We hosted two webinars in November to provide a technical introduction to version 3.12. The recording is now available on our Knowledge Base.
We hosted two webinars in November to provide a technical introduction to version 3.12. The recording is now available on our Knowledge Base.
This release is the culmination of our work with our many partners from both industrial and scientific institutions. These collaborations enable us to provide high-quality, accurate data, and we are very grateful to our data providers for their efforts. You can find the full list of 3.12’s data providers here.
To learn more about how we collaborate with our data providers, read about our latest in-person meeting with local partners: Stronger Together: Our Partner Deep Dive.
Explore everything version 3.12 offers on our Knowledge Base, including detailed sector notes and supporting documentation, or contact us to learn how our latest updates can benefit your work.
Our team is available to answer your questions and help you use our database. Please select a topic from the drop-down menu to send us a message.
Building and construction is fundamental to the development of civilization, and moving the industry towards more sustainable practices is a must.
Cement is heavily relied upon for building and construction, but it has high environmental impacts and is responsible for 7-8% of all manmade carbon dioxide emissions. The journey towards reducing emissions such as these begins with robust lifecycle data.
Lifecycle data enables researchers and product designers to better understand the environmental impacts of a product or process, and this applies to buildings and construction, too. With knowledge about where the greatest impacts currently reside in the supply chain, smart decisions can be made to create a more sustainable product.
In our latest video, Enrico Bonanno (Project Manager) describes the data we have available for the building and construction sector in ecoinvent version 3.11, alongside his support for the operational processes and strategy of the database.
Our database supports life cycle assessments in the building and construction sector with over 1,500 datasets across fifteen geographic regions, documenting processes from mining construction minerals (sand, gravel, limestone, clay, gypsum) to the production of finished materials.
Watch the video now to learn more about our building and construction sector.
Interested in using the ecoinvent database? Discover our licensing options today.
Plastics must be responsibly disposed of to prevent environmental harm, and the ecoinvent database can assist in the decision-making process.
Our data enables industry leaders, policymakers, and sustainability experts to fill the gaps in their value chains, enabling more complete life cycle assessments to inform important decisions.
In this video, Avraam Symeonidis (Database Content Lead) provides an expert overview of how the ecoinvent database supports users in the waste industries, specifically regarding plastic recycling data.
Watch the video below to learn Avraam’s insights about the project we undertook with a partner to collect, validate, review, and ultimately publish environmental data related to eleven different polymers from over twenty-five recycling facilities across Europe.
Explore the waste management and recycling sector of the ecoinvent database to learn how high-quality data allows industries to better assess their environmental impacts.
There are many factors to consider when choosing chocolate. Flavor, shape, weight, cocoa percentage, and price are all important, but have you considered the environmental impact of your chocolate?
Join us on a data-driven journey from the planting of a cocoa bean to the waste treatment of the packaging. Below, we unwrap a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) conducted by PRé Sustainability, using SimaPro Craft powered by ecoinvent data. The study is structured on an average, 100g Swiss milk chocolate bar, and through it we will show where chocolate’s climate impacts hide.
Scroll to see what is really inside a chocolate bar’s carbon footprint.
Discover how ecoinvent data and SimaPro Craft come together to power better sustainability insights!
In this video, we unwrap our LCA of an average Swiss milk chocolate bar. Through this case study, we show how reliable data and accessible tools help reveal environmental impacts from farm to disposal.
Watch now and see how ecoinvent and PRé Sustainability bring sustainability assessments to life.
Discover the potential of an ecoinvent license today. Contact us to learn how ecoinvent’s life cycle inventory database can turn sustainability questions into data-driven answers.
The ecoinvent team gathered in tropical Zurich heat for our quarterly team meeting. This meeting was especially unique as we were joined by a panel of passionate representatives from local partners who work directly with our data.
Let’s take a look at what’s involved in an ecoinvent team meeting.
