Out Now: Inventory of Carbon & Energy (ICE) Database v4.1

Circular Ecology are excited to announce the release of ICE Database v4.1, the latest update to our free embodied carbon dataset. 

Downloaded by over 50,000 professionals globally, the ICE Database is a free embodied carbon database for materials and appears in countless reports, journals, books, embodied carbon footprint calculators, and more. 

What’s New in ICE v4.1? 

We endeavour to keep the ICE Database, up-to-date, relevant and above all, useful. Recent industry developments have prompted us to revise our reported emissions factors for Bitumen and GGBS (Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag).   

As Bitumen is an ever-present component of Asphalt, all asphalt emissions factors have been updated to reflect the most recent LCA of European bitumen, produced by industry body Eurobitume. Asphalt mixing energy data has also been updated with newer data from the Mineral Production Association.  

GGBS is often used as a cement replacement in Concrete. GGBS is a co-product of the production of steel, and as such there are different approaching to calculating its embodied carbon. Previous studies did not allocate any emissions from the steel making process. However, consensus is now changing, and an economic allocation approach is now used and more aligned with methods such as EN15804. All published cement and concrete mixes containing GGBS have subsequently been updated, as well as the ICE concrete tool. 

ICE v4.1 is therefore a small but important update. Carbon factors have only been updated for GGBS and Bitumen, but also with newer data for asphalt mixing energy. However, this has implications for some of the main construction materials, therefore the update to ICE v4.1 is important.  

ICE v2.0 Data Notice 

Due to the age and limited reliability of some data in ICE v2.0, we have taken the decision to soon remove the oldest data, which goes back to the ICE v2.0 data points, which was released in January 2011. Our goal is to ensure that users are working with the most robust and up-to-date information available. 

You can read more on the upcoming removal of ICE v2.0 data here. 

Accessing ICE v4.1 

As always, ICE is free to access and use. You can download ICE v4.1 by clicking on the button below which directs you to the download page: : 

Changes to ICE Registration and Access

To accompany the release of the ICE Database v4.1, we’re introducing a new registration process. This update brings clarity to how users access and apply the ICE Database data across different contexts. You can read more on the new registration process here.

We are also discussing moving the ICE Database to a “freemium” model. A free version will be maintained inline in line with our principles and core values. However, some commercial users could expect to pay an annual licence fee from next year, particularly for commercial organisations to use in software, tools and platforms. This is required in order to fund the maintenance and development of the ICE Database, and can be read in more detail here.