in 2015 I accepted the honorary membership offered by the ecoinvent association to award my leading and crucial role in the design, development, market introduction and operation of the ecoinvent database, versions 1 and 2 (from the very beginning in 1998 until 2008). Under my leadership the ecoinvent database and its version 2 had become one of the most used and acknowledged life cycle inventory database worldwide.

My vision was (and still is) that relevant, transparent, high quality and accountable life cycle inventory data are key for companies and governments. Such LCI data help to minimise corporate environmental footprints and to support LCA based corporate decision making, certification schemes and public policy and regulation to reach a global society living within planetary boundaries.

That is why I focused on the essentials and on quality and accountability of the life cycle inventory data offered during my time as ecoinvent manager as well as before and after. During my ecoinvent honorary membership I internally advocated for these aspects.

End of last year I decided with a heavy heart to return my honorary membership due to irreconcilably different perceptions regarding materiality, reality, quality and accountability of the life cycle inventory data offered in ecoinvent v3. The ecoinvent association accepted it during its regular general assembly on 9 June 2021.

Together with key LCA stakeholders in Switzerland and abroad I hope that relevance, reality, quality and accountability will get back to the top of the agenda of the ecoinvent management and that the focus will shift back from quantity to quality. If not, credibility and reliability of LCA and thus its usefulness in strategic corporate decision making and in public regulation might be further challenged.