Publication
A composite indicator for evaluating safety and sustainability by design and circularity in emerging technologies
The authors of this article developed the first index to measure product safety, sustainability, and circularity, operationalising the EU’s Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework.
- Author
- Ana Arias, Marco Cinelli, Maria Teresa Moreira & Stefano Cucurachi
- Date
- 08 October 2024
- Links
- Read the full article here
Dr. Marco Cinelli, in collaboration with Dr. Stefano Cucurachi, Dr. Maria Teresa Moreira, and Dr. Ana Arias Calvo published an article that proposes an index to assess the safety, sustainability and circularity of products, accounting for all the impacts from raw materials extraction to product manufacturing. This index is the first operationalisation via some advanced decision support methods of the Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework of the European Commission.
The paper proposes a stepwise procedure to evaluate the impacts and benefits that emerging technologies have. These include (i) data gathering via existing repositories and primary research, (ii) impact assessment using also tools developed internally by the Department of Industrial Ecology at the Institute of Environmental Sciences of Leiden University, and (iii) aggregation of the information to provide a score between 0 and 1 that characterises the overall performance of the products under assessment.
How can this index be used?
The index can be used by process developers who are interested in evaluating the safety, sustainability, and circularity of products at an early development stage. It suits well users that want to visualise the overall performance of products, as well as identify hotspots during the life cycle.