Community Models: Good Medicine for LCA

Recently, I was working on an LCA for a luer lock syringe. Things were moving along, but I kept thinking: someone has probably already done something very close to this.

I had recently read a publicly available study by Matthew Eckelman and Robert Litan. I reviewed their inventory and results—but it didn’t occur to me to actually recreate their model until I was already deep into building my own.

That’s when it clicked.

If an expert-built model were available in a reusable, editable format, it wouldn’t just save time—it would fundamentally change how LCAs get done.

From Static Studies to Living Models

So I decided to try it.

I took the inventory from the published study and rebuilt it in EcoScan. The initial result was… messy. (That part was on the tool, not the authors.) But within a few minutes, I had cleaned it up into a working model and started exploring results.

That experience highlights a broader shift:

Recreating LCAs doesn’t have to be a slog anymore.

Traditionally, this process:

• Takes hours (or days) of manual setup

• Requires access to specialized software

• Involves a lot of guesswork translating static reports into models

With the right tooling, a published inventory can become a working model in minutes.

Why Community Models Matter

This is where the idea of community models becomes powerful.

Instead of publishing LCAs as static PDFs, what if we shared:

• The full model

• The assumptions

• The structure behind the results

Not just what the answer is—but how we got there.

LCA has long struggled with a “black box” perception. Even when methods are transparent, most practitioners only ever see the final results. That makes it hard to:

• Validate assumptions

• Learn from other practitioners

• Build on existing work

Community models flip that dynamic. They make LCAs:

• Auditable — you can trace every assumption

• Reusable — adapt a model instead of rebuilding from scratch

• Collaborative — others can improve or challenge your work

And that’s a big deal.

Faster Iteration, Better Decisions

Once a model is live, the benefits compound quickly.

You can:

• Run scenario analyses without rebuilding the model

• Test design changes (materials, processes, geography)

• Ask others: what am I missing?

Instead of one-off studies, you get something closer to a shared, evolving system of knowledge.

For sectors like healthcare—where this syringe example comes from—that matters. Design and procurement decisions have real environmental consequences, and better tools mean faster, more informed decisions.

Not Perfect—But Moving in the Right Direction

To be clear, this approach isn’t flawless.

Rebuilding the study surfaced quirks:

• Extra transport assumptions

• Some messy structuring from the import process

• General cleanup work

But that’s part of the point.

When models are shared, these issues don’t stay hidden—they get improved. The quality of models increases because they’re exposed to the community.

A Shift in How LCA Gets Done

There’s a clear trend in LCA tools today:

• Faster workflows

• More flexibility

• Less reliance on opaque systems

Community models fit directly into that shift.

They don’t replace rigor—they amplify it by making assumptions visible and reusable.

The model is the model. If you want others to see it, challenge it, or build on it—you can.

Try It Yourself

If this resonates, you can explore the exact model described here:

• Community Model in CarbonGraph (sign up and check “Community Models”)

• Original LCA study (publicly available, unaffiliated)

• Walkthrough video

And if you have thoughts, improvements, or critiques—share them. That’s the whole point.

What This Enables

We’re also starting to layer in:

• Interactive dashboards

• Easier scenario comparison

• Better ways to explore model outputs

The goal is simple:
make high-quality LCA faster, more transparent, and more collaborative.