/flows/ Steel_Rebar_Materials_e0e06e45-28a5-4c5e-af18-616253bd4ac5_01.00.001.xml http://lca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/lcainfohub/datasets/elcd/flowproperties/ Mass_93a60a56-a3c8-11da-a746-0800200b9a66_01.00.001.xml URI of data set about the flow - Steel rebar to technosphere: URI of data set about the property - mass:

14. Mode of publication URIs are of data sets not things –This is Web 1.0 practice –For Web 2.0, the objects are identified Dereference the object to get information in different formats The product classes (or data sets about them) do not have URIs –Steel rebar is just text –CO 2 is identified by CAS number URIs are unmemorable – HTTP domain + UUID + version Some comments

15. Next steps in standardisation URIs for the commodity classes –Who will assign a URI to Steel rebar? –ISO, ASTM, EU LCA InfoHub, Corus, ???? Semantic Web and computer interpretability steel rebar 16 mm BS4449 Grade: 460B 16 mm BS4449 Grade: 460B made by Fred Bloggs and Co. http://www.iso.int/iso/std/iso/12345/-6/reference-data/steel_rebar

16. Next steps in standardisation URIs for the commodity classes –Who will assign a URI to Steel rebar? –ISO, ASTM, EU LCA InfoHub, Corus, ???? Semantic Web and computer interpretability steel rebar 16 mm BS4449 Grade: 460B 16 mm BS4449 Grade: 460B made by Fred Bloggs and Co. iso12345-6:steel_rebar

17. Next steps in standardisation URIs for the commodity classes –Who will assign a URI to Steel rebar? –ISO, ASTM, EU LCA InfoHub, Corus, ???? Semantic Web and computer interpretability steel rebar 16 mm BS4449 Grade: 460B 16 mm BS4449 Grade: 460B made by Fred Bloggs and Co. http://www.bsi-global.com/4449/460B-16mm

18. Next steps in standardisation URIs for the commodity classes –Who will assign a URI to Steel rebar? –ISO, ASTM, EU LCA InfoHub, Corus, ???? Semantic Web and computer interpretability steel rebar 16 mm BS4449 Grade: 460B 16 mm BS4449 Grade: 460B made by Fred Bloggs and Co. bs4449:460B-16mm

19. Next steps in standardisation URIs for the commodity classes –Who will assign a URI to Steel rebar? –ISO, ASTM, EU LCA InfoHub, Corus, ???? Semantic Web and computer interpretability steel rebar 16 mm BS4449 Grade: 460B 16 mm BS4449 Grade: 460B made by Fred Bloggs and Co. http://www.fred-bloggs.co.uk/bs4449/460B-16mm

20. Next steps in standardisation URIs for the commodity classes –Who will assign a URI to Steel rebar? –ISO, ASTM, EU LCA InfoHub, Corus, ???? Semantic Web and computer interpretability steel rebar 16 mm BS4449 Grade: 460B 16 mm BS4449 Grade: 460B made by Fred Bloggs and Co. fred-bloggs:bs4449/460B-16mm

21. Next steps in standardisation URIs for the commodity classes –Who will assign a URI to Steel rebar? –ISO, ASTM, EU LCA InfoHub, Corus, ???? Semantic Web and computer interpretability steel rebar 16 mm BS4449 Grade: 460B 16 mm BS4449 Grade: 460B made by Fred Bloggs and Co. fred-bloggs:bs4449/460B-16mm

22. Computer interpretability In the web page for its products, Fred Bloggs and Co. can include the computer interpretable statement: Somewhere, perhaps on the BSI website, is the statement: On the EU LCA InfoHub are statements about the typical inputs and outputs for the manufacture of 1 kg of steel rebar. If Fred Bloggs and Co think they do better, then they can publish the inputs and outputs specific to their production process. fred-bloggs:bs4449/460B-16mm bs4449:460B-16mm. rdfs:subClassOf bs4449:460B-16mm iso12345-6:steel_rebar. rdfs:subClassOf

