Watershed and Stanford Team Up to Expand Open Access to World’s Most Used Sustainability Tools

Watershed has unveiled a new partnership aimed at preserving and expanding access to essential sustainability data. The initiative, called Cornerstone, unites experts from the Stanford Sustainable Solutions Lab and Watershed, including the creators of two leading carbon accounting models: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmentally-Extended Input-Output model (USEEIO) and Watershed’s Comprehensive Environmental Data Archive (CEDA). Additional open-source contributors will join over time.

Effective immediately, Cornerstone will serve as the central access point for USEEIO and Open CEDA which are currently the most widely used models for scope 3 (value chain) carbon accounting and policy research. These tools support thousands of organizations in tracking emissions and are used in calculating about 65% of global scope 3 corporate carbon measurements, based on CDP data.

In the coming months, the two models will be merged into a single global open multi-regional input-output model managed by Cornerstone. The enhanced framework will enable more precise scope 3 assessments and extend analysis to broader environmental impacts, such as air and water quality, water use, and waste generation.

Research will be led by the Stanford Sustainable Solutions Lab within the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, under Dr. Steve Davis. His team will apply the model to prioritize solutions for urgent sustainability challenges in energy and food systems, while also contributing to its ongoing refinement.

Cornerstone’s leadership includes Dr. Wesley Ingwersen, former EPA lead on USEEIO, as Technical Director, with Dr. Sangwon Suh, developer of CEDA, and Dr. Davis serving as Technical Advisors. The initiative will also foster a global community of researchers and practitioners, offering education in the use of Environmentally Extended Input-Output (EEIO) data.

Source: globenewswire.com