Methods and systems for monitoring environmental impacts of vehicle repair facilities

Abstract

The invention relates to the field of sustainable vehicle repair processes, in particular the monitoring environmental impact associated with the operation of vehicle repair facilities performing vehicle repair processes involving the use of coating material(s). The disclosure relates to methods, systems and computer elements for monitoring an environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility, methods, systems and computer elements for optimizing an environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility and a use of environmental property data generated by the methods and systems disclosed herein for optimizing an environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

Description

[0001] METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MONITORING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF VEHICLE REPAIR FACILITIES

[0002] TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] The invention relates to the field of sustainable vehicle repair processes, in particular the monitoring environmental impact associated with the operation of vehicle repair facilities performing vehicle repair processes involving the use of coating material(s). The disclosure relates to methods, systems and computer elements for monitoring an environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility, methods, systems and computer elements for optimizing an environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility and a use of environmental property data generated by the methods and systems disclosed herein for optimizing an environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

[0004] TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

[0005] Environmental impact assessment is an essential aspect of modern industrial operations, including vehicle repair facilities. Vehicle repair facilities are known to generate waste, emissions, and other pollutants, contributing significantly to environmental degradation. Due to the increasing awareness of environmental concerns there is a need to monitor the environmental impact associated with such vehicle repair facilities.

[0006] SUMMARY OF INVENTION

[0007] In one aspect disclosed is a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for monitoring an environmental impact associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, wherein one or more vehicle repair processes involving the use of coating materials are performed within a vehicle repair facility and wherein the environmental impact relates to environmental property data associated with the performed vehicle repair processes, the method comprising the steps of:

[0008] • providing at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, data associated with the vehicle repair facility and environmental property factor data associated with environmental property factors indicating the environmental impact of defined amounts of inputs to the vehicle repair facility and defined amounts of outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility,

[0009] • determining, based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, an amount of the input(s) to the vehicle repair facility and an amount of the output(s) generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility,

[0010] • determining, based on the data associated with environmental property factors and the determined amount of the input(s) and the output(s), the environmental property data associated with the performed vehicle repair process(es), providing the determined environmental property data for monitoring the environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

[0011] In yet another aspect disclosed is an apparatus for monitoring an environmental impact associated with the operation of a vehicle repair facility, wherein one or more vehicle repair processes involving the use of coating materials are performed within a vehicle repair facility and wherein the environmental impact relates to one or more environmental properties associated with the performed vehicle repair processes, the apparatus comprising:

[0012] • a data providing interface configured to provide at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, data associated with the vehicle repair facility and environmental property factor data associated with environmental property factors indicating the environmental impact of input(s) to the vehicle repair facility and output(s) generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility,

[0013] • a processor configured to

[0014] ■ determine, based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, an amount of the input(s) to the vehicle repair facility and an amount of the output(s) generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility,

[0015] ■ determine, based on the data associated with environmental property factors and the determined amount of the input(s) and the output(s), the environmental property data associated with the performed vehicle repair process(es),

[0016] • a data providing interface configured to provide the determined environmental property data for monitoring the environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

[0017] In yet another aspect disclosed is a use of environmental property data generated according to any of the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein for optimizing the environmental impact of a vehicle repair facility associated with the environmental property data.

[0018] In yet another aspect disclosed is a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for optimizing an environmental impact associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, wherein one or more vehicle repair processes involving the use of coating materials are performed within a vehicle repair facility and wherein the environmental impact relates to environmental property data associated with the performed vehicle repair processes, the method comprising the steps of:

[0019] • providing target environmental property data associated with a target environmental impact,

[0020] • providing the environmental property data and repair vehicle facility data associated with the environmental property data, in particular wherein the environmental property data is generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein,

[0021] • optimizing the vehicle repair facility data based on the target environmental property data and the environmental property data,

[0022] • providing the optimized vehicle repair facility data for optimizing the environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. In yet another aspect disclosed is an apparatus optimizing an environmental impact associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, wherein one or more vehicle repair processes involving the use of coating materials are performed within a vehicle repair facility and wherein the environmental impact relates to environmental property data associated with the performed vehicle repair processes, the apparatus comprising:

[0023] • a data providing interface configured to provide target environmental property data associated with a target environmental impact, the environmental property data and repair vehicle facility data associated with the environmental property data, in particular wherein the environmental property data is generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein,

[0024] • an optimization unit configured to optimize the vehicle repair facility data based on the target environmental property data and the environmental property data,

[0025] • a data providing interface configured to provide the optimized vehicle repair facility data for optimizing the environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

[0026] In yet another aspect disclosed is a vehicle repair facility associated with environmental property data as generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein.

