As a means to render applicable environmental data without having to use advanced calculation tools, the Institute for Product Development collaborated with the Danish Technological Institute and the Association of Danish Foundries on developing a simplified calculation tool for the iron and metal foundry industry.  

The method and data analysis in the simplified calculation tool are the same as in the UMIP/GABI database; however, data has been transferred onto a spreadsheet and the results are less detailed.

The simplified calculation tool was developed with the aim of helping the foundries develop green tools and for environmental comparison of alternative foundry processes.

In order to make the tool widely applicable in the foundry industry, the tool contains a number of alternative manufacturing processes aside from the foundry processes. These manufacturing processes are welding processes, machining processes, etc., and transportation processes. This enables the foundries to compare alternatives as far back as the mining operation and up until delivery at the customer.

The project was conducted in collaboration with a number of iron and metal foundries, which kindly made available to the project their processes and data.