ECOSYSTEM
LCA Collaboration Server
Seamless data exchange for LCA
Collaboration for LCA and sustainability dataset and model creation and management.
More and more LCA and sustainability projects are performed in collaboration, be it:
- within a company in one team, on one location
- within one company, across different departments, and potentially in various locations
- in research projects, with several collaborating entities, companies and universities and consultancies, with potential worldwide distribution
- as consultancy, in collaboration with clients who co-develop a case study.
While these layouts call for a smooth, fluent data exchange, they are also challenging. Data may change in different locations simultaneously, and various, distributed life cycle models need to be synchronised – or rather, the synchronization needs to be managed, since sometimes it is good not to synchronise, but instead continue working with a local version. Since each dataset and life cycle model is carefully developed, it is essential to understand differences and changes before accepting a modified version to override an own model.
Now in version 2.2, the LCA Collaboration Server is developed to provide a solution for exactly this. It consists of a server application and additions in openLCA as LCA modeling software; both together allow a distributed, parallel collaboration for LCA and sustainability data set and model creation and management.
Working with the Collaboration Server
Distributed workgroups and publication pipelines.
Distributed Workgroup
With one central collaboration server, two or more users can use the server to synchronise their local databases; user 1 commits, user 2 fetches (downloads) the changes, compares and merges with own data, commits (submits) merged data again to the server, where user 1 can obtain the changed data.
Publication Pipeline
In a publication pipeline, several distributed users commit data to a collaboration server, their uploads are checked and moderated, possibly against a master database, accepted submissions are merged with the master database which is then published on a public collaboration server.
Download and Hosting
The LCA Collaboration Server is available for free via the download button in the top-right corner of this website. GreenDelta offers additional hosting solutions for those without the IT infrastructure to host their own LCA Collaboration Server.
A full overview of hosting options for openLCA and the Collaboration server are available here.
Development
For requesting new features or reporting bugs please refer to our LCA Collaboration Server GitHub log.
Manual
For further information you can check out the LCA Collaboration Server Manual.
