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Global Life Cycle Assessment Data Access network (GLAD)

  • Published on January 13, 2020
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data allow policy makers to develop sound policies for Sustainable Consumption and Production, Resource Efficiency and a Circular Economy. Industries can base their innovation and strategic sustainability decisions on more robust information. Enhanced data accessibility and interoperability has many benefits and enables Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to be used widely. GLAD aims to achieve better data accessibility and interoperability. The network is comprised of independently-operated LCA databases (nodes) from around the world and provides users an interface to find and access life cycle inventory datasets from different providers.
One of the main functionalities of GLAD is the conversion function which allows users to convert a dataset from its native format in the source database into another format convenient for the user. This functionality is based on key metadata descriptors, which are required from datasets to be connected to GLAD to allow for interoperability between them, as well as a global mapping of elementary flows' nomenclature. GLAD delivers two main services: o Find datasets (through a search component, including globally agreed metadata descriptors) o Use datasets (by allowing their conversion and download into the user's software, in the desired format) Additionally, GLAD provides substantive analytics on the usage of search terms and conversion statistics, to inform user-driven data development and enable the tracking of LCA trends globally.

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