About AusLCI

The Australian Life Cycle Inventory Database (AusLCI) is a major initiative of the Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society (ALCAS), which brings together stakeholders from industry, government and academia to develop a standardised set of environmental data for Australian products based on ISO14040 methodologies.

AusLCI is a national, publicly accessible database of comprehensive and transparent environmental information on a wide range of Australian products and services over their entire life cycle. It is an invaluable resource for those involved in environmental assessment, in particular life cycle assessment (LCA), as it is developed following up-to-date methodologies, protocols and guidelines for life cycle inventory (LCI) development.

It provides a consistent source of information from which users can generate environmental metrics to underpin environmental credentials of products and services, environmental impacts reduction initiatives, environmental policy and tool / calculators.

AusLCI will assist with:

• Generating metric for comparing the environmental impact of products and services.
• Providing a level playing field for LCA-based product comparison.
• Fostering innovation in design and manufacturing.
• Promoting education and consensus-building processes.
• Providing whole of life LCA processes that can integrate with existing environmental tools and applications.

It enables industry to:

• Benchmark process and product performance against industry standards.
• Make informed decisions in driving process efficiencies, new purchases, furthering environmental goals and quantifying impacts.
• Proactively assess, mitigate and quantity the effort required to offset CO2 emissions.
• Demonstrate product credentials and increase sales.
• Provide enhanced disclosure to consumers and the ability to respond to public criticism of products.
• Obtain market advantage in the anticipated low impacts and carbon sequestering benefits for individual products over competitors.

It enables governments to:

• Guide policy direction and promote sustainable practices within the Australian economy.
• Provide a strong platform for funding, education, policy-making and legislation.
• Assist in decision-making, such as analysis of investment or purchasing decisions.
• Provide enhanced educational resources.