HESTIA Converters

Library to convert from/to HESTIA format.

Supported Conversions

Installation

1. Install the base library:

pip install hestia-earth-converters

2. Install the converter(s) you need:

pip install "hestia-earth-converters[SimaPro]"

Quick Start

Convert an HESTIA ImpactAssessment to SimaPro format:

hestia-convert --output-folder samples --input-format HESTIA --output-format SimaPro --hestia-impact-id cocoaSeedWhole-ghana-2010-2025-20250916

Convert from OpenLCA to HESTIA:

hestia-convert --input-file my_openlca_export.zip --output-folder output --input-format OpenLCA --output-format HESTIA

Convert from OpenLCA to the LSRS reporting spreadsheet (writes the intermediate HESTIA ImpactAssessments plus one combined lsrs.xlsx with one row per IA):

hestia-convert --input-file my_openlca_export.zip --output-folder output --input-format OpenLCA --output-format LSRS

Use hestia-convert --help to see all available formats and options.

CLI Options

General Options

HESTIA Options

SimaPro Options

OpenLCA Options

How the HESTIA → SimaPro Conversion Works

The https://www.hestia.earth/explorer platform contains Cycles, and ImpactAssessments data that can be imported into SimaPro Craft.

The Hestia-To-SimaPro converter lets you convert HESTIA data to the "SimaPro CSV format" that can then be imported into SimaPro Craft.

Each HESTIA cycle, aggregated cycle, and impact assessment has a "HESTIA ID". You can find this ID in the Summary section of the cycle / aggregated cycle page. For example Oil palm, fruit - Malaysia - 2010-2025 has ID oilPalmFruit-malaysia-2010-2025-20250916 both in the Summary and the page url.

When using the Hestia-To-SimaPro converter, you typically specify the ImpactAssessment ID, and the converter will download it from the HESTIA platform and output a SimaPro CSV file.

Hestia-To-SimaPro converter is capable of creating both "System processes" or "Unit processes". If you use the --simapro-output-process-type option, Cycle Inputs and their related Cycle Emissions will be turned into stand alone "Dummy" unit processes that link back to the main process.

Some cycle Inputs come from a cycle on the HESTIA platform and contain a link to an Impact Assessment of that input product. In this case, the Impact Assessment will also be downloaded and saved as a separate SimaPro CSV file in a new folder called "referenced_processes" in the output folder. These new referenced processes should be imported to SimaPro first, as they are "upstream" from the main converted process.

Warning

When converting multiple Hestia cycles, some may contain links to different versions of the same Impact assessment. Therefore, both versions of that Impact Assessment will be saved to the "referenced_processes" folder. When importing into SimaPro, care must be taken to only import the version of this Impact Assessment you want to use, as SimaPro will not import a process if an old version already exists in the database and will not update existing processes.

Ecoinvent Data

The created SimaPro CSV files often refer to processes from the "Ecoinvent" libraries. To import these files, you will need to have the SimaPro ecoinvent library installed, and this, in most cases requires an Ecoinvent license.

Most cycles on the HESTIA platform include some use of Electricity terms. In SimaPro, these are typically represented as links to electricity producing processes. Currently, the Hestia-To-SimaPro converter only converts these electricity terms into equivalent "TechExchange" "links" to the ecoinvent electricity processes included by default in SimaPro Craft.

If you are converting HESTIA data into unit processes, some inputs will be converted to the equivalent "TechExchange" "links" to ecoinvent processes known to produce these inputs. The HESTIA terms that contain both a ecoinventReferenceProductId and a "ecoinventMapping" lookup listed on their "https://www.hestia.earth/term/ TERM NAME" page will be converted to the equivalent Ecoinvent process in the SimaPro library 'Ecoinvent 3 - allocation, cut-off by classification - unit'. On rare occasions, other libraries may be used, such as:

• "AGRIBALYSE - unit"
• "ecoinvent 3.11 (APOS)"

You can customise what ecoinvent processes, if any, are used by providing the converter a custom "flowmap" file. See Flowmaps.

Flowmaps

The converter relies on "flowmap" mapping files in order to translate from HESTIA glossary terms to SimaPro glossary terms, also known as "Substances" or "Elementary flows." If you do not provide your own flowmaps, the converter will automatically download the latest flowmaps from the hestia-convert-flowmaps repository. If you find any errors or omissions in these flowmaps, please open a GitLab issue HERE.

If you wish for the converter to use different SimaPro substances or different library processes during the conversion, you can create your own flowmaps and use the --mapping-files-directory option to specify their location.

These flowmap files must be compatible with the "GLAD" format. Please see hestia-convert-flowmaps/README.MD for details on creating your own mappings.

Known Limitations

• Most of the converted data comes from HESTIA Cycles. Only a limited amount of data is taken from ImpactAssessments. No data is currently taken from Sites.
• If the converter does not know how to translate a given HESTIA term to a SimaPro term, it will output an error message and omit that data in the conversion. This can cause large gaps in the data. These error messages can be saved to a ".log" text file to help debug these errors. Please use the --debug-file flag to save logs to a file.
• If the converter does not know how to translate a "regionalised" term, (a HESTIA Input, Emission, or Indicator containing country information) to a "regionalised" SimaPro glossary term then the converter will attempt to fallback on equivalent "non regionalised" SimaPro Substances / Elementary flows. This can cause characterisation methods to use default characterisation factors instead of regionalised factors and can skew results.
• The converter currently only maps HESTIA Electricity terms to ecoinvent electricity processes. Other free open source libraries for electricity are actively being sought.
• Some of the data on the HESTIA platform is confidential and cannot be downloaded. For some cycles, you may be required to use your HESTIA API KEY to download certain nodes. To do this, please create an Account. Go to https://www.hestia.earth/profile. Scroll down to "API Access". Copy the "API Key". And set the API_ACCESS_TOKEN=<API Key> environment variable.