Since the release of ecoinvent data v2.01 in November 2007, some data errors have been identified both by ecoinvent users and by the ecoinvent team. Additional datasets have been made available to the ecoinvent Centre as well – and therefore, we decided to publish a corrected and extended version
of the ecoinvent v2.01 database. A few days ago this corrected database content went online as the new ecoinvent data v2.1.
All changes are documented in the additional report No. 16: "Documentation of changes implemented in ecoinvent Data v2.1"; as well as in the updated version of several already existing reports. All these reports will be published within the coming weeks on our website (section "files" – accessible for members only). Members will be informed of this publication by e-Mail.
In our continuous efforts to further improve the database, we can announce the constitution of the new Editorial Board and the extended International Advisory Council.
The international Editorial Board will be the new responsible structure for the quality control of data in ecoinvent v3. The International Advisory Council is an advisory body, advising us with respect to the further development of the ecoinvent Database.
LCA and LCA software have developed since the release in 2000 of ecoSpold v1 – the most widely used open-source data format in LCA –, and in order to take advantage of all these new developments, a revision of the ecoSpold format has become necessary. An ad hoc expert working group was formed in
2008 to guide such a revision process, and an open hearing has been conducted by them among users of ecoSpold, in order to collect their input and wishes for a new ecoSpold format v2. A Beta version of this new format has been put on our website a few days ago and you are welcome to give us a feedback about the new format.
As it has been presented at the LCA VIII conference last autumn in Seattle (USA), ecoinvent has a clear globalisation strategy for version v3 of its database. Two central elements for this globalisation are the cooperation with National Database Initiatives (NDI) and a change of the structure of the database to facilitate its maintenance and extension by introducing the principle of parameterisation. This presentation from Seattle can be found at http://lcacenter.org/LCA8/presentations/300.pdf.