Design requirements for the development of an LCA Engine

The work focuses on the development of a web-based tool to promote life cycle thinking and assessment of agricultural production. The computational tool is based on a sophisticated LCA Engine which provides personalized, real-time results, with the exploitation of real data from sensors. This comes in contrary to the standard practice of software using data sourcing solely from life cycle inventory databases available in the market (e.g. Ecoinvent, Agribalyse). The tool is designed to simulate all levels of the supply chain (production, processing, packaging, transportation, etc.) and perform an accurate calculation of the production’s carbon footprint, as well as other environmental impacts that are required for environmental certification processes. In the present study, we present the design requirements of the web-based tool, as those resulted from a large-scale survey conducted in different types of potential end-users, such as farmers, farmers’ associations, agri-food companies and agri-consultants. The work is funded within the framework of the Operational Programme “Central Macedonia” of the PA 2014-2020, Innovative Investment Plans, and co-financed by the Greek State and the European Union and, in particular, by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (project code: ΚΜΡ6-0078501).