[0027] In yet another aspect disclosed is a digital asset associated with a vehicle repair facility and including one or more identifier(s) associated with the vehicle repair facility and environmental property data generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein.

[0028] In yet another aspect disclosed is a computer element, in particular a computer program product or a computer readable medium, with instructions, which when executed on one or more computing node(s) are configured to carry out the steps of any of the methods disclosed herein.

[0029] In yet another aspect the present disclosure relates to a computer element with instructions, which when executed on one or more computing node(s) is configured to carry out the steps of the method(s) of the present disclosure or configured to be carried out by the apparatus(es) of the present disclosure.

[0030] Any disclosure, embodiments and examples described herein relate to the methods, the apparatuses, the uses, the vehicle repair facilities, the digital assets and the computer elements lined out above and below. Advantageously, the benefits provided by any of the embodiments and examples equally apply to all other embodiments and examples.

[0031] Embodiments

[0032] In the following, embodiments of the present disclosure will be outlined by ways of embodiments and / or examples. It is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to said embodiments and / or examples. The operation of vehicle repair facilities can produce significant amounts of pollution and can have a substantial environmental impact. To reliably monitor and / or optimize environmental impact associated with the operation of vehicle repair facilities, transparency on such environmental impact is crucial.

[0033] By using a digital representation of the vehicle repair facility, e.g. the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, the environmental impact of the operation of the vehicle repair facility may be determined in line with the repair process layout, e.g. in line with the repair process step(s) as well as the material(s) and equipment(s) used in such process step(s) and the operation(s) performed during such process step(s). This is particularly important in the context of vehicle repair facilities, as the environmental property data associated with these operations can vary significantly depending on the type of repairs being performed and the equipment being used. The transparency achieved with respect to the environmental impact may be used to optimize the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility.

[0034] By using environmental impact factors indicating the environmental impact of inputs to the vehicle repair facility and outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility and by mapping such factors to amounts of determined inputs and outputs, a more accurate calculation of the environmental impact can be achieved. By using environmental impact factors associated with different environmental impact categories, the environmental property data may be determined for different environmental impacts, hence providing a broader understanding of the overall environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. By using environmental impact factors determined according to different environmental impact methods, the determination of the environmental property data can be tailored to regulatory requirements that need to be fulfilled, hence improving the accountability and reliability of the determined environmental property data.

[0035] By optimizing the environmental property data based on target environmental property data, savings in terms of required input(s) and / or generated output(s) can be reliably identified, enabling the vehicle repair facility to reduce its environmental impact by implementing such identified savings. By using target environmental impact data reflecting the physical layout of the repair process and / or material(s) to be used therein, the optimization of the environmental property data can be performed in line with the process layout of the repair processes. This ensures that the optimized vehicle repair facility data can be implemented to reduce the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility. The optimization may allow to reduce the environmental impact of vehicle repair facilities, hence resulting in an overall reduction of the environmental impact of the vehicle repair industry.

[0036] Various units, entities, nodes or other computing components may be described as “configured to” perform a task or tasks. Configured to shall recite structure meaning “having circuitry that” performs the task or tasks on operation. The units, circuits, entities, nodes or other computing components can be configured to perform the task even when the unit / circuit / component is not operating. The units, circuits, entities, nodes or other computing components that form the structure corresponding to “configured to” may include hardware circuits and / or memory storing program instructions executable to implement the operation. The units, circuits, entities, nodes or other computing components may be described as performing a task or tasks, for convenience in the description. Such descriptions shall be interpreted as including the phrase “configured to.”

[0037] In general, the methods, apparatuses, systems, computer elements, nodes or other computing components described herein may include memory, software components and hardware components. The memory can include volatile memory such as static or dynamic random-access memory and / or nonvolatile memory such as optical or magnetic disk storage, flash memory, programmable read-only memories, etc. The hardware components may include any combination of combinatoric logic circuitry, clocked storage devices such as flops, registers, latches, etc., finite state machines, memory such as static random-access memory or embedded dynamic random-access memory, custom designed circuitry, programmable logic arrays, etc.

[0038] Environmental impact associated with operations of the vehicle repair facility may relate to any environmental impact resulting from the operation of the vehicle repair facility. Operations of the vehicle repair facility may include repair processes involving the use of coating materials. Repair processes involving the use of coating material may include processes where at least one coating material is applied to a vehicle or a vehicle part. The coating material may be applied to a vehicle part present on the vehicle or a vehicle part not being present on the vehicle. Environmental impacts may arise from inputs provided to the vehicle repair facility, such as material inputs and energy inputs, as well as outputs generated upon performing the operations, such as generated waste and generated emissions. Inputs may be associated with an environmental impact arising from the production of such inputs. For example, energy inputs may be associated with an environmental impact arising from the production of such energy. Likewise, material inputs may be associated with an environmental impact arising from the production of such materials.

