As the importance of quantifying GHG emissions increases toward achieving carbon neutrality, the importance of inventory databases, which are essential for such quantification, is likewise increasing. While inventory databases have been actively developed in Japan and abroad, this paper provides an overview of inventory databases in Japan, including the I/O table analysis, the LCA Japan Forum （JLCA） database, and IDEA. In addition, future issues centered on IDEA are summarized.

The year 2023 marks both the tenth anniversary of the ecoinvent association and twenty years since the first release of the ecoinvent life cycle inventory （LCI） database. In this article, we reflect on the achievements of ecoinvent and its LCI database to date, introduce its main features and application areas, and invite the LCA community in Japan and more broadly to engage and benefit from the resources and support provided. Through continuous development and updates, the ecoinvent database has evolved into a valuable resource for LCA practitioners worldwide, offering reliable, transparent, and consistent background data to support sustainable decision-making and environmental assessments. Looking forward ecoinvent plans to enhance its data framework, collaborate with global data providers, improve user-friendliness, facilitate data exchange, and support future extensions to advance sustainable decision-making worldwide.

Life Cycle Assessment （LCA） is recognized as a comprehensive scientific approach to quantify the overall environmental sustainability of products and organizations, including countries. The proper application of this environmental management tool requires the adequate use of current, reliable and consistent inventory data. Sphera’s LCA for Experts （LCA FE） software and Managed LCA Content Databases （MLC Databases）, formerly known as the GaBi Software and Databases, is a globally leading life cycle inventory （LCI） database and also the only comprehensive database that started in the early 1990s and continues to be maintained and updated. It has been refined and expanded over the last three decades together with and for LCA work in industry, research and development as well as for policy development. LCA application in industrial and professional practice must fulfill three basic criteria: 1） It must be reliable in order to ensure the credibility of results and decision support 2） it has to fit into existing processes, standards and practices in business to ensure applicability and 3） it must provide quantitative and relevant information.

This article discusses the cm.chemicals database, a tailored life cycle assessment database for Japan’s chemical and plastics industry. The cm.chemicals database provides trustworthy and consistent life cycle inventory data based on a model involving five key steps. The cm.chemicals database contains over 95,000 datasets covering over 1,200 chemicals and plastics in 200 countries. The Japanese dataset stands out, offering insights into its plastic and chemical industry, focusing on prominent plastics like polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, and polyethylene. The cm.chemicals database enables country-specific and technology-specific analysis, empowering decision-makers to strategically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts. Continuous maintenance and updates ensure that the latest data and methodologies are incorporated, adhering to international standards.

While there are high-quality domestic inventory databases in Japan, demand for overseas inventory databases is increasing along with the progress of various LCA-related standardization efforts, especially in Europe and the United States. The main classification axes for understanding the differences and characteristics of overseas inventory databases are “target industry and granularity,” “boundary,” “types of datasets provided,” “processes linkage,” “format and software support,” “impact area and impact assessment method support,” “compliance with standards,” “frequency of updates,” and “included dataset quality.”

Generally, multiple LCA software has integrated multiple inventory databases and impact assessment methods to perform calculations for various combinations, and it is common to use this software to access overseas inventory databases. Each inventory database has been developed over a long time, using different raw data and responding to different backgrounds and objectives, making it difficult to establish consistency and interoperability between the databases. Although there are activities aimed at improving interoperability among inventory databases in international cooperation, such as GLAD, establishing full interoperability is assumed to take longer.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the disclosed carbon footprint of imaging input and/or output equipment, such as printers and MFPs, and to identify challenges in order to establish comparable conditions for carbon footprints between products. Carbon footprint does not assume comparability with other products. However, there is a need to develop rules for calculating carbon footprints that are comparable for consumers in order to move toward a decarbonized society. This paper analyzes data on 431 imaging input and/or output equipment disclosed in the SuMPO environmental label program and identifies the current status of the carbon footprint of imaging input and/or output equipment and the challenges that need to be addressed in order to establish comparable conditions. Based on the results of the analysis, several recommendations were presented for establishing comparable conditions for the carbon footprint of imaging input and/or output equipment. Specifically, the carbon footprint per number of printed pages should be shown by dividing the carbon footprint of the use and maintenance stage by the number of printed pages during the life cycle, the use and maintenance stage and other life cycle stages should be shown separately, and information on environmental impact reduction activities should be actively disclosed in addition to quantitative environmental information.