Is the EF 3.1 dataset free to download?

Question

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a sustainability project for an Italian winery and I’d like to use the Environmental Footprint (EF) 3.1 database to calculate our emissions. I’ve seen that the EF database is mentioned as being freely available on the EU’s JRC website, but when I go to openLCA Nexus, it seems to require a paid license.

Could someone clarify whether EF 3.1 is actually free to download and use in openLCA and if so, where to find the version that doesn’t require a paid license?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Yes, the database is free but it was quite an effort for us to make it usable (which is an embarassment for the EC and the entire ILCD network I think), and thus we invented the database analyse launcher that you need to buy, to compensate our effort. If you have it, you can have free access to the EF database from Nexus. Otherwise you can of course register in all the different EF nodes, download datasets once you get access, harmonise and correct, and start using it.

Thank you for your understanding, best wishes,

Andreas

Comments

Thanks for the quick reply Andreas! Totally fair to be compensated for that effort. I am on relatively tight budget as I am starting my own company in this area and I am completely bootstrapped. At this moment I don't intend to commercialize the the outputs of EF 3.1, but that will change in a few months. Is it possible to buy the educational license for now and switch to the commercial one when I start commercializing my software?