In the previous article "Decoding CLIMATE VERITAS (Part 1) | Why LCA Software Is Essential for Product Carbon Footprint Calculation?", we detailed that LCA software is necessary for product carbon footprint calculation due to its accuracy and efficiency. Through LCA software, we can comprehensively and accurately assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of products throughout their life cycles, providing strong support for enterprises' carbon reduction management and highlighting the low-carbon value of their products.
Starting from this issue, we will gradually lift the veil of "CLIMATE VERITAS"—the exclusive LCA software independently developed by SKYCO2—beginning with the story of its birth. Since its launch, "CLIMATE VERITAS" has provided SaaS services to thousands of enterprises, and we have also derived various customized products for specific fields based on it. As the core product of enterprises' digital carbon management, how exactly was "CLIMATE VERITAS" born? Please follow our steps and read on!
1. Can Ordinary Enterprises Use Professional-Grade LCA Software?
In fact, there are quite a few LCA software options available on the market. Paid ones include Simapro (Netherlands), Gabi (Germany, currently acquired by Sphera of the United States), etc., while free ones include openLCA (Germany).
After using such professional-grade LCA software, most people's first impression is that the interaction of professional-grade LCA software is relatively complex and has a high threshold for use, which is not quite in line with the operating habits of general users. If building an LCA platform based solely on this point, it would be feasible to leverage the underlying capabilities of such LCA software and add user-friendly application functions on top of it, without the need for large-scale full-stack independent R&D from scratch. A few years ago, when SKYCO2 was building the CLIMATE VERITAS platform, we also carefully evaluated the feasibility of the shortcut "activity data * emission factor"—that is, entrusting the parsing of carbon footprint databases and the acquisition of emission factors to professional-grade LCA software, while "CLIMATE VERITAS" only handles user-friendly data collection, data analysis, and automated report generation.
However, ideality is full, but reality is harsh. This seemingly perfect "shortcut" hides undeniable risks and even costs, which leads to the second question below.
2. What Are the Problems with Relying on Such LCA Software?
Significantly increased delivery workload: This "shortcut" means that all modeling processes are highly dependent on other professional-grade LCA software. Delivery personnel need to pre-build all carbon footprint models in professional-grade LCA software and then fully synchronize them to their own platform before delivering to customers. Although this seems to save software R&D workload, the customer-facing delivery workload becomes enormous.
Difficult database compatibility: When more and more customers propose to establish their own carbon footprint actual scenario databases, directly managing the actual scenario data through such professional-grade LCA software becomes extremely complex; but if the data is stored directly on their own platform, it cannot be directly referenced in calculations.
Inability to meet advanced needs: Furthermore, when the entities needing to establish actual scenario databases are industry associations or government departments, and they need to turn these actual scenario databases into background databases that can benchmark Ecoinvent and achieve ILCD international mutual recognition, the database compatibility issue becomes even more intractable.
Conclusion
After experiencing the above problems, SKYCO2 finally made a resolute decision—to take the path of independent R&D of full-stack LCA software. The reasons are that similar software is not user-friendly for ordinary enterprises, lacks effective support for ordinary enterprise software development, and more importantly, the lack of independent LCA capabilities will make it difficult for customers to build their own LCA databases.
Faced with these challenges, we had to abandon the fantasy of relying on professional-grade LCA software and decided to start from scratch to independently build our own LCA software. This is the original intention and background of the birth of "CLIMATE VERITAS". So, what difficulties and obstacles did we encounter during the development of "CLIMATE VERITAS"? Stay tuned for the next issue to find out!