Zero Carbon Tool: A digital tool for circular manufacturing in Central Europe
The REUSE2030 project, implemented within the Interreg programme, is among the key regional initiatives supporting the circular economy in Central Europe. Its goal is to help manufacturing companies, especially in the engineering sector, in the transition to more sustainable and low-carbon production models.
The main output of the project is the innovative Zero Carbon Tool web application.
Zero Carbon Tool enables companies to evaluate the environmental impacts of production across the entire product life cycle – from the materials used and production processes, through energy consumption and transport, to the use phase and end of life. The tool does not evaluate only the carbon footprint, but analyses up to 16 categories of environmental impacts, including climate change, ecotoxicity, human toxicity, land and water use, and eutrophication.
A strong feature of the application is the possibility to compare different production scenarios, for example changes in the share of recycled materials or alternative technological solutions. Companies thus obtain a basis for informed decision-making and the identification of measures with a real environmental benefit.
The application is user-friendly, with clear graphical outputs as well as detailed data for expert analysis. It is based on the recognised Ecoinvent and Sphera LCA databases and uses the MEErP methodology, which guarantees the reliability and comparability of results.