A not-for-profit association
BONSAI is a not-for-profit association, with the objective of maintaining open data and open source software to produce transparent and reproducible “product footprints”. Funding is based on commitments from governments, industries and charities, and supplemented by crowd-funding.
While having a central secretariat, much of the development work is performed in independent projects that contribute specific parts of the overall system. Therefore, BONSAI cannot work without the involvement of a large number of voluntary contributors.
As part of the business plan and implementation of the organisation we formulate technical and managerial policies, targets and procedures in an open and collaborative process. Reliability of data storage, performance of data access, and preservation of data into the future, are important objectives that are maintained via distributed data storage. The history of data and algorithm changes are maintained for retrieval and re-construction.
Contribute
If you wish to support our work, consider becoming a member of the BONSAI non-profit association by contributing with an annual membership fee of 150 €. A membership gives voting right in the General Assembly, where decisions about the future strategy and development of the organisation are taken.
A reduced annual fee of 50 € can be granted to active members of the BONSAI network. We consider active members people that contribute towards reaching the goal of the organisation, for example contributing to working groups or initiating new ones based on our strategy and work plan. Active membership is certified by one of the board members.
Contribution may also be agreed to in the form of a sponsorship.
Statutes
The BONSAI network stretches beyond the non-profit organisation. If you want to read more about the members and the activities of the BONSAI network check our BONSAI GitHub page.
The BONSAI board
Valentin Starlinger
(chair)
B. Sc. in aerospace engineering from the University of Stuttgart. M. Sc. in ‘Robotics, Cognition, Intelligence’ from TU Munich in 2021 with a focus on computer vision and machine learning. In his master thesis ‘Life Cycle Assessments of Transportation Systems using Machine Learning’ he built a framework to assist the application of machine learning in the area of LCA. Currently, his main interest is in state-of-the-art data science and applying those techniques to LCA. In the past, he has worked on testing pulsed electric thrusters in plasma wind tunnels and building mobile robotic platforms.
Bo Weidema
(vice-chair)
Prof. Bo Weidema is the founder of the BONSAI initiative. As professor at Aalborg University, Denmark, he is committed to trans-disciplinary research that bridges economic, social, engineering and environmental sciences. With a background in the fair trade and sustainable agriculture movements, he has 35 years of academic and consulting experience with environmental life cycle assessments. He developed the original SPOLD LCI dataformat in the 1990’ies and worked from 2008 to 2014 as Executive Manager and Chief Scientist of the ecoinvent database.
Jannick Schmidt
(treasurer)
Prof. Jannick Schmidt is the Technical Director of 2.-0 LCA consultants and professor at Aalborg University, Denmark. He has worked professionally with LCA and databases since 2002. His main areas of expertise and experience relate to the development of hybrid input-output databases (Exiobase and FORWAST) and methods for modelling in life cycle inventory (consequential and attributional), agrifood systems, and of indirect land use changes. The combination of research and consultancy gives a valuable insight in advanced methodologies as well as the needs from the end-users of LCA (user-interface and communication).
Tomas Navarrete Gutierrez
Tomas’ education is in computer science, including an engineering degree, a master’s degree, and a PhD in informatics, and has forged a path that merges the cutting-edge (computer science) with the profound (the sustainability challenge of humanity). He works as Senior R&T Scientist at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology and as vice-president of the non-profit association Départ-de-Sentier. At BONSAI his focus is on the creation of open source data and tool resources for sustainability, lowering the technical barriers of harmonisation and computational burdens.
Agneta Ghose
Dr. Agneta Ghose contributed to the BONSAI Hackathon in 2019 which was the first step in turning the ideals and standards developed by the efforts of the BONSAI team over the last five years into an open-source tool-chain capable of supporting LCA calculations. Especially interested in modelling, integrating and sharing life cycle sustainability data with provenance. Agneta currently works within the ODA project, a concept for a smart platform for collecting and organizing data in a multidisciplinary collaboration between computer science researchers, sustainability researchers at Aalborg university, Denmark, and an international network of experts.
Michele de Rosa
Dr. Michele de Rosa is an industrial ecologist and environmental engineer, specialised in LCA of a broad range of products. He holds a PhD in Environmental Assessment from Aarhus University, Denmark. As an experienced LCA consultant, he managed large projects for global enterprises, showcasing leadership, communication, and project management skills. Currently, Michele is involved in the development of quantitative environmental assessments and rollout of data-driven strategies at the LEGO Group. Michele actively promotes LCA internationally as co-chair the European LCA interest group at SETAC and as member of the SETAC Europe Science Committee.
Miguel Astudillo
Dr. Miguel Astudillo is an industrial engineer with a master in waste and resource management. He holds a PhD from the University of Sherbrooke in Canada. His main areas of expertise are LCA of energy services, agricultural products, and data science. Miguel has worked in a variety of environments, from NGOs to academic institutions.