acCO2unt.log

Project Duration:
Feb 1, 2025 to Oct 31, 2026

Project Management:
Prof. Dr. Christoph Laroque (WHZ)
Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sigrid Wenzel (University of Kassel)

User:
Alpha Sigma GmbH, Siemens AG, SITEC Industrietechnologie GmbH, Tisora Sondermaschinen GmbH

Service Provider:
ams.Solution AG, Limón GmbH, N+P Informationssysteme GmbH, SimPlan AG

Multipliers:
owl Maschinenbau e. V., TransMIT Gesellschaft für Technologietransfer mbH, Verbund Maschinenbau in Sachsen / Thüringen e. V. (VEMAS e. V.), Zukunftsallianz Maschinenbau e. V.

The goal of the research project “acCO2unt.log: Process- and Design-Based CO2 Accounting for Manufacturers of One-Off and Small-Batch Products in the Machinery and Plant Engineering Sector, Using Logistics Processes as an Example” is to design an IT platform with interoperable Product Carbon Footprint Services for data collection and analysis, as well as for the calculation, visualization, and forecasting of the carbon footprint for small and medium-sized enterprises during the procurement, production, transport, assembly, and commissioning of a customer-specific one-off product or a product from a small-batch series.

To achieve the project’s objective, the following core elements must be implemented:

1. Semantic and IT-based processing of the relevant norms and accounting standards for CO₂ determination, as well as the integration of available databases on CO₂ equivalents.
2. Modeling of the information flows accompanying the processes, using the example of the production and logistics processes under consideration (procurement, production, transport, delivery, installation and commissioning of a customer-specific system) and determination of the information requirements for calculating the CO2 footprint of a one-off item or a product from a small production run in accordance with SCOPE 3 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol  (https://ghgprotocol.org/).
3. Systematic and process-oriented processing and synthesis of all information into an expandable information model.
4. Design of an IT platform for small and medium-sized enterprises featuring interoperable product carbon footprint services for data collection, data analysis, calculation, visualization, and forecasting, which automatically determines the carbon footprint throughout the process with minimal effort.

The core elements will be integrated into a demonstrator as an exemplary implementation to enable a thorough evaluation of the results across various user companies.

In this project, the Industry Analytics research group and Professor Laroque aim first to assess the suitability of legal requirements for determining CO₂ equivalents generated by logistics processes, to identify the information needed for calculating the CO₂ footprint of products, and to model the flow of information associated with logistics processes. This will be followed by the development of a flexibly expandable information model for CO₂ accounting in the form of a semantic model (ontology). This preliminary work will serve as the basis for designing the IT platform and its interoperable services for determining, accounting for, and forecasting the CO₂ footprint during the design phase. The implementation takes the form of a demonstrator to enable evaluation based on application scenarios involving multiple users. The innovation lies in creating a practical approach for small and medium-sized enterprises to efficiently assess the CO₂ footprint of a facility.

Prof. Dr. Christoph Laroque
Profess of Business Analytics
christoph.laroque[at]whz.de

Wibke Kusturica
Research Assistant and Ph.D. Student
wibke.kusturica[at]whz.de