[0039] Vehicle repair facility may refer to a facility in which one or more repair processes are performed on a vehicle or a part thereof. At least a part of the repair processes may involve the use of coating material(s) during the repair processes. The vehicle may include a motor vehicle, such as a car, a van, a minivan, a bus, a SUV (sports utility vehicle), a truck, a semitruck, a tractor, a motorcycle, a trailer, an ATV (all- terrain vehicle), a pickup truck, a heavy duty mover, such as bulldozer, mobile crane and earth mover, an airplanes, boats, ships or other device propelled through space with a motor or engine. The term vehicle includes vehicles propelled by a motor burning fuel for power, and a vehicle propelled by an engine using electricity.

[0040] Environmental property factors may be associated with any characteristic or property of a vehicle repair facility that has the potential to impact the environment. This may include energy consumption, material consumption, waste generation, and release(s) generation. The environmental property factors may be associated with various aspects of the repair processes performed within the vehicle repair facility, including the tools and equipment used, the materials and substances involved, and the facility's operations. Environmental property factors may include weighting factors. The weighting factors may describe the extent of the influence of a given input, output or process on the environment. The weighting factors may be associated with environmental impact categories defining different types of environmental impact, such as global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, acidification potential, etc.. These weighting factors may be used to quantify the potential environmental impact of the inputs and the outputs. These factors may be determined by determining the emissions, such as CO2 emissions, CFC emissions, HCFC emissions, CH4 emissions, HC emissions, NOx emissions, SO2 emissions and / or HCI emissions associated with each component contained within the respective used input or generated output using one or more different model(s). Methods may include the CML2001 method, the EF 1.8 method, the ReCiPe 2016 method and / or the TRACI method.

[0041] The environmental property data may indicate or may be associated with an environmental impact associated with input(s), such as energy inputs and material inputs, to the repair process(es) as well as output(s), such as generated waste and release(s) to air, water and / or soil, produced by the repair process(es). The environmental property data may be associated with environmental property / ies of the repair process(es). The environmental property data may be associated with environmental property / ies of the operation of the vehicle repair facility. The environmental property data may be determined based on the consumption of materials, the consumption of energy and / or the generation of waste and releases to air, water and / or soil. The environmental property data may include one or more characteristic(s) that are attributable to environmental impact of the input(s) and the output(s). The environmental property data may include environmental, technical or circularity characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the input(s) and output(s).

[0042] The environmental property data may include one or more environmental property / ies associated with the repair process(es) and / or the operation of the vehicle repair facility. Environmental property / ies may refer to any property or characteristic related to the environmental impact. Such property may be a property or characteristic of input(s) and / or output(s) associated with one or more process steps(s) of the repair processes and / or the vehicle repair facility. The environmental property / ies may indicate an environmental performance of input(s) and / or output(s) associated with one or more process steps(s) of the repair processes and / or the vehicle repair facility. The environmental property / ies may be derived from properties of the input(s) and / or the output(s) associated with one or more process steps(s) of the repair processes and / or the vehicle repair facility. The environmental property / ies may include one or more characteristic(s) that are attributable to environmental or sustainability impact of the input(s) and / or output(s) associated with one or more repair process(es) and / or the vehicle repair facility. The environmental property / ies may include environmental and / or technical characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the input(s) and / or output(s) associated with one or more repair process(es) and / or the vehicle repair facility. Environmental characteristic(s) may specify or quantify ecological criteria associated with the environmental impact of input(s) and / or output(s) associated with one or more repair process(es) and / or the vehicle repair facility. Environmental characteristic(s) may be or may be produced or derived from measurements taken during the lifecycle of input(s) and / or output(s) associated with one or more process steps(s) of the repair process(es) and / or the vehicle repair facility. Environmental characteristic(s) may for example include impact categories such as carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions or global warming potential, primary energy demand, cumulative energy demand, biotic and abiotic resource consumption, air emissions, stratospheric ozone depletion potential, ozone formation, terrestrial and / or marine acidification, water consumption, water depletion, water availability, water pollution, noise pollution, freshwater and / or marine eutrophication potential, human carcinogenic and / or non- carcinogenic toxicity, photochemical oxidant formation, particulate matter formation, terrestrial, freshwater and / or marine ecotoxicity, ionizing radiation, agricultural and / or urban land occupation, land transformation, land use, indirect land use, deforestation, biodiversity, mineral resource consumption, and / or fossil resource consumption. Environmental characteristic(s) may be calculated from combinations of one of more impact categories.

