Why we do this

The idea for the openLCA project and software is quite simple.

It is basically three-fold:

1. Design and build a fast, reliable, high-performance, modular framework for sustainability assessment & life cycle modelling, that allows visually attractive and flexible modelling, for sophisticated and simple models, in a standard programming language, using only widely available Open Source software.  
2. Create a contributing programming community.
3. Build modules for the framework, and enable users to build their own modules.

A freely available software for Life Cycle Analysis will open many different, new application fields, in education, training, peer-review (have you ever wondered, as peer-reviewer,  why it is necessary to browse, for a review, through 150 pages of printed reports, and type yourself, manually, figures form bar-charts and tables into spreradsheet software because the LCA software is not available?).

Second, publishing the sourcecode will allow in-depth comparison of calculation procedures; it will demand high quality coding from us (we cannot hide!), and, not the least, it will enable any user to implement any additional module as required, or modify the sourcecode where needed. This means a lot more freedom for users than ever before.