Footprinted.org: experiences from using linked open data for environmental impact information

Abstract

Sustainability science relies heavily on information (Allenby 2000, 2006). And as sustainability is gaining weight in decision-making, good and accessible environmental information is needed (Goleman 2009). This is true both at an institutional level, like when deciding the materials for building a product, and at a personal level, deciding between chicken and salmon at the supermarket. However, most of the environmental information is closed, based on proprietary software, expensive or in text documents that are not possible to process. We believe that it is necessary to bring open data concepts from the web to environmental impact information (Davis et al, 2010; Zapico et al, 2010). This would increase transparency, openness, and make it easier to create sustainability services on top of the data. Exploring these ideas we have created Footprinted1, a web service that is trying to solve these problems by opening up the information using linked data, focusing in life cycle assessment information. This article presents the finished application, the experiences developing it, and the first usages.