[0043] Technical characteristic(s) may specify or quantify material or product performance at least indirectly associated with the environmental impact. Technical characteristic(s) may for example include product composition data, bill of materials, product specification data, product component data, product safety data, application property data, application instructions or product quality data. Technical characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from measurements taken during the lifecycle of input(s) and / or output(s) associated with one or more process steps(s) of the coating process and / or the coating process. Technical characteristics may be determined at any stage of the lifecycle and may characterize the material performance for such stage or up to such stage. Technical characteristic(s) may for example include physical, chemical or further properties of the chemical material.

[0044] The environmental property factor data may be associated with or relate to one or more method(s) used to determine such environmental property factors. Methods used to determine such factors may include the CML2001 method, the EF 1.8 method, the ReCiPe 2016 method and / or the TRACI method. The environmental impact factors may be associated with inputs consumed by the vehicle repair facility and / or releases generated by the vehicle repair facility. The environmental impact factors may include or be associated with at least one environmental impact category. The environmental impact category may include a global warming potential, a photochemical ozone creation potential, an acidification potential, an eutrophication potential, a resource depletion and / or a cumulative energy demand.

[0045] The global warming potential may be a measure of greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide and methane. These emissions may cause an increase in the absorption of emitted radiation by the earth, and thereby, increase the natural greenhouse effect. This may, in turn, have adverse impacts on ecosystem health, human health, and material welfare. The medium for global warming potential may be air. Global Warming Potential (GWP) may be used for the calculation of the potency of greenhouse gases relative to CO2 The global warming potential may be quantified as kg CO2 eq. per unit or per defined time period, such as per year.

[0046] Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (POCP) may refer to the potential of a chemical compound to contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone, or smog, through photochemical reactions in the atmosphere. These reactions are triggered by sunlight and involve pollutants like nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. The POCP may be quantified as kg ethene eq. per unit or per defined time period.

[0047] Emissions such as sulfuric and nitric acids that cause acidifying effects to the environment may result in acidification potential. The acidification potential may be a measure of a molecule’s capacity to increase the hydrogen ion (H+) concentration in the presence of water, thus decreasing the pH value. Effects from acidification potential may cause damage to building materials, paints, lakes, streams, rivers, and various plants and animals. The acidification potential may be quantified as kg SO2 eq. per unit or per defined time period.

[0048] Eutrophication impact potential may be a measure of the effects of excessively high levels of macronutrients, the most important of which are nitrogen and phosphorus. Although nitrogen and phosphorus play an important role in the fertilization of agricultural lands and other vegetation, excessive releases of either of these substances may provide undesired effects on the environment. Nitrogen is often more detrimental to coastal environments than phosphorus. The eutrophication potential may be quantified as kg phosphate eq. per unit or per defined time period.

[0049] Abiotic resource depletion potential (ADP) may quantify the amount of non-living (abiotic) natural resources, such as minerals and fossil fuels, that are extracted or depleted due to human activities. ADP may be measured in kilograms of a certain resource extracted per functional unit of the product or service. For example, ADP may be expressed as kg Sb-Eq (Antimony Equivalent) for minerals and MJ for fossil fuels.

[0050] Primary energy demand may be derived from primary energy. Primary energy may be the energy embodied in natural resources before being transformed to intermediate and / or end-use energy. Examples of primary energy resources include coal, natural gas, sunlight, wind, rivers, biomass, geothermal, and nuclear energy resource. For combustible energy sources such as fossil fuels, primary energy may be calculated based on the calorific value of the fuel and the amount of fuel required to generate a given unit of electricity or heat. For non-combustible energy sources (e.g., renewable energy sources), primary energy may be calculated using either primary energy equivalencies or conversion efficiencies of the renewable energy source. The environmental property data may digitally specify the environmental impact of operations performed by the vehicle repair facility, such as consumption of material(s) and / or energy generation of waste and / or releases to air, soil and / or water. Reduction of the environmental impact of input(s) and / or output(s) may hence result in an environmental impact reduction of the operation of the vehicle repair facility. The environmental property data may allow to monitor and / or control the repair processes, e.g. to monitor and / or control the repair process es such that the repair processes are associated with a target environmental impact. The environmental property data may include a qualitative data point relating to the type of impact e.g., in view of the input(s) and / or the output(s). The environmental property data may include further environmental characteristics of the input(s) or the output(s).

