The ecoinvent database offers life cycle inventory (LCI) and life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results. The following LCIA methods are implemented in the ecoinvent data v2.2:• CML 2001• Cumulative energy demand• Cumulative exergy demand• Eco-indicator 99• Ecological footprint• Ecological scarcity 1997 and 2006• Ecosystem damage potential - EDP• EDIP’97 and 2003 - Environmental Design of Industrial Products• EPS 2000 - environmental priority strategies in product development• IMPACT 2002+• IPCC 2001 (climate change) and IPCC 2007 (climate change)• ReCiPe (Midpoint and Endpoint approach)• TRACI• USEtox• Selected Life Cycle Inventory indicatorsThere is a range of methodological problems and questions while linking the LCIA methods with the elementary flows of a database. This lead to different results in the past, even if the same LCIA method was applied on the same inventory results.The aim of this report is to avoid such discrepancies. In the first part of this report the general assumptions for the implementation of impact assessment methods on the ecoinvent life cycle invenory data are described. For that purpose, general and harmonised rules were developed how to deal with a certain problem.The second part of this report contains a detailed description of the implementation of the above mentioned methods. Please refer to the original publications for a general description and the scientific background of the methods. It is strongly recommended to read the original publications before using the LCIA results from the ecoinvent database.It is recommended to follow these implementation guidelines also while using other or new LCIA methods, which are so far not implemented in ecoinvent data.
Hischier et al. (Fri,) studied this question.