We welcomed four partners, including Sika, Helbling, and ECOSPEED, who represent different aspects of our ecosystem. Their representatives included sustainability experts (who work directly with our data) and software developers (who integrate our data into specialized tools).
ecoinvent Account Manager Margaux Cepeda hosted the panel, where the partners shared unfiltered feedback about their experiences, challenges, and future expectations.
This direct exchange proved invaluable. Some of our teams regularly interact with our partners, but for many team members, this was a unique and valuable chance to learn in-depth from our users about real-world applications and current user requirements.
For our partners, this was an opportunity to connect directly with the experts behind the data. They shared their experiences working with us and gained insights into the interesting challenges we face in prioritizing diverse industry needs.
Following the panel, we dove into questions from the ecoinvent team, who were curious to learn more about the various ways our visiting partners interact with our life cycle inventory database.
The messages from this meeting will surely inspire us in the months to come!
The honest dialogue between data creators and data users revealed practical insights that will shape our strategy moving forward. One thing is certain—collaboration will be necessary to develop a green future.
Watch our video below for a peek into our Q2 ecoinvent team meeting, including words from our management team, partners, and panel host.
There is still so much work left to do, but we are stronger together. If you’re an organization interested in supporting a sustainable mission, learn more about our partnership agreements.
If you’re an individual looking to join an organization dedicated to sustainability, discover our open positions on our careers page.
For more regular updates about the ecoinvent team, subscribe to our newsletter.
Last year, twelve members of ecoinvent donned their cycling helmets and completed the Bike to Work challenge of 2024. This is the largest biking promotion event in Switzerland, and we have eagerly reentered the challenge in 2025.
This year, we doubled the length of our commitment to two months and nearly doubled the participants from twelve to twenty. This is a fantastic show of determination and team spirit in line with ecoinvent’s mission to support more sustainable decisions.
But that isn’t the only news from ecoinvent’s devoted cyclists in 2025; we also participated in the Dutch Climate Classic!
Discover our stories from across two events and more than 4,600 km of cycling!
The Climate Classic is a cycling challenge with a powerful call to action against climate change. This extraordinary challenge combines athletic endurance with environmental advocacy, mobilizing cyclists worldwide to confront the climate crisis head-on while generating vital funds for sustainability initiatives.
The event takes place in various countries, and this year we participated with our partner of many years, PRé Sustainability, in the Netherlands, where PRé was first established in 1990.
In the Netherlands 2025, the race stretched along the border of what will become the new coastline if no action is taken against the effects of climate change. Two of our cyclists experienced 175 km of this route first-hand, with two more cycling 100 km.
Whilst promoting more sustainable action, the initiative also raises money for charity. In 2025, the Dutch Climate Classic raised money for JustDiggit, an organization committed to regreening degraded landscapes with nature-based solutions.
Our collaboration in the Climate Classic represents more than shared kilometers; it embodies two decades of commitment to sustainability excellence and high-quality life cycle assessment. Our organizations have been partners for years, integrating ecoinvent’s transparent datasets with the analytical strength of PRé’s SimaPro software, offering environmental insights to a worldwide user base.
We are proud to finally share ecoinvent’s results from the race:
Together, the ecoinvent cyclists achieved a total of 550 kilometers in one day for a sustainable cause!
Before the race, we captured the passion and determination driving our cyclists. Their insights reveal why this challenge transcends sport—it’s about building bridges between organizations united in environmental stewardship.
Watch the video now:
Together, we can achieve more!
What was the most challenging part of the Climate Classic?
Nick Van Berckelaer (CPTO): Cycling along the Netherlands’ future coastline in a heatwave really brings the message home. If we don’t act, we won’t solve it.
Carl Vadenbo (Database Content Lead): I think the biggest challenge was the logistics needed to take part in the event. Suitable train connections with bike reservations were sparse, and finding an electric vehicle large enough for us and the gear was a hassle. But I was also positively surprised by how convenient it was to travel to the Netherlands and back with the charging infrastructure. The main challenge at the event was probably the sheer number of riders (so the luxury problem of popularity) in our category, which caused quite a bit of congestion on the normal bike paths (which were otherwise really good).
