In a nutshell
mescal is a specialized package of the Brightway Software Framework
Purpose
mescal is a Python package for the creation and management of life-cycle inventory databases and metrics derived from life-cycle assessment, to be integrated in decision-making tools such as energy system models.
mescal is a specialized package of the Brightway Software Framework, mainly relying on the bw2calc and wurst Python packages.
mescal was designed for all researchers and modellers aiming to include life-cycle assessment (LCA) in their work, but who are not necessarily LCA experts. mescal is usually used within Jupyter notebooks.
Workflow
LCI datasets are taken from ecoinvent and possibly other sources if some of the ESM technologies are not covered in the ecoinvent database, e.g., premise additional inventories. These LCI datasets are mapped to the ESM technologies and resources. This is followed by operations of regionalization, databases harmonization, double-counting removal, and life-cycle impact assessment. LCA indicators are then ready to be integrated to the ESM.
Citation
If you use mescal in a scientific publication, please cite this paper:
Souttre, M., Majeau-Bettez, G., Maréchal, F., Margni, M., 2026. mescal: a tool for coupling energy system models with life-cycle assessment. J. Ind. Ecol. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44498-026-00005-3
You can also specify the version of mescal you used in your publication, e.g., by including the DOI of the version you used, which can be found on Zenodo.
Requirements
Python 3.10 or more
Licence for ecoinvent 3. The ecoinvent database is not included in this package. You may also check ecoinvent’s GDPR & EULA.
Installation
You can install mescal via [pip] from [PyPI]:
$ pip install mescal pypardiso
We recommend installing the optional package pypardiso to speed up matrix calculations.