[0051] In an embodiment, the vehicle repair processes involve the repair of existing coatings being present on a vehicle or a part thereof, the recoating of previously coated surface(s) of the vehicle or a part thereof and / or coating of vehicle parts prior to attachment of said coated parts to the vehicle. Repair of existing coatings may include spot repair. In spot repair, a small area of a vehicle's surface is repaired, often to repair damage caused by minor accidents or wear and tear. Recoating of previously coated surfaces may include edge-to-edge repair. Edge-to-edge repair involves repairing or replacing a larger area of the vehicle's surface, such as a fender or door, and may involve removing and recoating the existing paint or coating. Coating of vehicle parts may include coating vehicle parts and mounting the coated vehicle parts to the vehicle. Vehicle parts may include panels, bumpers, or trim pieces, before they are assembled onto the vehicle.

[0052] In an embodiment, the data associated with the vehicle repair facility signifies a digital representation of the equipment(s), material(s) and condition(s) used within the repair process(es) and the operation(s) performed within the repair process(es). The data associated with the vehicle repair facility may hence represent a digital twin of all operations performed within the vehicle repair facility. The digital twin may include data associated with equipment(s) used within the process(es), material(s) used within process(es), waste generated by the process(es) and / or release(s) generated by process(es). The digital twin may mirror the process(es) performed within the vehicle repair facility. The digital twin may allow to mirror the operation of the vehicle repair facility in the digital world, hence allowing to determine environmental property data associated with operations, such as repair process(es), performed in the physical world using the digital twin.

[0053] In an embodiment the data associated with the vehicle repair facility includes input data associated with one or more input(s) provided to the vehicle repair facility and output data associated with one or more output(s) generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility. Input(s) may include material and / or energy consumed by the operation of the vehicle repair facility. Material may refer to physical inputs provided to the vehicle repair facility, such as coating material(s), rinsing material(s), auxiliary material(s) required for vehicle repair processes, such as tape, gloves, mixing cups, plastic foil, paper and / or devices to fasten vehicle parts, substrates and fuel(s) used for the fleet of the vehicle repair facility. Substrates may include vehicle parts, such as panels, bumpers, trim pieces, trunk lids, etc.. Consumed material may include consumed coating materials, consumed auxiliary materials, consumed water, consumed substrates or the like. Likewise, consumed energy may include thermal and / or electric energy consumed by the operation of the vehicle repair facility. Output(s) may include waste and / or releases, such as VOC emissions, generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

[0054] The input data may include material consumption data and energy consumption data. The output data may include waste generation data and release generation data. The material consumption data may include data associated with consumed coating material(s), data associated with consumed rinsing material(s), data associated with consumed water, data associated with consumed auxiliary materials and data associated with fuel consumed by a fleet of the vehicle repair facility. Data associated with the consumed coating material(s) may include coating material identifier(s), amounts of consumed coating material(s), chemical and / or physical property / ies of the consumed coating material(s), any single data or any combinations thereof. Data associated with the consumed rinsing material(s) may include rinsing material identifier(s), amounts of consumed rinsing material(s), chemical and / or physical property / ies of the consumed rinsing material(s), any single data or any combinations thereof. Data associated with consumed auxiliary materials include auxiliary material identifier(s) and amounts of consumed auxiliary material(s). Data associated with fuel consumed by a fleet of the vehicle repair facility may include fuel identifier(s) and the amount of consumed fuel.

[0055] Electric energy consumption data may include electric energy identifier(s), the amount of consumed electric energy and optionally an environmental property factor associated with the consumed energy. The amount of consumed electric energy may correspond to or signify the amount of electric energy consumed from the power grid. The environmental property factor associated with the consumed electric energy may signify a value that represents the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced per unit of electricity consumed, for example the amount of CO2 produced in grams per kilowatt-hour. Feedstock used to generate thermal energy may include oil, gas and / or wood. Energy production data may include data associated with the production of electric and / or thermal energy, for example by solar panels and or by a combined heat and power plant. Data associated with the provision of electric energy to the power grid may include the amount of produced energy and / or heat, the amount of used energy and / or heat and the amount of electricity and / or heat fed into the grid.

[0056] In an embodiment the data associated with the vehicle repair facility further includes time data indicating a time period associated with such data, location data associated with a location of the vehicle repair facility and / or size data associated with a size of the vehicle repair facility. The data associated with the vehicle repair facility may further include data associated with the number of processes performed within the vehicle repair facility for a given time period and / or the number of billed hours. The time data may indicate the time period associated with the inputs and outputs signified by the vehicle repair process data. The time data may indicate the time period for which the inputs and outputs are recorded. Location data may include an address and / or a region and / or a country. Size data may include the number of employees employed by the vehicle repair facility.