Do you feel closer to our partners at PRé Sustainability after this cycling experience?
Carl Vadenbo (Database Content Lead): It was great to interact with people at PRé whom we don’t usually engage with in our daily work or meet at LCA conferences. I think it gave a better mutual understanding of how we are growing as organizations, but also showed that the spirit and commitment to sustainability go beyond the ‘environmentalists’.
What are your key learnings from the 2025 Climate Classic?
Nick Van Berckelaer (CPTO): Nothing beats the creative flow of discussing the future of sustainability data and insights technology while on the bike. I’m going to do more of my meetings on the move.
Carl Vadenbo (Database Content Lead): A notable quote from the race is that we don’t have the problem in Switzerland of bike races or challenges being halted by bridges opening over canals…
Congratulations to all the participants!
Featuring images from the ecoinvent team and the official Climate Classic photographers.
Some of these faces are also participating in the Bike to Work Challenge…
Twenty cyclists. Five teams. Two months of pedaling for a more sustainable future. This significant jump from our 2024 Bike to Work challenge includes returning advocates and enthusiastic newcomers.
The results are in—and they’re great!
Bike to Work promotes fitness and team spirit for those brave enough to commit to the challenge. The event highlights the sustainability benefits of cycling to work, as cycling produces notably fewer emissions than driving a car or taking public transport.
The challenge embraces all abilities and circumstances. Participants usually compete in teams, with most cycling. One team member is permitted to participate by using a scooter or skateboard, walking, or using any other muscle-powered mode of transport. The rules also accommodate individuals who live too close or too far away from their office, enabling more people to participate in the spirit of the event.
Several members of the ecoinvent team already commute to our headquarters in Zurich regularly by bike, but the cycling gets serious in May and June when pride and prizes are at stake.
Bikoinventers (1264 km)
Pedal & Furious (644 km)
Rest of the World (845 km)
Two-Tired Pensioners (831 km)
Vélos Chics (514 km)
Why did you choose to participate in the challenge?
Veronika Madzinova: Try something new. Force myself to bike more.
Cyrille Szymanski: I feel aligned with the values of the challenge—small actions that have big impacts. I thought that this was a very good way to trigger change, and have fun doing so!
António Silva: To be honest, I already bike to work daily all year, but with the challenge, I get the chance to win prizes!
Nick Van Berckelaer: I just love biking to work!
Armin Agic: I chose to participate in the challenge to raise awareness about how even one person can make a meaningful impact in reducing CO₂ emissions.
Francesco Cirone: I think it’s important to exercise and I like to bike.
Demetrio Carrara: For the environment! and the competition between teams.
Will you keep cycling now that the challenge is over?
Nick Van Berckelaer: For sure, never stop.
António Silva: As long as I live close enough to the office 🙂
Jacomina Van der Merwe: Definitely! We are delaying our decision to buy a car so cycling and public transport will remain our main modes of transport.
Teodora Stefan: Sure, biking gets my energy up in the morning on the way to work and clears my head in the afternoon on the way home.
What was your favorite part of the challenge in 2025?
Vanessa Döringer: I loved the bike to work app. It’s really motivating to see your own and your teammates’ development. I also saved a lot of money by taking the bike instead of public transport. I did the calculations… I saved 166 Swiss francs in only two months 😉
Carl Vadenbo: More teams, team members, and km gathered, showing that the ecoinvent team “walk the walk” on this.
Paul Beckert: That Avraam asks me frequently to bike with him to work (although he never bikes to work :P)
Sebastian Kunde: The moment I win a prize.
Margaux Cepeda: Seeing the scores of every team member.
Share any additional insights on your Bike to Work experience here.
Mattia Clementi: I managed to convince a fellow to start biking, and now he also loves it.
