As demand grows for reliable carbon data across global supply chains, one persistent challenge remains: how to ensure assessments are locally relevant, technically robust, and widely accessible — especially in fast-evolving industrial economies like China. While much of today’s Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) practice still depends on foreign software and outdated datasets, this might soon be changing. 

Founded in 2017, Shanghai E-Carbon Digital Technology Co., Ltd. ("E-Carbon DIGITAL") is developing tools that reflect China's unique industrial characteristics. With a team of 180 staff located in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, E-Carbon DIGITAL goes beyond conventional consulting services by building modular, cloud-based LCA tools and localized databases to make product carbon foot printing more accurate, cost-effective, and scalable. 

Tools and datasets tailored for China’s manufacturing landscape 

While many existing commercially available LCA software tools require a high degree of industry and process-specific knowledge as well as LCA modelling expertise, E-Carbon DIGITAL’s flagship product, JIMU LCA 1.0, launched in December 2021, uses "Lego-like" blocks that embed industrial logic, allowing companies to model production processes and the associated environmental impacts quickly and intuitively. Users only need to build their company’s process model and collect process data, without having to manually create LCA models – which helps to reduce technical complexity and associated costs. For instance, in collaboration with a major Chinese steel manufacturer, E-Carbon DIGITAL supported the automation of plant-level carbon accounting across multiple sites, enabling large-scale, standardized Environmental Product Declaration Environmental Product Declaration (EPD, ISO14025) reporting annually. Internationally, in 2024, JIMU LCA was recognized by 'openLCA', one of the most widely used global LCA evaluation software platforms. 

To tackle the limitations of existing LCA datasets — many of which include less than 3% China-specific data — E-Carbon DIGITAL developed HiQLCD (High-Quality Life Cycle Database) as a spin-off from E-Carbon DIGITAL in late 2023. This database covers 31 provinces, 27 key industries and nearly 900 representative products, is fully aligned with the UN GLAD and EU LCDN platforms and is seamlessly compatible with openLCA and other mainstream tools. For example, the Aluminum Industry LCA Database 1.0 was jointly developed with the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, successfully filling the gap in global carbon data systems for China's aluminum industry.  Having a localized carbon footprint and LCI database will greatly help companies with carbon accounting, certification, supply chain management, and ESG disclosures.