ecoinvent
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2001
- HeadquartersZürich, Switzerland
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
ecoinvent firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- ecoinvent
- Legal name
- ecoinvent Association
- Website
- https://ecoinvent.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2001
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
ecoinvent industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Life Cycle Inventory Database
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821)
- SIC
- Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Emissions Factors, LCA & Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) Platforms (EUABAEAD)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Climate & Emissions Data Management (Data Lake, Integration, APIs) (EUABAEAC), Supply Chain (Scope 3) Emissions & Supplier Engagement Platforms (EUABAEAE), Product Sustainability & LCA/EPD (Eco-design, PCF) (EUAHAJAF)
Keywords
Where ecoinvent is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Zürich
- HQ country
- Switzerland
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
ecoinvent business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Database Licenses: Access to the ecoinvent database requires a license. The company offers multiple license tiers including Single-User, Developer, Educational, and Enterprise licenses to suit varying customer needs from individuals to commercial enterprises.
- API Access: New ecoinvent API provides programmatic access to the life cycle inventory database, enabling integration into applications and workflows.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Single-User License for individual practitioners |
| Subscription | Annual | Developer License for software developers |
| Subscription | Annual | Educational License for academic institutions |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise License for commercial organizations |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels6 records
ecoinvent product offering
Product offeringCore offering
ecoinvent provides the world's leading Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) database containing over 26,000 peer-reviewed datasets across fuels, electricity, chemicals and plastics, waste, metals, textiles, forestry and wood, agriculture, transport, pulp and paper, and batteries. The database is delivered through the ecoQuery web platform, the ecoinvent API for programmatic access, and supporting tools such as a Knowledge Base and Data Glossary, enabling life cycle assessments, carbon footprint determination, environmental product declarations, and supply chain sustainability decisions.
Product overview
ecoinvent offers a unified product portfolio centered on its flagship life cycle inventory database, which contains over 26,000 peer-reviewed environmental datasets. The core offerings include the ecoinvent Database accessed through the ecoQuery web platform or programmatic API, supported by user resources like the Knowledge Base and Data Glossary. Additional tools include the License Calculator for license selection and the ecoinvent Accounts platform for user management. The ecoinvent UI design system provides consistent visual standards across all products.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- ecoinvent Database The world's most transparent life cycle inventory database with over 26,000 peer-reviewed datasets supporting environmental reporting and sustainable decision-making for companies, researchers, and policymakers.
- ecoQuery Platform Web-based data-access platform for searching and accessing the ecoinvent database, featuring semantic search, sector browsing, search by product name, activity name, or CAS number, and impact scores display.
- ecoinvent API Application programming interface enabling developers to integrate life cycle inventory data into external applications programmatically without manually downloading files or managing local data.
- ecoinvent Data Glossary Reference resource for all metadata used within ecoinvent inventory datasets, including classifications, compartments, geography, activity names, macro economic scenarios, parameters, and system models, available as both web browser and programmatic access.
- ecoinvent Accounts User account management platform for accessing ecoinvent services, database access, and license management.
Quantifiable outcome
- 26,000+ peer-reviewed datasets for comprehensive environmental reporting and sustainable decision-making
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use ecoinvent
Customer profileNamed customers1 record
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
ecoinvent technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability2 records
Feature5 records
ecoinvent partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- NatcapcoreStrategic partnership to strengthen nature impact assessments. ecoinvent provides high-quality Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data to strengthen Natcap's nature intelligence platform. The integration enhances Natcap's ability to model impact intensity and magnitude scores across commodities and supply chains with greater precision. The partnership addresses the IPBES Business and Biodiversity Assessment finding that access to reliable data remains one of the biggest barriers stopping businesses from acting to protect nature.
- ORIENTING ConsortiumcoreORIENTING is a research project consisting of seventeen companies and organizations from around Europe, including ecoinvent. The consortium's main purpose is to integrate a life cycle approach that includes analyzing environmental, social, and economic impacts. The 3.5-year project developed an operational methodology for product Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA). ecoinvent led the task of creating an ontology (ORIONT) to facilitate interoperability between information resources, databases, and simulation software.
