openLCA – Implications of an Emerging Open Source Software for Sustainability Assessment

Abstract

openLCA has started in late 2006 as a project to create a high performance, open source software for sustainability assessment, with an initial focus on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Meanwhile, a first version has been sent out to external testers, and a funding consortium has established. We will briefly describe the architecture of the application, and will then concentrate on two aspects. First, we critically analyse whether and how it was possible to create a contributing community for the project. Creating such a community is a challenge since on the one side, there seems overwhelming interest in the LCA field to open source and "for free" high performance tools; on the other side, IT knowledge is scarce among LCA experts. Second, we present a case study from the textile industry in order to show capabilities and drawbacks of the software, with special emphasis on its "open source nature". Finally, we conclude by investigating possible implications our open source application for a well established business field and market might have, of specialised closed source applications plus consulting and research provided by using these tools. This investigation will be based on indications from our present project, but will also be framed in a more general perspective.