# Analysis of Selected IT Tools for Environmental Product Assessment
## 4 Results
### Results Summary--Comparative Analysis  
In order to compare the IT tools dedicated to the environmental assessment of products, the results obtained for the same reference products from the three analyzed software were compared.  
In the SimaPro software, the ReCiPe 2016 Endpoint methodology was used; in Sustainable Minds, the SM2013 methodology; and in GaBi, the ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint methodology. Due to the fact that the analyzed tools used different calculation methodologies, the estimated results turned out to be difficult to compare. Each of the tools presented the results in a different form; therefore, for the purposes of achieving the research goal, it was decided to compare carbon dioxide emissions, which were an element of the results in each of the discussed programs. The results for two variants of product A are presented in Table 3.  
In the case of the GaBi tool, the lack of a complete analysis for the manufacturing processes performed proved to be a major obstacle. This was due to the limitation of the educational version of the software. For this reason, the results obtained in GaBi are significantly lower than in the other tools.  
Figure 7: CO2 emissions—product A_RoW—GaBi.  
It is worth noting the difference between the CO2 emissions results for product A variants generated in different software. In the case of Sustainable Minds and GaBi, the difference is several kilograms. For the results generated by the SimaPro tool, the difference is almost 100 kg. The SimaPro tool was the only one in which the region of the materials obtained and the processes performed was distinguished (in the Sustainable Minds tool, all processes were global). Noteworthy is the CO2 emissions result for the A_EU variant, made using the SimaPro tool. It can be concluded that production processes carried out in the European Union are characterized by much less environmental damage.  
The carbon dioxide emission results for the two variants of product B are presented in Table 4.  
In the case of product B, the GaBi software also did not take into account most of the manufacturing processes, which is why the emissions are significantly lower. However, it should be noted that in the case of B_RoW variant, according to the SimaPro and Sustainable Minds tools, most of the carbon dioxide emissions were caused by the use of air transport over long distances, which was also included in the model in the GaBi program. However, in this case, this did not translate into the result in a significant way. This may result from other data on the harmfulness of air transport included in the database of this tool. As in the case of variant A_EU, the B_EU variant modeled in SimaPro is characterized by lower emissions than the model from Sustainable Minds. It is suspected that this is due to the distinction of the region where the materials were obtained and manufacturing processes were carried out. The high emphasis placed by the European Union on pro-environmental activities results in a reduction in harmful substance emissions during production, which is reflected in the data included in the SimaPro tool database.