[0057] In an embodiment the data associated with the vehicle repair facility is generated according to a predefined data scheme defining one or more data point(s) included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The properties of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility may include data types. The properties of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility may include possible or allowable values and / or value ranges. The properties of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility may be a physical unit of parameter(s) described by values contained in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The properties may define one or more measurement unit(s) associated with the data point(s) to be collected. The vehicle repair facility data may be gathered or collected by displaying the given data scheme within a graphical user interface and prompting the user to enter the values for data point(s) included in the data scheme, such as data to be entered per criterion. The data scheme may define one or more data point(s) as mandatory. The data scheme may further define one or more data point(s) as optional. The use of a standardized structure for the vehicle repair facility data ensures consistency and accuracy during determination of the environmental property data. This allows to obtain comparable and reliable environmental property data, allowing a reliable comparison of different vehicle repair facilities with respect to their environmental impacts. By utilizing standardized input data containing information about inputs (such as material inputs and energy inputs) to the facility, as well as outputs (such as waste and releases) generated by the facility, the environmental impact of vehicle repair facilities can be assessed in a robust and reliable way. By using standardized input data, the determined environmental property data is more reliable and comparable, enabling customers as well as insurance industry to select vehicle repair facilities based on their environmental impact. This way, the environmental impact associated with the vehicle repair industry may be reduced.

[0058] In an embodiment the environmental property factor data includes a mapping of predefined environmental impact factors to material consumption class(es), a mapping of predefined environmental impact factors to electric energy consumption class(es), a mapping of predefined environmental impact factors to thermal energy consumption class(es), a mapping of predefined environmental impact factors to generated waste class(es) and / or a mapping of predefined environmental impact factors to generated release class(es). The material consumption class(es) may represent one or more consumed material type(s), in particular consumed coating material(s), consumed rinsing material(s), consumed water, consumed auxiliary material(s) and / or fuel consumed by a fleet of the vehicle repair facility. The electric energy consumption class(es) may represent consumed electric energy and / or electric energy provided to the power grid. The thermal energy consumption class(es) may represent one or more energy source type(s) consumed for generating thermal energy. The waste class(es) may represent one or more generated waste type(s). The generated release class(es) may represent one or more generated release type(s). The class(es) may be associated with class identifier(s). The class(es) may be mapped to the determined amounts of inputs and outputs. The class(es) may be mapped to the determined amounts of inputs and outputs by matching the class identifier(s) with input identifier(s) associated with the input(s) and output identifier(s) associated with the output(s). This way, predefined environmental impact factors may be mapped to determined amounts of inputs and outputs, allowing to reliably and accurately determine the environmental property data based on such amounts and the matching environmental impact factors. This way, different environmental impact factors may be mapped to a given amount of input or output, allowing to determine environmental property data associated with different environmental impact classifications.

[0059] In an embodiment the determined amount of input(s) includes an amount of consumed material(s), an amount of consumed electric energy and an amount of consumed energy source(s) for generating thermal energy, and wherein the determined amount of output(s) includes an amount of electric energy produced by the vehicle repair facility and provided to an energy grid, an amount of generated waste and / or an amount of generated release(s) to air, soil and / or water. Consumed material may include consumed coating material(s), consumed rinsing material(s), consumed auxiliary material(s) required for the repair processes, such as tape, gloves, mixing cups, plastic foil, paper and / or devices to fasten vehicle parts, substrates, and fuel(s) consumed by the fleet of the vehicle repair facility. The consumed energy source(s) may include gas, oil, district heating, wood and propane. The electric energy produced by the vehicle repair facility, for example by using solar panels or a combined heat and power plant, may be provided to the power grid. Such provisioning of electric energy to the power grid may reduce the consumption of electric energy and hence also the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility. Generated waste may include coating material waste, rising material waste and auxiliary material waste. Generated releases may include emissions of volatile organic compounds, such as organic solvents, that are released from the coating materials and / or the rinsing materials during their use.

[0060] In an embodiment the environmental property data is determined by matching the environmental property factors with input data associated with input(s) to the vehicle repair facility and output data associated with output(s) generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility and multiplying the matched environmental property factors with determined amounts of input(s) associated with the input data and determined amounts of output(s) associated with the output data. The environmental property factors may be matched based on a mapping between the environmental property factors and input classes and output classes, respectively. The input classes may include material consumption classes, electric energy consumption classes, thermal energy consumption classes, generated waste classes and / or generate release classes. Identifiers associated with such classes may be matched to identifiers included in the input data and the output data, respectively. This way, the environmental property factors may be reliably multiplied with the respective amounts of inputs and outputs, allowing a reliable and accurate determination of the environmental property data. The environmental property data may be determined per defined time span, such as per working hour or per year or per billed hour, and / or per performed repair process. Billed hours may be used in vehicle repair processes to charge for labor performed to repair the vehicle. The billed hours may be derived from or based on a standardized industry guide or on catalogues which includes estimates on the average time it will take a trained mechanic to complete a specific repair and associated compensation rate(s) per hour. The industry guides or catalogues may be used by insurance companies and / or fleet management companies to compensate the vehicle repair facility for the performed repair process. The industry guides or catalogues may include a list of repair processes and associated compensation per hour. The industry guides or catalogues may be defined by commission(s) and / or organization(s).

