Data Format (ILCD)

The ECO Portal uses the ILCD (International Life Cycle Data system) data format, specifically the ILCD+EPD extension, to represent Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) in a machine-readable way.

ILCD Standard

The ILCD standard was developed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). It provides a common data format for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data, ensuring interoperability between different software tools and databases.

ILCD+EPD Extension

ILCD+EPD is an extension of the base ILCD format tailored specifically for EPDs. It adds fields required by the EN 15804 standard, such as impact indicators (e.g., Global Warming Potential), life cycle stages (A1-A3, C1-C4, D), and specific EPD metadata.

Official Documentation

For deep technical details on the ILCD and ILCD+EPD standards, refer to the following resources:

• InData Working Group Resources: The primary source for ILCD+EPD specifications, schemas, and examples.
• ECO Platform Digital Data Requirements (DDR): Specific requirements and implementation details for the ECO Platform.
• JRC ILCD Documentation: General information about the base ILCD format.

Implementation in ECO Portal

While the ECO Portal aims for broad compatibility with ILCD+EPD, certain fields are particularly important for search, filtering, and validation within our platform.

Key Metadata Fields

The following fields are extracted from the ILCD datasets to power the portal’s search engine:

• UUID: A globally unique identifier for the dataset.
• Version: The version of the dataset (e.g., 01.00.000).
• Name: The product name, usually provided in multiple languages.
• Classification: The product category (e.g., “Construction products”).
• Reference Year: The year the data represents.
• Valid Until: The expiration date of the EPD.
• Location: The geographical scope (e.g., “DE”, “EU”).

How the ECO Portal Validates Your Data

Every EPD that enters the ECO Portal — whether submitted via webhook or collected by polling PO Nodes — is validated against two rule sets before it is indexed:

1. ILCD+EPD v1.2 — the base structural format.
2. ECO Platform Digital Data Requirements (DDR) v1.1 — the ECO Platform’s additional encoding rules.

You can validate your documents before submitting them using the validation endpoint: send a JSON array of ILCD+EPD documents to POST /api/validate and receive a validation report for each document. See the API Reference for the full request/response schema.

Examples