Corresponding author: Patrick Jordan
Institutional email: patrick.jordan@iwb.tum.de
Personal profile: patrick-jordan.github.io
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This repository provides a comprehensive procedure and supporting tool for selecting use case-specific sustainability indicators in manufacturing systems. The methodology addresses key challenges in sustainability assessments by enabling the balanced evaluation of both economic and environmental dimensions across different manufacturing hierarchical levels.
- Sustainability Indicator Selection Tool (Excel): A user-friendly spreadsheet-based implementation of the selection procedure with an integrated catalog of 477 environmental and economic indicators.
- Selection Guidelines (PDF): Methodology documentation including the structured procedure, guiding questions, and practical implementation guidance.
These tools are part of the research published in the following article:
"Procedure for selecting use case-specific sustainability indicators in manufacturing systems"
Patrick Jordan, Stefanie Keil, Daniel Schneider, Lasse Streibel, Susanne Vernim, Michael F. Zaeh
Presented at the 32nd CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (LCE 2025).
For more details, please refer to the published article (Link)
The manufacturing industry faces increasing pressure to minimize its environmental impact while maintaining economic viability. This repository presents a user-friendly procedure to support the selection of appropriate sustainability indicators. The procedure is supported with an indicator catalog consisting of 477 environmental and economic sustainability indicators and comprehensive selection guidelines. The methodology addresses three key challenges: enabling comprehensive and balanced assessment of economic and environmental dimensions, providing broad applicability across diverse use cases, and offering a user-friendly selection process.
This research was funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) as part of the “SmartMan” project (13IK033J).
The spreadsheet-based selection tool implements the developed four-step procedure and provides:
- Comprehensive indicator catalog: 477 structured environmental and economic sustainability indicators (see Sheet "3b. Full List")
- Use case-specific filtering: Filter indicators by hierarchical level, industry type, company size, and process type (see Sheet "1. & 2. Start")
- Guided selection process: Step-by-step procedure from structuring to balanced indicator set selection (see Sheets 1 to 6)
- Coverage assessment: Visual dashboard to ensure balanced coverage across sustainability dimensions (see Sheet "5.Review")
Features:
- Applicability attributes (identifier, name, definition, measurement type, unit of measurement, references)
- Relevance attributes (hierarchical level, industry type, company size, process type, usage frequency (count of references), GRI alignment)
- Coverage attributes (sustainability dimensions and organizational categories)
- Scientific references to indicator catalogues
Download Sustainability Indicator Selection Tool (Excel)
The comprehensive user manual provides step-by-step instructions for using the Excel-based selection tool:
- Five-step user process: From scope definition to final indicator selection
- Practical guidance: Detailed instructions for each Excel worksheet and functionality
- Selection criteria: Guiding questions for relevance, comprehensibility, and data availability
- Review framework: Coverage and manageability assessment guidelines
- Download the Excel tool from the link above (Click "View raw")
- Open the file in Microsoft Excel (recommended) or compatible spreadsheet application
- Enable macros if prompted for full functionality
- Step I (Structure): Review the structured indicator catalog with 477 indicators
- Step II (Prefilter): Use the filter module to specify your use case parameters
- Step III (Review): Apply guiding questions to assess indicator relevance and data availability
- Step IV (Balance): Use the coverage dashboard to ensure balanced indicator selection
- Add or modify indicators to fit specific manufacturing contexts
- Adjust filtering criteria based on your use case requirements
- Export your final indicator set for implementation
- Download and review the PDF user guide for complete instructions
- Understand the five-step process and Excel tool structure
- Familiarize yourself with the guiding questions and selection criteria
- Use the PDF as a reference while working with the Excel tool
- Navigate between Excel worksheets as instructed in the guide
- Apply the recommended filtering and selection approach
- Download the PDF document.
- Read through the methodology to understand the process of indicator selection.
- Apply the described procedure to your specific use case.
If you use this repository, the selection procedure, or the tools for your research or industry projects, please cite the following article:
@article{JORDAN2025468,
title = {Procedure for selecting use case-specific sustainability indicators in manufacturing systems},
journal = {Procedia CIRP},
volume = {135},
pages = {468-473},
year = {2025},
note = {32nd CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering (LCE2025)},
issn = {2212-8271},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2025.04.001},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212827125004494},
author = {Patrick Jordan and Stefanie Keil and Daniel Schneider and Lasse Streibel and Susanne Vernim and Michael F. Zaeh}
}This repository and its contents are licensed under the MIT License.
For questions, suggestions, or collaboration opportunities, please contact the corresponding author or visit our institute website.