Brightway
Brightway is an open-source software package for life cycle assessment (LCA) written in Python.
A Python framework for building, managing, and calculating large, flexible life-cycle-assessment and environmental-impact models.
About the Project
Why use this?
Brightway is designed to make it easy to work with large datasets and perform LCA calculations quickly and accurately. It emphasizes flexibility and performance, allowing engineers to construct custom life-cycle models, run scenario and uncertainty analyses, and integrate LCA into Python-based research or industrial workflows.
Environmental engineers choose Brightway when conventional desktop LCA tools are too restrictive for parametric modeling, Monte Carlo analysis, automation, or integration with optimization and data pipelines. It is especially attractive in research settings and Jupyter-based workflows, where analysts need reproducible, scriptable control over inventory data and impact calculations. [358][365][367]
Key Features
- Python-based LCA and environmental-impact assessment
- Fast calculations over large life-cycle-inventory datasets
- Flexible model construction and scenario analysis
- Strong fit for Jupyter, research, and automated workflows
- Extensible framework rather than a fixed desktop GUI
- Reference / Repo
- https://github.com/brightway-lca/brightway2
- Tool / Hosted
- https://docs.brightway.dev/
- Replaces / Alternative to
- SimaPro, GaBi, commercial LCA software
- Free layer
- open-source