Analysis of Selected IT Tools for Environmental Product Assessment

This article discusses the subject of the environmental assessment of products based on specific methods (LCA, ReCiPe, and SM2013) and tools (GaBi, SimaPro, and Sustainable Minds). The aim of this work was to analyze selected IT tools for supporting such an assessment. Assumptions and criteria were adopted, based on which specific IT tools were selected for a comparative analysis. Then, an environmental assessment of reference products was carried out using three different IT tools. The structure of the products was prepared in such a way that the parts and subassemblies met two basic requirements. First, they were made of construction materials that are generally available and used in industry. The second requirement was that the technologies for manufacturing these parts included as many frequently used technological processes as possible. This allowed for a comparison of the results of estimated environmental assessments generated by selected IT tools. As a result, the strengths and weaknesses of each of the IT tools were identified.