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The Cornerstone EEIO model is a multi-regional environmentally-extended input-output model. It links countries' economies through international trade and attaches greenhouse gas emissions to every sector, producing emission factors per dollar of purchases.

The emission factors are available for 405 sectors across 149 countries and 21 regional averages. The model is built as a time series from 2017 up to 2026, with the time series release coming before the end of 2026. These emission factors are most commonly used for Scope 3 measurements in corporate inventories and for academic and policy research.
The emission factors are available for 405 sectors across 149 countries and 21 regional averages. The model is built as a time series from 2017 up to 2026, with the time series release coming before the end of 2026. These emission factors are most commonly used for Scope 3 measurements in corporate inventories and for academic and policy research. Cornerstone EEIO is the successor of the USEEIO and CEDA models; see [](intro/cornerstone-eeio-history.md).

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---
title: "Origins of the Cornerstone EEIO"
author: Dr. Wesley Ingwersen
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---

:::{tip} Summary
Cornerstone EEIO is a continuation of the USEEIO and CEDA EEIO models, built from the best of each model as determined by the developers through [open discussions and analysis](http://github.com/cornerstone-data/methods/discussions).

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You could do this section in a "Summary" like we have on other sections?

:::

## CEDA

CEDA dates back to the early 2000s, when Sangwon Suh developed it, first at Leiden University and later at the University of Minnesota [@suhDevelopingSectoralEnvironmental2005].

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Consider 'CEDA' and 'USEEIO' subheaders?

It began as a U.S. single-region model with environmental extensions covering many environmental indicators.
VitalMetrics maintained it and applied it in private, public and academic work.
CEDA was expanded into a global MRIO model focused on GHG emissions before Watershed acquired it in 2023. Under Watershed, GHG emission factors for Scope 3 reporting became its primary purpose, and in 2025 Watershed released a free version of the emission factors as Open CEDA.

## USEEIO

USEEIO was a research product of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), first released in early 2017 and developed as a fully open-source model [@yangUSEEIONewTransparent2017].
USEEIO built on the contributions of earlier U.S. single-region EEIO models, including the Carnegie Mellon EIO-LCA model [@hendricksonEconomicInputOutput1998;@weber20092002], openIO [@cox2011open], and CEDA. Its primary versions are v1 and v2.0 [@ingwersenUSEEIOV20US2022a].
USEEIO was initially developed for multi-indicator assessments for the USEPA's Sustainable Materials Management program.
Beginning in 2020, the Supply Chain GHG Emission Factors were created from USEEIO for Scope 3 reporting, first at the request of the USEPA Center for Corporate Climate Leadership and later at the request of the White House Office of Sustainability and the General Services Administration [@ingwersenSupplyChainGreenhouse2020;@ingwersen_supply_2024]. They became the most popular use of the model and one of the USEPA's most popular open-source datasets.
The limitations of a single-region model for estimating consumption-based impacts in the U.S. were addressed in later v2 models by coupling them with global MRIO models [@ingwersenEstimatingEmbodiedEnvironmental2024], one of which was CEDA [@ingwersenUSEEIOModelsImport2024].
The USEPA ceased updating the USEEIO models in 2025 [@stevensPopularEPADatabase2025].

## Cornerstone EEIO

A primary motivation for forming the Cornerstone Sustainability Data Initiative (Cornerstone) was to continue the USEEIO model and to bring it together with CEDA [@watershedSolidifyingFoundationsGlobal2025].
Although the [first release](../releases/index.md) of Cornerstone EEIO came in 2026, the model is "new" only in that it reconciles the methods behind USEEIO and CEDA, adds major methodological innovations such as ABSR and nowcast U.S. tables, and is assembled through a new data pipeline. Read more about these innovations in [Releases](../releases/index.md).
2 changes: 1 addition & 1 deletion intro/what-is-eeio.md
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## Where EEIO comes from

EEIO grew out of economic input-output analysis when economist Wassily Leontief added the pollution generated by each sector to his model of the economy [@leontiefEnvironmentalRepercussionsEconomic1970], and it has been a basis for carbon footprinting of nations, organizations, and products over the last few decades [@minxInputOutputAnalysisCarbon2009].
EEIO grew out of economic input-output analysis when economist Wassily Leontief added the pollution generated by each sector to his model of the economy [@leontiefEnvironmentalRepercussionsEconomic1970], and it has been a basis for carbon footprinting of nations, organizations, and products over the last few decades [@minxInputOutputAnalysisCarbon2009]. Cornerstone EEIO continues two of the longest-running US EEIO models, USEEIO and CEDA; see [](cornerstone-eeio-history.md).

