Environmental Operating System (EOS)

The Environmental Operating System (EOS) is Eaternity's core platform for calculating environmental impact data at scale. It processes millions of food product calculations using scientific Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology.

Getting Started

For an introduction to Eaternity and our products, see the Introduction. This page covers the technical architecture of the EOS platform.

What is EOS?

EOS is a specialized computational platform designed to:

• Calculate environmental metrics for food products (carbon footprint, water footprint, ratings)
• Process complex Life Cycle Assessment data efficiently
• Scale to handle enterprise workloads
• Extend through Gap Filling Modules (GFMs)

Core Capabilities

Environmental Metrics

EOS calculates multiple environmental impact categories:

Metric	Unit	Description
Carbon Footprint	kg CO₂e	Greenhouse gas emissions per product
Water Footprint	L	Fresh water consumption
Land Use	m²	Agricultural land required
Biodiversity Impact	-	Effect on ecosystems

Ratings and Labels

Beyond raw metrics, EOS computes consumer-friendly ratings:

• Eaternity Score: Overall environmental rating (A-E scale)
• Climate Rating: Carbon footprint evaluation
• Water Rating: Water usage assessment
• Rainforest Rating: Deforestation impact
• Animal Treatment Rating: Welfare standards

Architecture Overview

How It Works

1. Product Graph

EOS represents food products as a directed graph:

• Nodes: Products, processes, activities, locations
• Edges: Material flows, relationships, transformations
• Properties: Quantities, names, environmental data

2. Gap Filling Process

When a product enters EOS:

1. Parsing: Product data is converted to graph nodes
2. Matching: Ingredients are matched to known database entries
3. Gap Filling: GFMs calculate missing properties
4. Aggregation: Results are aggregated up the supply chain
5. Rating: Final scores and ratings are computed

3. Orchestration

The orchestrator manages calculation order:

Location GFM → Transport GFM → Carbon GFM → Water GFM → Rating GFM

Each GFM declares its dependencies, ensuring correct execution order.

Integration Points

API Access

Connect your applications via:

• REST API v2: Advanced API for LCA practitioners and research
• Eaternity API (v1): Recommended for food service and ERP integrations
• Batch API: High-volume processing for large datasets

SDK Development

Extend EOS functionality using:

• GFM SDK: Build custom calculation modules
• Testing Framework: Validate your implementations
• Development Sandbox: Local development environment

Data Sources

EOS aggregates data from multiple validated sources:

Database	Coverage	Use Case
Eaternity Database (EDB)	30,000+ products	Primary food data
Ecoinvent	Background processes	Industrial processes
Agribalyse	French agriculture	European agriculture
World Food Database	Global coverage	International products

Learn more in Database Overview.

Next Steps

Architecture Deep Dive

Understand the system components in detail

Glossary

Learn the terminology used in EOS