[0061] In an embodiment the determined environmental property data is associated with at least one environmental impact classification. The determined environmental property data may represent quantifiable representation(s) of the respective environmental impact classification or classifications. At least a part of the determined environmental property data may be aggregated into environmental impact classification(s) using a rule-based engine including one or more aggregation rule(s). The rule(s) may signify the environmental impact category classification(s) and associated environmental property data. The rule(s) may signify the environmental impact classification(s) and associated environmental property data per vehicle repair facility. The different environmental impact classifications may be associated with inputs and / or outputs.

[0062] In an embodiment the determined environmental property data includes emission data associated with emissions generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility, energy consumption data associated with the energy consumed by the operation of the vehicle repair facility, waste data associated with waste generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility, releases data associated with the release(s) to air, soil and / or water generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility, water consumption data associated with the water consumed by the operation of the vehicle repair facility, any single data or any combination thereof. The emission data may be associated with specific environmental properties, such as greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, and water pollution. The emission data may be related to specific digital entities, such as a vehicle repair facility's carbon footprint. The emission data may comprise any data related to the environmental footprint. The emission data may include data relating to greenhouse gas emissions e.g. released during operation of the vehicle repair facility. Emission data may comprise specific values associated with a particular vehicle repair facility or activity, such as the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by a vehicle repair facility per hour, per process and / or per billed hour, or the amount of energy consumed by the vehicle repair facility per day. The emission data may comprise any data related to environmental footprint. The environmental footprint may refer to an entity and its associated environmental footprint. The environmental footprint may be entity specific. For instance, the environmental footprint may relate to the vehicle repair facility, repair processes, repaired vehicles, combinations thereof or additional entity-specific relations. Emission data may include data relating to the carbon footprint of the chemical product or a Product Carbon Footprint (PCF). Emission data may include data relating to greenhouse gas emissions e.g. released in production of the chemical product. Emission data may include data related to greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions may include emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, methane (CPU) emission, nitrous oxide (N2O) emission, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) emission, perfluorocarbons (PFCs) emission, sulphurhexafluoride (SFe) emission, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) emission, combinations thereof and additional emissions.

[0063] The energy consumption data may be associated with the energy consumed by the operations of the vehicle repair facility. The consumed energy may include consumed electric energy and consumed energy sources used for generation of thermal energy. Waste data may be associated with waste generated by the operations of the vehicle repair facility. The generated waste may include coating material waste, rising material waste, auxiliary material waste and wastewater. Releases data may be associated with the release(s) to air, soil and / or water generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility. Release data may include volatile organic compounds released during the use of the coating materials and / or the rising materials. Water consumption data may be associated with the amount of fresh water consumed by the operations of the vehicle repair facility.

[0064] In an embodiment the environmental property data is related to a standard unit for measuring carbon footprints. The environmental property data may be quantified based on the standard unit for measuring carbon footprints. The standard unit may correspond to kg CO2 eq. This standard unit may quantify the environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions. The term "CO2 equivalent" may refer to the amount of a greenhouse gas that has the same global warming potential as one kilogram of carbon dioxide over a specific time period, typically 100 years. The kg CO2 eq unit considers the different global warming potentials of various greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, and expresses them in terms of their equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. Expression of the environmental property data in terms of kg CO2 eq. allows for a straightforward comparison and quantification of environmental property data of different vehicle repair facilities and repair processes.

[0065] In an embodiment at least a part of the determined environmental property data is associated with at least one environmental impact classification. The determined environmental property data may represent quantifiable representation(s) of the respective environmental impact classification. Use of environmental impact classification(s) allows to reduce the complexity associated with the evaluation of the determined environmental property data by significantly reducing the number of data point(s) to be evaluated. This allows to more efficiently and reliably compare different repair process(es) and / or vehicle repair facilities in terms of their environmental impact.