## The parts of the model

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toc:
- file: index.md
- file: intro/what-is-eeio.md
children:
- file: intro/cornerstone-eeio-history.md
- title: The IO model
children:
- file: io/index.md
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90 changes: 90 additions & 0 deletions references.bib
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pmcid = {PMC6192422},
keywords = {Data quality assessment,Environmentally-extended input-output (EEIO),Life cycle assessment,Product hotspot analysis,Streamlined life cycle assessment,Sustainable materials management},
}

@report{ingwersenEstimatingEmbodiedEnvironmental2024,
title = {Estimating Embodied Environmental Flows in International Imports for the {{USEEIO Model}}},
author = {Ingwersen, Wesley and Namovich, Jake and Young, Ben and Vendries, Jorge},
date = {2024},
institution = {U.S. Environmental Protection Agency},
location = {Washington, DC},
url = {https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_record_report.cfm?dirEntryId=362470},
eid = {EPA/600/R-24/116}
}

@dataset{ingwersenUSEEIOModelsImport2024,
title = {{{USEEIO Models}} with {{Import Emission Factors}} for {{Greenhouse Gases}} for 2022 from {{CEDA}} Coupled Model},
author = {Ingwersen, Wesley and Young, Ben and {Li, Mo}},
date = {2024-12},
publisher = {Data.gov},
doi = {10.23719/1531906}
}

@dataset{ingwersen_supply_2024,
title = {Supply {{Chain Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors}} v1.3 by {{NAICS-6}}},
author = {Ingwersen, Wesley},
date = {2024-07-09},
doi = {10.23719/1531143}
}

@report{ingwersenSupplyChainGreenhouse2020,
ids = {us_epa_supply_nodate},
title = {Supply {{Chain Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors}} for {{US Industries}} and {{Commodities}}},
author = {Ingwersen, Wesley and Li, Mo},
date = {2020},
pages = {76},
institution = {{US Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response}},
url = {https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_record_report.cfm?Lab=CESER&dirEntryId=349324},
eid = {EPA/600/R-20/001},
langid = {english},
}

@article{cox2011open,
title={Open IO: Developing a Transparent, Fully Accessible Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment Database},
author={Cox, Robert W and Norris, G},
journal={Sustainability Consortium, Fayetteville, AK},
year={2011}
}

@article{weber20092002,
title={The 2002 US benchmark version of the economic input-output life cycle assessment (EIO-LCA) model},
author={Weber, Christopher and Matthews, Deanna and Venkatesh, Aranya and Costello, Christine and Matthews, H},
journal={Green Design Institute, Carnegie Mellon University},
year={2009},
url = {https://www.academia.edu/download/30700261/full-document-2002-042310.pdf}
}

@article{laveUsingInputOutputAnalysis1995,
title = {Using Input-Output Analysis to Estimate Economy-Wide Discharges},
author = {Lave, Lester B. and Cobas-Flores, Elisa and Hendrickson, Chris T. and McMichael, Francis C.},
date = {1995},
journaltitle = {Environmental Science \& Technology},
volume = {29},
number = {9},
pages = {420A--426A},
doi = {10.1021/es00009a748}
}

@article{hendricksonEconomicInputOutput1998,
title = {Economic Input-Output Models for Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment},
author = {Hendrickson, Chris and Horvath, Arpad and Joshi, Satish and Lave, Lester},
date = {1998},
journaltitle = {Environmental Science \& Technology},
volume = {32},
number = {7},
pages = {184A--191A},
doi = {10.1021/es983471i}
}

@online{watershedSolidifyingFoundationsGlobal2025,
title = {Solidifying the Foundations of Global Sustainability Data},
author = {{Watershed}},
date = {2025-08-08},
url = {https://watershed.com/blog/cornerstone},
urldate = {2026-10-25}
}

@article{stevensPopularEPADatabase2025,
title = {Popular {{E}}.{{P}}.{{A}}. Database Is in Limbo Following Science Cuts},
author = {Stevens, Harry},
date = {2025-08-08},
journaltitle = {The New York Times},
url = {https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/08/climate/epa-database-useeio-greenhouse-gases.html}
}
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