Vanessa Döringer: I’ve fallen in love with Zurich all over again, because cycling through the city by the lake on a sunny morning is simply awesome!
Olivia Karleela: We had quite a lot of rain in Zürich in May, and very hot days in June. Without the challenge, I would have taken the bus on many days instead of cycling.
Want to know the real environmental impact of your bike? It’s not just about riding; it’s also about what went into making it. In a recent LinkedIn post, we shared insights about how the ecoinvent database enables bicycle production LCA research in different regions and encourages manufacturers to make more sustainable choices.
From frame to spoke, every material has a story, and the ecoinvent database can help sustainability experts tell it.
Our life cycle inventory database provides the foundation for important environmental assessments that enable informed, sustainable decision-making. Make a difference today by sharing our database with a sustainability manager or environmental researcher.
For more regular updates on ecoinvent team activity, follow us on LinkedIn. If you’re feeling inspired to join our team, check out our open positions via our careers page.
Amy is our Sales Administrator. She is the first point of contact for all sales-related matters. As of 2025, Amy has been with ecoinvent for five years. We asked her to share some insights on her ecoinvent experience.
I am a Sales Administrator for the Key Account team, which involves creating licenses for our partners, creating renewal invoices for existing customers, and I also help with customer support tickets that relate to licenses or integration with partner software.
I do not come from a sustainability background, but working at ecoinvent and being part of a team that actively considers how we can reduce our carbon footprint has made me realise there is so much more we can do in our everyday lives. We have some wonderful processes and concepts in our office, and it has inspired me to also make more ethical choices outside of the workplace.
One of my favourite things is that I get to work for a company that is doing something good for the world, and knowing that sustainability is the priority and not profit.
I also enjoy that ecoinvent is a fun, inspiring, and flexible workplace. I appreciate the support of employee wellbeing and open communication in the workplace.
For me, it is the personal achievements: entering an industry I knew nothing about, learning new terms and initiatives, knowing my work supports a bigger goal even behind the scenes, and personally adopting new sustainable approaches.
I do not have one specific favourite memory, but a favourite time of year.
Each year, just before Christmas break, everyone is on a wind-down, good moods, people are traveling home to see friends and family, the office is full of treats and decorations—although it can be busy for the sales team due to closing deals before year-end, it’s the highlight of my year!
Funniest memory: probably when I had a new pet spider delivered to the office, and there was a moment of panic when we could not find it in the box! Luckily, she was just camouflaged!
If Amy’s ecoinvent story inspires you, check out our careers page for more information about our current job openings. You can read more milestone stories on our blog.
In 2024, we advanced our mission to support science-based environmental assessments through growth, participation, and evolution. We share our achievements with you in our latest publication.
Last year, our organization grew to over eighty dedicated professionals, each supporting the development of ecoinvent activities through their talents and skills. Many of these individuals attended events around the world, furthering our mission to promote and support the availability of high-quality environmental data worldwide.
In November 2024, we released version 3.11 of the ecoinvent database, the world’s most transparent life cycle inventory database. This update brings a wealth of new and updated data across various sectors, ensuring our stakeholders have access to the most comprehensive and reliable data. Additionally, we improved ecoQuery with an updated design and features to support our users’ needs.
Looking forward, we will continue to invest in our database and innovative solutions to support our stakeholders in making data-driven, impactful decisions.
Thank you for your ongoing support and trust.
Interested in ecoinvent news throughout the year? Subscribe to our quarterly newsletter today.
Three Board members continue to represent our founding institutions:
In addition, we now welcome two distinguished external experts to the Board:
This strategic change enhances the Board’s ability to support ecoinvent’s future direction. While maintaining our strong scientific foundation in life cycle assessment (LCA), we now have also in-depth expertise in business strategy, innovation, and product development at the Board level—ensuring that our management team, led by CEO Nic Meyer, benefits from a well-rounded advisory body when discussing strategic challenges as well as opportunities in all dimensions.
