The goal was to create a comprehensive, consistent, and transparent Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) database for environmental assessments. The organization evolved from a project within the ETH domain to become the ecoinvent Association, a globally trusted entity managing data for environmental assessments over the past 20 years.
In the early 1990s, various Swiss organizations collaborated to create public LCI datasets, leading to the BUWAL250 data pool focused on Swiss supply chains. Simultaneously, the demand for reliable LCA data increased, prompting the formation of the ecoinvent project in the late 1990s. The project aimed to establish a forward-looking LCI database with a user-friendly interface, focusing on data harmonization within the ETH domain and supporting Swiss LCA work while also considering European and global contexts.
The first version of the ecoinvent database was released in 2003. Subsequent updates and a major revision led to the release of version 2 in 2007, marking ecoinvent as the most widely used LCI database globally. Version 3, released in 2013, aimed to enhance the technological foundation and methodological base for global use, supporting regionalized data and ensuring consistency between different regions. In 2013, ecoinvent became an independent, not-for-profit association, continuing its mission to provide high-quality data for environmental assessments globally and fostering the development of a transparent and trustworthy database for the LCA community.