IC+ Frequently Asked Questions

IC+ is a new commercial embodied carbon database from Circular Ecology.

It is being developed to provide more up-to-date, detailed, and regularly maintained embodied carbon data for professional applications such as carbon assessments, reporting, tools, software, and platforms.

IC+ builds upon over 20 years of experience behind the ICE Database and is intended to support a wider range of commercial applications.

The expectations placed on embodied carbon data have increased significantly over the past 20 years.

Maintaining and updating the ICE Database to modern standards requires substantial ongoing resources, access to background datasets, and regular development.

To support the long-term maintenance and development of embodied carbon data, Circular Ecology has introduced a new freemium model, comprising 2 separate products:

• ICE Database Educational (free educational resource)
• IC+ (more up-to-date, commercial database)

ICE Database Educational

• Free to download
• Educational use only
• Supports learning, teaching, training courses, and student exercises
• Not permitted for commercial use
• Not permitted in tools, software, platforms, or calculations, unless for 100% learning and teaching only

IC+

• Commercially licensed
• Designed for professional and commercial applications
• Suitable for use in calculations, reporting, tools, software, and platforms
• Intended to be updated more frequently
• Will contain newer and expanded datasets

Our target is to release IC+ in late August 2026.

Further information will be released over the coming weeks.

Initial indicative quotations are currently being issued.

If you would like an indicative quote based on your intended use case, please complete the IC+ expression of interest survey at the bottom of this page.

Yes. The pricing structure provides significant economies of scale as the number of licensed users increases.

Please contact us if you expect particularly large user volumes.

Yes. Discounts are expected to be available for:

• Existing Circular Ecology clients
• Organisations that supported the ICE Database Supporter System
• Users that purchased the ICE Database Machine Readable version
• Charities

Further details will be provided closer to launch.

IC+ is expected to support a range of different use cases, including:

• Internal organisational use
• Tools and software
• Platforms and databases

The final licensing framework will be published alongside the IC+ Terms of Use and Commercial Licensing Agreement.

Yes, with an active and valid licence only.

IC+ is being developed specifically to support these types of applications, subject to an appropriate licence. Licences for tools, software, platforms, databases, and similar resources will only apply to the named product covered by the licence.

Yes, only with written permission from Circular Ecology and an active and valid licence that allows use in an API.

Additional terms may apply depending on the nature of the API and how end users access the data. Access to end users shall only be granted for users with a suitable licence.

All users accessing IC+ data must be covered by an appropriate licence. Depending on the licensing arrangement, this may be an individual licence held by the end user, or a licence purchased by the tool or platform provider that covers all users accessing the data within that tool.

Please contact us to discuss the most appropriate licensing arrangement for your use case.

We recognise that some organisations may not know their final user numbers, particularly when launching new tools or entering new markets.

We recommend purchasing the estimated number of licences that best reflects your anticipated level of usage over the 12-month licensing period. Additional licences may be purchased if usage increases during the licence period.

Outputs generated using IC+ may generally be shared with clients as part of reports, assessments, and project deliverables.

However, the underlying emissions factors and database content may not be redistributed outside the scope of the applicable licence, or to unlicensed users.

Further details will be provided within the IC+ Terms of Use.

Maintaining compatibility with existing systems is an important consideration for the development of IC+. IC+ will contain new UUIDs, which will be mapped to the ICE Database UUIDs.

Further information on data structures, identifiers, and migration pathways will be provided prior to launch.

No. Whilst the ICE Database has historically been widely used internationally, users should assess whether the data is appropriate for their intended application and geographical context.

Further information on the scope and coverage of IC+ will be released closer to launch.

Documentation, guidance, webinars, and supporting materials are planned and will be made available following launch. For now, please see our latest ICE update webinar recording here.

The final licensing definitions will be published within the IC+ Terms of Use.

Generally speaking, an end user is expected to be an individual who has access to IC+ data or to systems, tools, models, or outputs that allow practical use of that data. Further guidance will be provided before launch.

The ICE Database Educational is intended to continue the educational legacy of the ICE Database.

However, maintaining and developing embodied carbon data to modern expectations requires substantial ongoing investment and resources.

IC+ has been developed to provide a sustainable route for maintaining and expanding the data whilst continuing to make ICE available as a free educational resource.

Please visit the ICE Database Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page for more information.