What’s Ahead for ecoinvent: New Data and New Features Coming Soon in v3.13

ecoinvent v3.13, planned for release in 2026, expands both the coverage and the timeliness of our datasets. It also marks a first for the database, with pharmaceuticals added as a new sector.

The OECD estimates that pharmaceuticals and medical goods account for about one-quarter of healthcare-related greenhouse gas emissions. This means decarbonizing pharma is fundamental for a sustainable healthcare industry. Yet, the pharma data gap is especially pronounced, with generic chemical data too far removed from the sector’s operating reality. 

In collaboration with the Pharma LCA Consortium, ecoinvent v3.13 will introduce regionalized, PAS 2090 Product Category Rule (PCR) compliant pharmaceutical datasets to begin to fill this gap—making results more accurate, verifiable, and comparable. These datasets cover core building blocks, operational and process elements, circular solvent management, life cycle and waste management, and regionalized pharmaceutical supply chains. 

It’s a first step toward closing a data gap the industry has long flagged.

Data is only as valuable as your ability to work with it. That’s why we’re also investing in usability, and one request stood out clearly in user feedback: the ability to compare datasets without switching browser tabs. 

Today, comparing two datasets in ecoinvent means opening each separately and switching back and forth to spot the differences. We’re building a dataset comparison feature directly into ecoQuery to fix that. From the dataset search page, users will be able to select datasets for comparison, choose which version of each to compare, and move straight to a dedicated comparison view. That view will show impact assessment results and flows side by side, with filters for LCI method, indicator, and other parameters, so the comparison adjusts to what you’re looking for.

Beyond v3.13, we’re evaluating additional functionality improvements informed by the same kind of user and community feedback that shaped the comparison feature. We’ll share more as those plans firm up.

None of this is new territory for us. Expanding coverage, refining methodology, and investing in the tools built on top of the database is what we’ve done since ecoinvent began, and it’s what continues to underpin the trust our users place in the data.

We’ll share more details on v3.13 and the new ecoQuery features as release dates firm up.