science by simulation

  FoodCarbonScope™ is a popular web-based environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA) software tool for the modeling and analysis of life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy use and water use in the agriculture sector and in food/beverage products. It has been used extensively in teaching and research and is an ideal tool for introducing students to the theory and practice of LCA.

FoodCarbonScope was originally developed by CleanMetrics (the predecessor to Science By Simulation) and is available free for academic and research use -- it does require registration, so please send your request from a valid academic email address to info@sciencebysimulation.com

Features:

• Provides an interactive, easy-to-use platform for analyzing complex product supply chains. .

• Comprehensive analysis, covering all life cycle stages from cradle to grave (agriculture, processing/packaging, distribution, retail, cooking, waste disposal, etc.) and accounting for all GHG emissions and resource use.

• Comes with the largest commercially available life cycle inventory (LCI) database for North American food production and processing, as well as additional data for Europe and other parts of the world.

• Includes a simulation engine under the hood to compute GHG emissions and sequestrations over time and the resulting global warming potentials.

• Delivers standards-compliant product life cycle assessment (LCA) results. Highly customizable to match the level of detail needed for the problem at hand.

• Targets the three environmental metrics that are most critical for businesses and consumers: GHG emissions, energy use and water use.

Accessing and using the tool:

• The tool can be accessed at foodcarbonscope.com

• An online user guide is available at foodcarbonscope.com/UserGuide.aspx

• A technical brief and recorded demos are available at www.cleanmetrics.com/html/foodcarbonscope.htm

Representative research projects that used FoodCarbonScope:

• Bryan, T.W., and and Middlecamp, C.H. 2017. Learning through Eating: Bringing Campus Dining Operations into an Environmental Science Course, Sustainability, Vol. 10, No. 1.
• Hunter, D.W. 2015. Environmental and Economic Impacts of UIUC Food Purchasing, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• Hagos, K.W. 2012. Survey of Resource Use Efficiency and Estimation of Carbon and Water Footprints in Fish Farming Systems, University of Rhode Island.
• Venkat, K. 2012. Comparison of Twelve Organic and Conventional Farming Systems: A Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions Perspective, Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, Vol. 36, Iss. 6.
• Venkat, K. 2011. The Climate Change and Economic Impacts of Food Waste in the United States, International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol. 2, No. 4.
• Hamershlag, K. and Venkat, K. 2011. Meat Eater's Guide to Climate Change and Health - Life-cycle Assessments: Methodology and Results, Environmental Working Group.