Companies are encouraged to operate, trade and manufacture in a sustainable and responsible manner. However, it is not just society in general that is attaching ever greater importance to environmentally friendly practices. The European Union’s new Corporate Social Responsibility Directive (CSRD) entered into force in mid-2023, requiring companies to report in intricate detail on how their activities impact nature and the environment. This mandatory sustainability reporting must include information that is both retrospective and forward looking, and must cover short, medium and long-term timeframes. The directive applies to large industrial corporations and SMEs such as those in the medical technology sector alike.

In order to both implement sustainability and make it commercially traceable, companies need appropriate tools for effective and transparent management controlling. However, rising levels of complexity mean the software used needs to meet very stringent requirements in terms of functionality and quality. An intuitive user interface is also indispensable as a way to ensure users can operate the software quickly and effectively.

Just such a software tool is being developed for the first time as a joint project between two companies as part of the Green Controlling project. The incredibly user-friendly software analyses all the parameters of a product that are relevant to its industrial production to assess the associated ecological aspects. This is already the fifth research project to be funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) within the smart analytics international cooperation network.

defortec GmbH uses relevant product development stages to define the structure and modalities that are required for the sustainable CSR product creation process. The company, which is based in Dettenhausen, near Tübingen, is designing an intuitive new user interface for the controlling software. Meanwhile, macs Software GmbH, which is based in Zimmern ob Rottweil, is developing user-friendly controlling software for creating a digital twin. Besides leveraging state-of-the-art development tools, the solution also utilises artificial intelligence methods (neuronal networks and statistical algorithms).