ReCiPe2016 (Huijbregts 2017) is a life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method. LCIA methods are collections of characterization factors, which are measures of relative potency or potential impact, for a given flow (e.g., NH3 to air) for a set of impact categories (e.g., acidification), provided in units of potency or impact equivalents per unit mass of the flowable associated with a given context (e.g., 1.88 kg SO2 eq/kg NH3 emitted to air). LCIA methods are typically used along with life cycle inventory data to estimate potential impacts in life cycle assessment (LCA). ReCiPe2016 produces 18 midpoint indicators and 3 endpoint indicators, and both midpoint and endpoint are provided using Individualist (I), Hierarchist (H), and Egalitarian (E) cultural perspectives.

The FEDEFL or Federal LCA Commons Elementary Flow List (EPA 2019) is the standardized elementary flow list for use with data meeting the US Federal LCA Commons data guidelines.

In this dataset, ReCiPe2016 is applied to FEDEFL v1.0.7 flows. This dataset was created by the LCIA Formatter v1.0 (https://github.com/USEPA/LCIAformatter). The LCIA Formatter is a tool for providing standardized life cycle impact assessment methods with characterization factors transparently applied to flows from an authoritative flow list, like the FEDEFL. The LCIA Formatter draws from the original ReCiPe2016 source file and the ReCiPe2016 to FEDEFL flow mapping. The LCIA formatter accesses this mapping file through the fedelemflowlist tool available at https://github.com/USEPA/Federal-LCA-Commons-Elementary-Flow-List. This mapping file and a note about the mapping are provided separately. Where a flow context is less specific in the FEDEFL (e.g., air) relative to the ReCiPe2016 flow contexts (e.g., air/rural), the LCIA Formatter applies the average of the relevant characterization factors from ReCiPe2016 to the FEDEFL flow.

The zip files are compressed archives of JSON files following the openLCA schema at https://greendelta.github.io/olca-schema. A separate .zip file is provided for each combination of indicator type (midpoint or endpoint) and perspective. Usage Notes for zip file: These file were tested to correctly import into an openLCA v1.10 database already containing flows from the FEDEFL v1.0.7. They will provide matching characterization factors for any FEDEFL v1.0 to 1.0.7 elementary flow already present in the database. These files do not contain the elementary flows. The complete FEDEFL v1.0.7 flow list may be retrieved from the Federal LCA Commons elementary flow list repository at https://www.lcacommons.gov.

The .parquet file is in the LCIA Formatter's LCIAmethod format (https://github.com/USEPA/LCIAformatter/blob/v1.0.0/format%20specs/LCIAmethod.md).

This dataset is associated with the following publication: Young, B., M. Srocka, W. Ingwersen, B. Morelli, S. Cashman, and A. Henderson. LCIA Formatter. Journal of Open Source Software. Journal of Open Source Software, 6(66): 3392, (2021).