Based on the hundreds of studies conducted using eToolLCD in the past 9 years of developing and using our template library, we believe that it contains enough templates to meet the cut-off criteria (as described below) for the majority of the most common projects for LCA purposes. Therefore we do not have a specific plan to intentionally expand the template library significantly as we feel that it is more important to spend our time finding ways to reduce a large amount of carbon than creating new templates by user demand. In saying that, our template library is constantly expanding in an organic way since our own team often create new templates as they conduct our in-house assessments.
Nonetheless, eToolLCD enables users to create LCAs that are as accurate and detailed as the user wishes by creating their own custom templates. We encourage the following minimum accuracy principles when creating templates and designs:
- Ensure cut off criteria is met (Any flow of >1% mass, >1% energy or with environmental significance and sum of neglected flows not more than 5%)
- Ensure the consequence of data quality decisions is considered carefully. Would a particular lack of data quality be likely to change subsequent design decisions based on the LCA model?
If there is no requirement for your study to be highly precise/accurate, we advise our users not to get too bogged down with refining the details. We believe that it is far more important to spend that time figuring out improvement strategies than refining a highly detailed design so that they may be able to make informed decisions/recommendations to influence design changes to best improve the impacts of their project in a timely manner.
For users who have created custom templates and wish to get them validated and made public for use, please refer to this support post: Validated Templates
