Data from: A data-driven method for quantifying the environmental impacts of freight transportation in construction for prospective LCA in the United States

Transportation in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) modeling is commonly
represented using simplified, one-size-fits-all assumptions. However,
empirical freight data show that transportation distances and associated
environmental impacts vary significantly depending on material type,
transportation mode, and regional infrastructure conditions. These
variations can lead to substantial differences in results and are not well
captured in conventional LCA practice. To address this gap, this dataset
provides data-driven, regionally informed transportation parameters for
use in LCA modeling in the United States. Environmental impacts were
evaluated in OpenLCA (version 2.5.0) using the US EPA ISO21930-LCIA-US
(v0.1) LCIA method. The USLCI repository was used to obtain inventory
data. For transportation modes not available in USLCI at the time of
dataset development, additional quantitative calculation methods were
applied and documented in the corresponding journal article. This dataset
provides transportation distance estimates and associated environmental
impact factors for modeling freight movement in U.S. domestic supply
chains. The dataset was developed by processing publicly available dataset
and integrating that with life cycle inventory (LCI) emission and
background research. Transportation distance data were compiled from the
U.S. Commodity Flow dataset that reports commodity shipments between U.S.
states and includes shipment information such as mode and distance of
travel. These shipment records were processed to generate point-to-point
as well as scenario-based distance estimates for domestic freight
movement. The dataset is organized to support modeling transportation in
LCA and supply chain analysis, including applications in building and
construction material transport, procurement policy analysis, and scenario
testing of transportation assumptions. The data can be used to
parameterize transportation modules, compare mode impacts, evaluate
sensitivity to distance, mode of transport and efficiency assumptions, and
support transparent, reproducible modeling of domestic freight
transportation impacts. This dataset was developed as part of the
Parametric Open Data for Life Cycle Assessment Project (POD|LCA) Project
which contains a suite of open-source methods, models, data, and a variety
of tools for screening-level (early-stage) building sector life cycle
assessments (LCAs). This dataset can be used to fill data gaps in LCA
studies and is being integrated into tools developed by the POD|LCA
project.