Open Traceability Initiative
To be trustworthy, a sustainability claim should be fully traceable.
Bridging the gap between environmental claims and verifiable evidence through an externally inspectable framework.
The Six Dimensions of Openness
Breaking the knowledge-creation process into inspectable layers.
Open Raw Data
Inputs are verifiable, identifiable, documented, attributable, and ideally versioned.
Open Models
Analytical logic is visible through code, methods, dependencies, and open licenses.
Open Execution
Workflows and provenance make the path from inputs to outputs externally inspectable.
Open Review
Visible issue tracking and responses to challenge show how claims were tested.
Open Publications
Final reports and policy outputs are accessible and clearly documented for scrutiny.
Linkage Quality
The Decisive Factor. Explicit and verifiable connections across the entire artifact chain.
Stakeholder Perspectives
How Open Traceability serves different actors in the ecosystem.
For Policymakers
Strengthen regulatory impact assessments and international negotiations with evidence-based authority. Ensure technical claims translated into public policy are accountable.
For Funders
Improve due diligence and impact assessment. Use standardized traceability profiles to evaluate the robustness of projects before committing capital.
For Journalists
Trace technical claims in sustainability reporting. Access clear evidentiary links to source data and models to ensure accuracy in communication.
For Developers
Build maintainable and transparent sustainability software. Align workflows with the framework to signal quality and foster collaboration.
Assessment Architecture
Leveraging open digital infrastructure for evidence-chain assessment.
OpenAlex
Mapping the publication layer and citation networks.
ecosyste.ms
Analyzing software metadata and project infrastructure.
OpenSustain.tech
The underlying catalog of open sustainability technology.
AI ASSISTANT
Exemplars
Concrete examples of strong traceability in practice.
InVEST
Ecosystem Services
Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) models map and value ecosystem services to support environmental decision-making.
VIEW CASE STUDY →PyPSA-Earth
Energy System Optimisation
A global benchmark for transparent power-sector planning with open-source models and data workflows.
VIEW CASE STUDY →PyPSA-Eur
Energy System Optimisation
An open sector-coupled optimisation model of the European energy system.
VIEW CASE STUDY →Development Roadmap
Transitioning from pilot assessments to human-in-the-loop consensus review.
Prototype Framework and Methodology
The current Open Traceability scoring architecture is a prototype designed to test the feasibility of our six-dimension evidence chain framework. Assessments are currently generated via LLM-assisted analysis of repository structures and documentation here, rather than programmatic rulesets or comprehensive independent human verifications.
Demonstrated Pilot Objectives: Our pilot assessments of projects like InVEST, PyPSA-Earth and PyPSA-Eur have successfully shown that the six-dimension framework can structure complex codebase evidence, trace dependency layers, identify missing metadata, and map connections between inputs and published claims in a standardized format.
Future Production Requirements
To establish a high-integrity, production-grade assessment registry, the initiative requires a structured path beyond LLM-only generation:
- Standardized Scoring Rubric: Defining a versioned, multi-tier compliance framework with clear criteria for each of the six dimensions.
- Human Review Protocol: Establishing formal peer-reviewer roles, service-level agreements (SLAs), and conflict-of-interest policies.
- Automated Tooling at Scale: Building continuous integration infrastructure to automatically run checks and extract metadata across hundreds of active climate repositories.