This tool is PristineLCA, a modern frontend for openLCA, built with React and putting the focus on users. We do this by following an iterative, user-focused design that thouroughly tests each iteration of our software with a representative sample of users.
The world is waking up to the fact that climate change is a grave threat.
Industry, academia and society are realizing that we need to assess the environmental impact of everything that we do. A crucial part of this is doing a complete assessment of the environmental impact associated with all of the stages of the life cycle of a product. In other words, a complete life cycle assessment (LCA).
But how does one do a life cycle assessment? Researchers and engineers need to use LCA software.
The most popular free open source option available right now is openLCA. Whilst it is a powerful platform, it is extremely difficult to use. Easier to use commercial options are available, but they cost thousands of dollars.
We worked with sustainibility researchers to create PristineLCA, an open source application that enables them to perform the exact same calculations with much greater ease. It does this by acting as a more intuitive frontend for openLCA. This will increase their efficiency and save researchers around the world crucial time and money, thus speeding up the global effort to fight climate change.
The tool is slated for a full public release in late 2023. Before that, there will be several test roll out where the tool will be released to select sustainability researchers to allow us to test and polish it further
Pristine LCA is currently under developement. The application is divided into 2 main pieces; the React frontend, the Python API that communicates with the openLCA backend. We have completed our initial user testing, frontend developement and design and are currently working on the Python API. Whilst we have successfully called the Python API using the frontend, this involves a complex set up process on the user PC.
We are currently working towards automating this set up process and bundling the entire application together so it can simply be installed and used. We also need to further develop the Python API.
Additionally, at each step of the process we are testing with users to catch usability issues and important missing features
Thus, although the tool is very functional in some ways, there is still a lot of work left before it can be used for sustainability research.