- openLCAcoreopenLCA is an LCA software tool and ecoinvent partner. openLCA hosts annual conferences (openLCA.conf) where ecoinvent participates. Chief Revenue Officer Ondrej Szabo attends openLCA events to connect with the LCA community.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
ecoinvent competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- openLCA: Open-source Life Cycle Assessment software that integrates directly with the ecoinvent database. It is both a close technology partner (co-hosting openLCA.conf) and a substitute, since practitioners can use openLCA with free/cheaper datasets to bypass ecoinvent licenses.
- Sphera (formerly thinkstep / GaBi): Commercial provider of LCA software and proprietary databases (including GaBi databases) that compete head-to-head with ecoinvent for enterprise LCA work, EPD generation, and product sustainability assessments across the same industrial sectors.
- SimaPro (PRé Sustainability): Long-established LCA software platform with its own ecoinvent-compatible database offering, serving the same LCA practitioner, academic, and corporate sustainability buyer segments globally.
Emerging players
- EXIOBASE: Multi-regional environmentally extended supply-use table (EE-SUT) database providing input-output LCA data at lower granularity but free of charge — a partial substitute for ecoinvent's process-based datasets, particularly for macro-scale Scope 3 assessments.
- CarbonChain: Supply chain emissions platform focused on commodity-level Scope 3 carbon accounting, overlapping with ecoinvent's supply chain management use case for industrial buyers in metals, energy, and agriculture.
- ICE Database (Circular Ecology): Free Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE) database providing emission factors for materials — a low-cost alternative used by practitioners for quick carbon footprint estimates, especially in construction and materials sectors that overlap ecoinvent coverage.
Broad incumbents
- Watershed: Enterprise carbon accounting platform that ingests ecoinvent datasets for product-level footprints but competes as a full-stack sustainability suite (measurement, reporting, reduction) that may displace direct ecoinvent enterprise licenses at large customers.
- Persefoni: Climate management and accounting platform serving enterprise sustainability teams, using third-party emission factor libraries (including LCI datasets) to deliver Scope 1–3 reporting — an indirect competitor for the corporate carbon footprinting use case.
Others
- Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP): Global disclosure framework that drives enterprise demand for credible LCA data (including ecoinvent's) and shapes the regulatory direction CDP-aligned companies follow — not a direct competitor but a key ecosystem driver and adjacent platform.
- Quantis: Sustainability consulting firm that both uses ecoinvent's database in client LCA projects and competes with it indirectly by providing bespoke environmental footprinting services — an adjacent ecosystem participant rather than a direct data competitor.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
ecoinvent social profiles
Digital presenceecoinvent compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
ecoinvent financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
ecoinvent leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles12 records
ecoinvent funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
ecoinvent M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about ecoinvent
What does ecoinvent do?
ecoinvent provides the world's leading Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) database containing over 26,000 peer-reviewed datasets across fuels, electricity, chemicals and plastics, waste, metals, textiles, forestry and wood, agriculture, transport, pulp and paper, and batteries. The database is delivered through the ecoQuery web platform, the ecoinvent API for programmatic access, and supporting tools such as a Knowledge Base and Data Glossary, enabling life cycle assessments, carbon footprint determination, environmental product declarations, and supply chain sustainability decisions.
Is ecoinvent a public or private company?
ecoinvent is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was ecoinvent founded?
ecoinvent was founded in 2001. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is ecoinvent based?
ecoinvent is headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland, in the Europe region.
How does ecoinvent make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Database Licenses are the primary driver. The others are API Access.
Who are ecoinvent's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are openLCA, Sphera (formerly thinkstep / GaBi) and SimaPro (PRé Sustainability). Emerging players are EXIOBASE, CarbonChain and ICE Database (Circular Ecology). Broad incumbents are Watershed and Persefoni. Others are Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and Quantis.
Does ecoinvent have an API?
Yes. The ecoinvent API enables users to integrate the world's leading life cycle inventory data seamlessly into applications without manually downloading files, managing files locally, or switching between tools. It allows programmatic access to the ecoinvent database for embedding life cycle data directly into user workflows. Developer documentation is at ecoinvent.org/ecoinvent-api.
What industry is ecoinvent in?
ecoinvent's product category is Life Cycle Inventory Database. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EUABAEAD, Emissions Factors, LCA & Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) Platforms, with a secondary code of EUABAEAC, Climate & Emissions Data Management (Data Lake, Integration, APIs). Its NAICS code is 51821 and its SIC code is 8731.