LibGuides: Civil and Environmental Engineering: 12-714/19-714: Life cycle assessment: Tools and data for Life Cycle Assessment class

Government data

US EPA
US EPA (The Environmental Protection Agency) is an independent agency of the United States federal government for environmental protection.

You can find data on Environmental related topics such as Green House Gas emissions, Air and Water pollution, and Chemicals and Toxic. You can also find tools and methods developed by EPA on various topics on their website.
US EIA
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient markets, and public understanding of energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment. You can find data on coal, petroleum, natural gas, electric, renewable and nuclear energy on EIA's website.
American Factfinder
American FactFinder provides access to data about the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Island Areas. The data in AFF come from several censuses and surveys including the decennial census, the American Community Survey, the American Housing Survey, and the Economic Census.

LCA databases

US LCI
This FREE database provides individual gate-to-gate, cradle-to-gate and cradle-to-grave accounting of the energy and material flows into and out of the environment that are associated with producing a material, component, or assembly in the U.S.
Ecoinvent
The Ecoinvent database provides well documented process data for thousands of products. Most of the processes are European based. A license is required to access most of the products' information.

Miscellaneous Resources

LinkedIn Learning
While at CMU, you have free access to LinkedIn Learning, which contains a plethora of online courses and tutorials.

For example, there are many tutorials on utilizing LCAs and Microsoft Excel which could help prepare you for projects in your course.

LCA software

OpenLCA is a free and open source software developed by GreenDelta GmbH, a Germany based company.

This is the software you may be using more in your class this semester. Please see OpenLCA tutorials for more information on how to use OpenLCA.

SimaPro was developed by PRé Sustainability, a company based in the Netherlands.

This is not a software you will necessarily use in this class - rather, we want you to highlight it as a tool used professionally within industry. If you wish to learn more, please see SimaPro Tutorials for more information on using SimaPro to conduct LCA studies.