# Brightway Software Framework [![Mailing List](https://img.shields.io/badge/Community-Mailing%20List-blue.svg?style=flat&logo=Minutemailer&logoColor=white)](https://brightway.groups.io/) [![Matrix](https://img.shields.io/badge/Community-Chat-ed1965.svg?style=flat&logo=Matrix&logoColor=white)](https://app.element.io/#/room/#brightway/community:matrix.org) [![SO](https://img.shields.io/badge/Community-Questions-f48024.svg?style=flat&logo=Stack%20Overflow&logoColor=white)](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/brightway) [![Blog](https://img.shields.io/badge/Development-Blog-lightgrey.svg?style=flat&logo=Blogger&logoColor=white)](https://chris.mutel.org/) ::::{grid} 1 1 3 3 :gutter: 3 :::{grid-item-card} 🌿 Projects :link: source/other/ecosystem :link-type: doc Contributors have built amazing projects based on Brightway! +++ Learn more {fas}`arrow-right` ::: :::{grid-item-card} 👩‍💻 Contribute :link: source/contributing/contributing :link-type: doc Brightway is developed by a community of volunteers. Join us! +++ Learn more {fas}`arrow-right` ::: :::{grid-item-card} 📜 Open Source :link: source/other/credits :link-type: url Brightway is free and open source - and it will stay that way! +++ Learn more {fas}`arrow-right` ::: :::: ## What is Brightway? Brightway is an open-source software package for [life cycle assessment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life-cycle_assessment) (LCA) and [environmental impact assessment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_assessment) written in the [Python](https://www.python.org/) programming language. LCA is a method for evaluating the environmental impacts of a product, process, or service. It involves analyzing all of the inputs and outputs of a system, including raw materials, energy use, and waste products, and quantifying the environmental impacts of these inputs and outputs over the entire lifecycle of the system. ## What can Brightway do? Brightway is designed to make it easy to work with large datasets and perform LCA calculations quickly and accurately. It thus provides a powerful tool for anyone interested in performing LCA or evaluating the environmental impacts of products and processes. Brightway is not intended to replace software like _SimaPro_ or _OpenLCA_, but instead offers possibilities to break the limits of conventional LCA. Brightway is especially attractive for researchers, especially when used with [Jupyter notebooks](https://jupyter.org/). ```{toctree} --- hidden: maxdepth: 1 --- source/introduction/introduction source/setup/setup source/api/index source/gallery/index source/lca/index source/contributing/contributing source/faq/faq source/changelog/index source/other/ecosystem source/other/support source/other/credits ```