Giants, Sustainably Manufactured

A guest article by Dr.-Ing. Friedrich Halstenberg, GreenDelta GmbH

Transforming industry towards the application of sustainable practices requires extensive systemic changes in organizations, products, and services. To manage these changes, relevant indicators and impact categories must be systematically evaluated based on available information. This is where Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), also known as environmental or ecological accounting, comes into play. It is a proven data-driven method for quantifying environmental impacts.

At GreenDelta, we have developed an open-source LCA software called openLCA. It is used globally by companies, universities, and government institutions to quickly and efficiently calculate various sustainability indicators, such as Product Environmental Footprints (PEFs) and CO2 footprints, or Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). While we provide openLCA for free, we also engage in various consulting and software development projects with companies and public institutions, provide training for users, and participate in different research projects.

One of these research activities is the EU-funded project ENGINE (Zero-Defect Manufacturing for Green Transition in Europe). In this project, we are developing a system for designing and producing metal products with minimal defects. The application is demonstrated in the ship engine supply chain. GreenDelta’s contribution to the project involves using openLCA to assess the impact of reliability in production and operation on the sustainability of these products. In particular, we focus on the challenge of incomplete and uncertain data, for example in the early stages of system design. These bring traditional LCA methods and tools to their limits because they rely on high data quality. We address this issue by combining LCA and System Dynamics (SD) models.

SD is an approach to understanding the nonlinear behavior of complex systems over time. Data elements like stocks, flows, internal feedback loops, table functions, and time delays are used to simulate causal chains. This reveals the consequences of decisions over a specific period. Ideally, the system’s behavior becomes clear while only cause and effect are modeled. Typically, the model’s structure is represented in a user interface. While LCA models require the collection of precise data, which is time-consuming and largely dependent on the availability of information, SD models can be created more quickly, focusing on essential data.

Together with 16 other project partners, we integrate these models with extensive material simulation models into a development methodology based on Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE). This way, the models are interconnected, and valuable information is distilled from various data sources. The overall result supports manufacturers of metal products in developing more sustainable and competitive products.

earned his doctorate at TU Berlin on the topic of »Developing Circular Systems.« Prior to this, he worked as a research assistant at Fraunhofer IPK and at IWF of TU Berlin, where he focused on product life cycle management (PLM) and developing sustainable products and services. At GreenDelta, Dr. Halstenberg is involved in research and consulting projects with a focus on LCA, circular economy, and product development. He works with clients in the machinery, ship drives, plastic recycling, and construction industries.