Sustainability and Circular Economy decision-making using GRETA

GRETA (Green Targets), a web-based software tool developed by SUPSI (the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland), will be used in the CIRCULOOS project to aid users in making decisions that advance sustainability and circular practices. The holistic sustainability profiles assessed in GRETA cover environmental, social, and economic aspects in the context of the Circular Economy (CE).

GRETA facilitates the sustainability assessment for products and processes and allows for comparative analysis of various options, aiding in the decision-making process. It relies on an open-source software called OpenLCA for modelling processes from a sustainability point of view along the product life cycle. GRETA relies also on the commercially available Ecoinvent database (a comprehensive collection of life cycle inventory data) to acquire necessary inputs for assessments in cases where data from companies is unavailable. The user interface of GRETA is intuitive, simplifying product alternatives creation, customization, and comparative analysis.

As GRETA progresses, it aims to integrate new indicators related to the Social and Circular Economy, areas that are currently partially covered, as well as to evaluate the sustainability aspects of the single instance of the product. These developments are key focuses of SUPSI within the CIRCULOOS project, highlighting GRETA’s ongoing evolution to address new sustainability challenges.

The integration of GRETA alongside other software tools within the CIRCULOOS project enables the visualization of key performance indicators (KPIs) at each stage of the optimization process. Once the sustainability cost function is chosen among the GRETA results, the combined toolset will identify the optimal solution from the available options.

 


 

Article by SUPSI