“This new Board composition is a crucial step in ensuring ecoinvent is well-equipped to navigate future challenges and opportunities. With a balanced mix of scientific excellence and business expertise, we are strengthening our ability to drive innovation, expand our impact, and continue delivering high-quality sustainability data to the global community.”
— Nic Meyer, CEO of ecoinvent
We are confident that this refined Board structure will enhance ecoinvent’s ability to navigate future challenges, drive innovation, and create greater value for our users and the broader sustainability community.
“Having setup a management with a much more comprehensive and in-depth business knowledge over the past years, the Board needed to adjust in a similar manner. Then this is the only way, how a governing body such as ecoinvent’s Board of Directors can keep its capabilities and capacities in order to fulfil its mission – i.e. to steer the entire organization on a day-to-day basis.”
— Roland Hischier, President of the Board of ecoinvent
Read more about the ecoinvent Board on our mission and history page.
For quarterly updates about our organization and the ecoinvent database, subscribe to our newsletter.
PRé provides fact-based sustainability to its users through knowledge and software. Like ecoinvent, PRé’s history in the sustainability sector spans decades, so they understand the importance of data transparency for environmental assessments.
In this interview, Eric Mieras, Managing Director of PRé and a professional at the intersection of sustainability, technology, and professional services, explains how PRé’s partnership with ecoinvent has evolved over the last two decades. His insights include discussions on the growing value of LCA, the current necessity for transparent, high-quality data, and the adaptability of ecoinvent’s unit process data.
Eric also shares some details from PRé’s latest offering, SimaPro Synergy—a product that incorporates ecoinvent data as part of its offer to provide scalable LCA calculations, data integration, and transparent environmental metrics.
Read on to discover where PRé meets ecoinvent.
My journey started in 1990 when I studied Environmental Science at university. I have even been a student assistant teaching the course, “Interdisciplinary and Science Theoretical Aspects of Environmental Science.” I was lucky that this was the early days because I don’t think they would have let me teach this course otherwise. Afterwards, I held a wide variety of roles but in the years before joining PRé, those focused on the intersection of Sustainability, Technology and Professional Services, which also sums up what PRé is doing. My drive to change how businesses operate towards a more sustainable model has been a common factor throughout all those years.
As the Managing Director, I’m responsible for the vision and strategy of the company. To me, the company culture is an important part of that as well. In the end, it is our people who put our vision and strategy into action. I see my role as providing the fertile ground on which our people can thrive and have a positive impact.
We see ourselves as an Intelligence company that provides LCA-based insights through knowledge, data, and software. The knowledge is our consulting team that focuses on capacity building for clients as well as methodological development and guidance. The software is, of course, SimaPro, and the data is something we do together with partners, of which ecoinvent is the most important one, so our users can build their models.
LCA provides insights to not only report and set targets but also to improve sustainable performance and innovate products. That enables you to not only report and be compliant but also to create value by designing and producing more sustainable products. The thoroughness of LCA allows companies to truly understand what is driving the environmental impact and make decisions for lasting changes. That is why we believe that the current boom in emission-based factors will serve as a stepping stone for the LCA field in the long run. As companies start with these simpler metrics, many will soon seek deeper and more actionable insights, naturally leading them to LCA. The data transparency that LCA provides is not a nice-to-have; it is a necessity.
One of the first databases we included in SimaPro in 1992 was the Swiss BUWAL (Bundesamt für Umwelt, Wald und Landschaft) eco-inventory. This was a big step ahead at the time, bringing more information together into a single database. Later on, this database became known as ecoinvent, a more professional version. Interestingly, at the time, the BUWAL inventory didn’t even include anything about CO2 or climate change. That wasn’t a priority back then. We had to add all that by hand.
Ever since, ecoinvent has been the primary background database in SimaPro. People use it to build their own LCA models in SimaPro that provide them with the specific and transparent results they need to drive sustainable change.
