International Industrial Ecology Day 2021

The industrial and ecological data on supply chains currently collected is minimal in comparison with the enormous quantity and diversity of products we manufacture. Meanwhile, a wealth of information is generated across the life cycle of products through Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tools such as Computer-Aided technologies (CAx). If harvested, this data could aid the expansion of current databases (e.g. Life Cycle Inventories). Additionally, the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) applications is marking the start of a new industrial revolution characterized by high automation and connectivity. Connecting these developments to the LCA community could create many opportunities in increasing the speed at which we assess the environmental impacts of supply chains. This systematic review looks into these developments in CAx and AI using the PRISMA method. We found a variety of non-orchestrated approaches that could accomplish automation for LCI compilation. We present possible ways forward on how to automate LCI compilation in the effort to construct a sufficiently detailed yet minimal digital twin of global supply chains to enable minimization of societal unsustainable pressure on the earth system.