35 years of SimaPro and the question that started it all
21 Oct 2025 | Eric Mieras, Chief Innovation Officer at One Click LCA & Managing Director at PRé.
One designer’s question started it all. Thirty-five years later, SimaPro and PRé remain at the center of life cycle assessment (LCA), helping organizations make better, fact-based sustainability decisions. From four floppy discs to a cloud platform powering industries everywhere, this is a story of advancing sustainability through science.
In 1990, at the first Dutch conference on Ecodesign, industrial designer Mark Goedkoop asked a simple question:
“How can we measure eco?”
At that time, life cycle assessment was still new—too technical for most and not yet part of business practice. But Mark saw its potential: a fact-based way to compare the real environmental impacts of products across their full life cycle. That question marked the beginning of PRé and its software, SimaPro, and the start of a journey that continues today.
Early days and first methods
The first version of SimaPro was far from today’s platforms. It ran on four floppy disks, on MS-DOS with just 640 KB of memory – less than one smartphone photo today. Its database contained only a few impact categories: energy use, toxic emissions, acidification, and waste generation. Results weren’t always perfect, but they were groundbreaking, offering one of the first systematic ways to quantify product impacts.
SimaPro 1.0: four floppy discs, one bold idea.
Workshops sometimes crashed, and budgets were tight. Yet the vision was clear: create a transparent, fact-based tool to guide better design and business decisions. Transparency became SimaPro’s DNA: no black boxes, just data you can trace and trust.
Visual timeline of PRé and SimaPro.
SimaPro today
Fast-forward 35 years, and SimaPro has become one of the world’s most widely used LCA platforms, trusted in more than 90 countries by companies, researchers, consultants, NGOs, and governments.
It’s no longer just for specialists. With cloud-based tools and APIs, SimaPro integrates into the systems businesses already use, from product design platforms like Autodesk to supply chain and quoting systems like Tacton. Experts across teams can access robust sustainability data directly without leaving their daily workflow.
Real-world impact includes:
- 16,000 Dutch dairy farmers calculate their greenhouse gas emissions through a SimaPro-powered tool.
- Designers worldwide use Autodesk integrations to make sustainable choices at the earliest stages of product development.
- Manufacturers enrich their sales quotes with environmental footprint data to meet customer and regulatory demands for transparency.
SimaPro powering sustainability across industries in over 90 countries.
The next chapter with One Click LCA
Today, as part of One Click LCA, SimaPro is entering a new chapter. With cloud and APIs at its core, the mission is clear: make life cycle data available at scale.
Instead of only being a tool for experts, SimaPro is becoming part of a global sustainability backbone: science-based insights embedded in industries worldwide. That means moving from niche calculations to a future where reliable data drives daily decisions and bigger impact.
Software evolution in 35 years: from DOS (SimaPro 1) to the cloud (SimaPro Synergy)
From one question to a global movement
Looking back shows how far a single question – “How can we measure eco?” – has taken us. From floppy disks and early prototypes to global networks and API-powered platforms, SimaPro has grown with the entire LCA field.
But the work isn’t done. If the first 35 years were about pioneering, the next will be about scaling – helping more organizations act with credible data.
Measuring eco was just the beginning. Now, it’s about making sustainability visible, actionable, and impactful worldwide.
Join us at the SimaPro LCA Summit
Celebrate 35 years of pioneering life cycle assessment with us. Join the online event on November 25-26 that looks back at our shared journey and forward to what’s next.
