Footprinted.org – Experiences from using linked open data for environmental impact information

• Sustainability science relies heavily on information (Allenby 2000, 2006). And as sustainability isgaining weight in decision-making, good and accessible environmental information is needed(Goleman 2009). This is true both at an institutional level, like when deciding the materials forbuilding a product, and at a personal level, deciding between chicken and salmon at thesupermarket. However, most of the environmental information is closed, based on proprietarysoftware, expensive or in text documents that are not possible to process. We believe that it is necessary to bring open data concepts from the web to environmentalimpact information (Davis et al, 2010; Zapico et al, 2010). This would increase transparency,openness, and make it easier to create sustainability services on top of the data. Exploring these ideas we have created Footprinted1, a web service that is trying to solve theseproblems by opening up the information using linked data, focusing in life cycle assessmentinformation. This article presents the finished application, the experiences developing it, and thefirst usages.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Medieteknik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Media and Communication Technology (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)