Let me take one step back first. The demand for LCA has exploded over the last couple of years. That means that we cannot keep working like we have always done. With SimaPro Synergy we aim to innovate the process while experts keep full control over the data and the models in SimaPro. For this, we automate the data collection and the reporting parts of the process by tapping into the existing systems and processes of organizations to put it into the hands of the end users of the sustainability metrics. What remains is that experts can create and maintain their models in full detail. This is where the value of LCA is created, while the time-consuming parts of LCA are automated.
It is these models where ecoinvent comes in. The models are built including background datasets from ecoinvent. A great example is our collaboration with Autodesk in creating the EcoDesigner app, which uses ecoinvent datasets. By integrating Autodesk Fusion with SimaPro Synergy, the app helps product designers to easily incorporate sustainability into the design process, providing instant insights into the environmental impact of each design iteration. That’s how we see the way forward.
Having insights into the footprint of products available in the daily work process enables people to take this into account. In that sense, the phrase “what gets measured, gets managed” is still applicable. That is why we believe this is essential. However, if you want to do that, you need to make these insights scalable by innovating the process. If not, the expert would need to provide this on request and increasingly become the bottleneck for the sustainability metrics. Not only can this situation place considerable stress on the individual, but it may also compromise the broader value that LCA is meant to deliver.
That doesn’t mean the expert doesn’t have a role to play. Actually, the role becomes even more important as the LCA expert will safeguard the quality of the data and models that are being used for these scalable, automated calculations. Both ecoinvent and SimaPro are essential pieces of the puzzle to provide high-quality data, as well as the tools that allow companies to constantly improve the quality of their data and adapt it to their improved products and operations. Ultimately, this leads to an iterative process of continuous improvement.
It is important for us as well. A few weeks back, I spoke to someone who got their footprint from a tool without knowing where it came from, how to use it, or what could be done to improve it. If you want to operationalize your sustainability strategy, you really need to know what levers to pull, and for that, transparency is key. Only if you can drill down in the value chain can you identify your hotspots. Knowing your hotspots gives clear guidance on what you can—or need—to improve. That’s one aspect.
Next to creating value, you also want to be able to review, verify, and check your data. If the data is a black box, you get a result, but you don’t know where it comes from. Only if you can look at the sources, the choices that have been made, and so on, can you trust the data. And that is key.
Lastly, the possibility to adapt a dataset to make it company- or supplier-specific is essential to make the LCA results more accurate and representative for your company. This is something you can do with the unit process data that ecoinvent provides.
The collaboration with the ecoinvent team has always been very close, from Nic as CEO to Emilia (CTO), Lucia (Database Product Manager), and many others across both organizations. Of course, a lot has changed since the time that both of our organizations were still small groups. That growth journey has also brought a lot of positives and professionalized the way of working. At the same time, the personal connection remains most important. I’m really happy that teams from both PRé and ecoinvent will participate in the Climate Classic this year, a Dutch cycling race along what would be the future coastline, as a way to fight climate change.
I think reporting is the main driver now, although it also slowed down a bit given all the recent developments, while innovation and performance will be the key drivers going forward. In the end, reporting is the result of all the actions taken by a company, and products are the levers companies can pull to become more sustainable. That is also why embedding it in the daily work is key. And once you start improving your products and processes, you want to see that reflected in the data and models that you use. LCA and data integration are both key aspects to deliver on this promise. That means that LCI data and LCA models will (have to) become more flexible and dynamic. In my opinion, that will be the big move: from static to dynamic data and models.
At PRé, we believe we can achieve more together. That is why we aim to contribute to a vibrant ecosystem of companies in this space. That mindset was also the driving factor behind the successful partnership with ecoinvent. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to know more. Always happy to have a chat about this when attending conferences, with a cup of coffee, or virtually. Those conversations often lead to great insights to both, and can accelerate the innovation of our beloved field!
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