23. A future scenario Good environmental practice means that companies provide LCA data for products Two choices for a company: 1.provide audited LCA data 2.relate product to one of the classes of product for which LCA is available – Classes defined on the Web and identified by URIs It is much easier for a company to implement choice 1, if its suppliers either provide LCA data or classify their products

24. A future scenario classes of supply with LCA data – LCA catalogues linked to industrial catalogues class Aclass Bclass Cclass D product supply 1 supply 2 supply x supply y supply z subclass of LCA data from analysis of supply subclass of LCA data from analysis of supply

25. An individual product http://packing-machinery.cn/item/08-12345 item/08-12345 Ruian Zhuxin Machinery Co. Ltd. manufactured by type model/ML1800 – person readable nameplate – bar code – RFID specified as:

26. An individual product http://packing-machinery.cn/item/08-12345 @prefix rzm:. @prefix iso:. http://packing-machinery.cn/item/08-12345/formula.n3 dereference to get a formula about the model rzm:item/08-12345 iso:manufacturedBy ; a rzm:model/ML1800.

27. A class of product http://packing-machinery.cn/model/ML1800 @prefix rzm:. @prefix iso:. @prefix packing. http://packing-machinery.cn/model/ML1800/formula.n3 rzm:model/ML1800 iso:hasMass [ scale:kilogram 14000] ; packing:maximum_rule_length [ scale:metre 50 ] ; packing:speed [ scale:perMinute 16 ] ; packing:motorPower [ scale:kilowatt 11 ] ;...... who defines the vocabularies? – an ISO or IEC committee – a trade association The Ruian Zhuxin Machinery Co has not implemented this – yet – as far as I know

28. LCA data in the formula http://packing-machinery.cn/model/ML1800 http://packing-machinery.cn/model/ML1800/formula.n3 Each item of model ML1800 requires: –emissions of 25 kg CO2 to produce; –emissions of -4 kg CO2 to dispose (negative because recycling displaces mineral extraction); –emission of 0.001kg CO2 per hour to run (European electricity generation mix).

29. LCA data in the formula http://packing-machinery.cn/model/ML1800 http://packing-machinery.cn/model/ML1800/formula.n3 rzm:model/ML1800 lca:unitProductionCO2emission [ scale:kilogram 25 ] ; lca:unitDisposalCO2emission [ scale:kilogram -4 ] ; lca:hourUseCO2emission [ scale:kilogram 0.001 ]. actually it is more complicated

30. Actually it is more complicated ML1800 flow 1 output flow manufacture of 1 ML1800 item reference output atmosphere CO 2 destination material substance 25 kg amount flow 2 SO 2 material substance 0.01 kg amount destination flow 3 output flow objects and relationships defined in ISO 14048 but not different in principle

31. Actually it is more complicated rxm:process/ML1800 lca:hasOutputFlow [ a lca:ReferenceFlow ; lca:destination lca:Technosphere ; lca:material [ lca:loadOf rxm:model/ML1800 ; lca:numberInLoad 1 ] ] ; lca:hasOutputFlow [ lca:destination lca:Atmosphere ; lca:Material [ a iupac:CarbonDioxide ; lca:amount [ scale:kilogram 25 ] ] ] ; lca:hasOutputFlow [ lca:destination lca:Atmosphere ; lca:Material [ a iupac:SulfurDioxide ; lca:amount [ scale:kilogram 0.01 ] ] ] ;...... vocabulary for LCA from ISO 14048 URI for substances from somewhere?

32. Making this work Material products have HTTP URIs –A new business process Dereferencing gives: –Web page of information about the product – Web 1.0 –RDF formula about the product – Web 3.0 Standard vocabularies to use in the formulae –Vocabularies for product properties –Vocabularies for LCA LCA data published using the same approach –Products have URIs, dereferencing give LCA data

33. Navigating the supply chain LCA catalogues (e.g. EU LCA InfoHub) linked to industrial catalogues class Aclass Bclass Cclass D product supply 1 supply 2 supply x supply y supply z subclass of LCA data from analysis of supply subclass of LCA data from analysis of supply

34. End