102nd Meeting of the EURO Working Group in Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding

SustainFrame – A low-threshold screening tool for early-stage sustainability assessments

18 Sept 2026, 15:10

20m

Siemens Auditorium (HIT E 51) (ETH Zürich)

Regular Presentation Regular session

Speaker

Martina Haase (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS))

Description

A low-threshold screening tool called “SustainFrame” is being developed to assess the sustainability of new and ongoing research projects in the field of materials, technologies and infrastructures at KIT. SustainFrame uses multi-criteria decision analysis methods and is being designed to guide users through the sustainability screening process by a series of questions that lead to selecting alternatives and decision criteria, creating an evaluation matrix, weighting and aggregating criteria, and analyzing results. For selecting decision criteria and attributes, SustainFrame is based on the value-focused thinking (VFT) approach with sets of predefined and context-specific decision criteria available to users during the screening process. For evaluating the alternatives based on the decision criteria, an evaluation matrix is created that allows for both, qualitative and quantitative entries based on, e.g., expert estimates or measured data. Depending on the problem and available data, SustainFrame uses proper weighting and aggregation methods. SustainFrame is developed based on exemplary use cases at KIT related to the Post Lithium Storage Cluster of Excellence (POLiS) and the real world lab SmartEast for smart, energy-efficient, climate-friendly districts. These use cases are being integrated into the SustainFrame development process through co-design, co-implementation, and co-reflection in interviews and workshops. SustainFrame is supposed to help identify sustainability hotspots and areas for action, which can be further examined using specific assessment methods, e.g. Life-cycle-assessment. The development of SustainFrame leverages synergies with existing approaches and software tools at KIT, such as HELDA, KaDi4Mat, and FRAMESS, to ensure compatibility for in-depth analyses. Once the development phase is complete, SustainFrame will be made available for free on a dedicated website. This contribution presents early-stage ideas for the development of SustainFrame.