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Expanding and Updating the Economic Input-Output
Life Cycle Assessment Website
Chris Hendrickson,^*   Carnegie Mellon University
Deanna Matthews,   Carnegie Mellon University
Scott Matthews,   Carnegie Mellon University
Christopher Weber,   Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon’s Green Design Institute has maintained a website(www.eiolca.net) with a US economic input-output life cycle assessment model since 2000 (1). This model can estimate the supply chain environmental impacts for purchases of goods and services in the US economy. The model has found extensive use for scoping and hybrid life cycle assessment, with over a million uses since 2000.

During 2008, we have expanded the model to include additional countries, notably with a 105 sector model of Canada, and we will be updating the default US model to the 2002 benchmark input-output tables from the existing 1997 benchmark model. In this presentation, we discuss the implications of these model changes for life cycle assessment applications. For example, the 2002 model divides the US economy into fewer sectors than did the 1997 benchmark model. Some data is newly available in a reliable form, such as hazardous wastes. Models of other countries provide the opportunity for international comparisons and analysis of import impacts.

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(1) Hendrickson, C. T., Lave, Lester B., and Matthews, H. Scott (2005). Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Goods and Services: An Input-Output Approach, RFF Press.
^* corresponding author: cth@cmu.edu