In the previous article "Decoding CLIMATE VERITAS (Part 2) | Why Did We Develop Our Own LCA Software?", we detailed the background and original intention behind the birth of "CLIMATE VERITAS". In this issue, we will focus on the "twists and turns" during its independent R&D process.
How did we develop "CLIMATE VERITAS"? What difficulties did we encounter, and how did we solve them? What functions can CLIMATE VERITAS realize? Let’s read on.
Have You Ever Seen a Progress Bar That Takes Half an Hour to Load? —— Deciphering Complex "Reticular" Traceability Logic
In "Decoding CLIMATE VERITAS (Part 1) | Why LCA Software Is Essential for Product Carbon Footprint Calculation?", we explained that LCA is a process of tracing product flows layer by layer to elementary flows. In reality, however, this traceability process is not a "pyramid-like" layered extension, but rather "reticular" and interconnected — especially for upstream raw materials, the more frequent mutual references between a large number of unit processes, the more complex the "reticular" structure becomes.
For example, when calculating the carbon footprint of photovoltaic (PV) modules, it already includes the carbon footprint of the electricity used in their manufacturing process. But after the PV modules are put into operation to generate electricity, the carbon footprint per kilowatt-hour (kWh) on the power grid decreases, which in turn reduces the actual carbon footprint of the electricity consumed during the production of the PV modules.
Faced with such complex interconnected and interdependent relationships, how should the carbon footprint of PV panels be calculated? And how to account for the carbon footprint per kWh of electricity?
When such complex circular reference relationships occur, the calculation steps and time become extremely lengthy — this was the first core challenge we encountered when developing "CLIMATE VERITAS" with true LCA capabilities.
Calculation Completed in "5 Seconds" —— Overcoming Multi-User Concurrency and Efficiency Bottlenecks
Most professional-grade LCA software we referenced are single-user professional tools, which do not need to consider multi-user concurrency and user experience issues of SaaS software. Therefore, the initial version of "CLIMATE VERITAS" might take more than ten minutes to calculate the carbon footprint of a single product. If multiple users used it simultaneously, the system would directly freeze — this would obviously result in a very poor user experience.
To efficiently handle the mutual reference calculations between datasets, "CLIMATE VERITAS" solves problems through matrix operations to solve large sparse linear equations, ensuring calculation efficiency and system response speed. Today, the carbon footprint calculation of a typical product can be stably completed within 5 seconds in "CLIMATE VERITAS".
Its LCA model involves approximately 100 unit processes, and a single unit process referencing commercial databases contains more than 2,000 elementary flows, with a total of over 200,000 data points to calculate — even calculations of this scale can be completed within 5 seconds in "CLIMATE VERITAS".
After successfully reducing the "half-hour progress bar" to "within 5 seconds", we immediately realized that "credibility" is another key issue to truly serve customers conveniently.
Is the Calculation Result of CLIMATE VERITAS Internationally Credible? —— Anchoring International Standards for Data Interoperability
An LCA software with only calculation capabilities cannot solve the substantive needs of enterprises. "CLIMATE VERITAS" also requires a standard format to avoid data confusion: by parsing general background databases and establishing effective reference relationships between the actual scenario data built by the self-developed software and the background databases, correct data modeling can be achieved, and the calculation results can also gain international recognition.
Adopting Internationally Mainstream Data Formats
Currently, the international general standard for LCA databases is ISO14048. Theoretically, we could design a set of database formats based on this standard, but there are two major problems: first, ISO14048 is only a general principle, and the cost of refining the data format is extremely high; second, establishing mapping relationships with internationally mainstream formats is time-consuming and labor-intensive.
A more convenient solution is to directly adopt existing internationally mainstream data formats — currently, the commonly used ones are ILCD (released by the EU) and ecospold (released by the Ecoinvent database). From the perspective of international versatility, ILCD is the format supported by the EU LCDN (Life Cycle Data Network) node (relying on the mutual reference characteristics of carbon footprints, if all databases are connected to the node, data interoperability can be realized). Moreover, professional LCA software such as Simapro and Gabi can also export ILCD format. Therefore, "CLIMATE VERITAS" ultimately chose ILCD as its data standard format.
Efficiently Realizing Carbon Footprint Model and Data Interoperability
"CLIMATE VERITAS" uses the UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) specified by ILCD — equivalent to the "ID card" of data flows — to ensure accurate identification and matching during data conversion, effectively avoiding data confusion. This allows the software to directly and accurately reference any unit process in ILCD format databases (such as Ecoinvent) for carbon footprint modeling, and also export ILCD format datasets.
This not only enables efficient migration of carbon footprint models and calculation data between different "CLIMATE VERITAS" accounts but also connects data interoperability with other LCA software. This international standard-based data exchange capability not only provides users with a convenient experience but also helps users gradually migrate models and data accumulated in professional-grade LCA software to "CLIMATE VERITAS".
Conclusion
Currently, "CLIMATE VERITAS" has successfully helped thousands of enterprises complete accurate carbon footprint accounting and has been highly recognized by major international certification bodies. Although some certification bodies still conduct secondary verification in professional-grade LCA software out of habit, we firmly believe that with further development, the reliability of "CLIMATE VERITAS" will win the trust of more institutions and enterprises.
The road ahead is long, and we bear heavy responsibilities, but our confidence remains unshakable. We will continue to summarize practical experience, uphold the concept of technological innovation, and continuously iterate and upgrade "CLIMATE VERITAS", striving to provide more enterprises with more efficient and convenient one-stop digital carbon management services!