[0066] In an embodiment providing the determined environmental property data includes generating a digital asset including at least one of the identifier(s) associated with the vehicle repair facility and the determined environmental property data and providing the generated digital asset for access by one or more data consumer(s). The digital asset may further include a result of a comparison of the environmental property data with the reference environmental property data. The digital asset may be a computer-readable file or database entry that contains at least a part of the environmental property data and associated information, such as vehicle repair facility identifier(s) and any other relevant metadata. The digital asset may be stored on a computer system, server, or cloud-based storage platform, and may be accessible via a network or internet connection. The digital asset may be accessible via a decentral network under control of the data owner of the digital asset. The data owner may be the vehicle repair facility owner or operator. The digital asset may be used for various purposes, such as tracking the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility over time, providing transparency on the environmental impact to customers or insurance companies, comparing the impact of different facilities, or optimizing the environmental impact. By using a digital asset that is linked (or assigned, attributed, allocated, attached) to the vehicle repair facility, customers can easily select sustainable vehicle repair facilities (e.g., facilities associated with a reduced environmental impact) to repair their vehicle. The digital asset may be used by the vehicle repair facility to provide transparency on its environmental impact and to enable comparison between different vehicle repair facilities with respect to environmental impact, allowing customers and vehicle insurers to select sustainable vehicle repair facilities based on the digital asset. This way, the overall environmental impact associated with vehicle repairs can be reduced.

[0067] In an embodiment, the method further includes a step of validating the data associated with the vehicle repair facility by using a rule-based engine including one or more plausibility rule(s). The environmental property data may be determined based on validated data associated with the vehicle repair facility. Validation may allow to ensure that the vehicle repair facility data is complete and does not contain unplausible data which may result in unreliable environmental property data. The rule-based engine may be a software or software component that applies one or more rules to at least part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. Plausibility rule(s) may be associated with individual data point(s), multiple data points and / or the whole data set (e.g. the complete data contained in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility). Plausibility rule(s) associated with individual data point(s) may include one or more rule(s) defining threshold(s), such as minimum value(s) and / or maximum value(s), for individual data points present with the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The individual data points may correspond to values associated with inputs provided to the vehicle repair facility and / or outputs generated by the vehicle repair facility.

[0068] Plausibility rule(s) associated with multiple data points may include one or more rules defining allowable combination of data points and optionally threshold(s) for data points contained in said combination. The threshold(s) may define minimum value(s) and / or maximum value(s) for data points present with the combination of data points. Use of such plausibility threshold(s) allows to identify unplausible data point combinations and optionally unplausible data points. Plausibility rule(s) associated with the whole data set may include one or more rules defining data to be contained within the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. This may ensure that the vehicle repair facility data includes all data points required to reliably determine the environmental property data. By validating the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, accuracy of such data can be ensured, hence allowing reliable determination of the environmental property data. By validating the input data, a more reliable and stable environmental impact monitoring and / or optimization can be achieved, allowing to reduce the overall environmental impact associated with vehicle repairs.

[0069] In an embodiment, the method further includes a step of assigning at least a part of the determined environmental property data to one or more environmental impact classification(s), optionally determining total environmental property data per environmental impact classification based on the assigned environmental property data, and providing the environmental impact classification (s) including the assigned environmental property data and optionally the determining environmental property data per environmental impact classification. At least a part of the determined environmental property data may be aggregated into environmental impact classification(s) using a rule-based engine including one or more aggregation rule(s). The rule(s) may signify the environmental impact classification and associated environmental property data point(s). The rule may signify the environmental impact classification and associated environmental property data point(s) per facility. The different environmental impact classifications may be associated with a consumption of input(s) and / or a generation of output(s). Consumed input(s) may include consumed material(s) and consumed electric energy. Generated output(s) may include generated waste and / or generated releases. Aggregation of at least a part of the environmental property data allows to reduce the complexity associated with the evaluation of the determined environmental property data by significantly reducing the number of data point(s) to be evaluated. This allows to more efficiently and reliably compare different repair process(es) and / or vehicle repair facilities in terms of their environmental impact.

[0070] In an embodiment, the method further includes a step of determining a deviation of at least a part of the determined environmental property data to reference environmental property data associated with a plurality of vehicle repair facilities, in particular reference environmental property data generated based on environmental property data associated with the plurality of vehicle repair facilities, by providing reference environmental property data associated with vehicle repair facilities, comparing the determined environmental property data to the provided reference environmental property data and providing the result of the comparison for monitoring and / or optimizing the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility. This way, at least a part of the determined environmental property data can be compared to reference environmental property data, allowing comparison of the vehicle repair facility with other vehicle repair facilities with respect to their environmental impact. The reference environmental property data may be provided based on location data included in the vehicle repair facility data. This way, it can be ensured that reference environmental property data generated from environmental property data associated with vehicle repair facilities located in the same country or region than the vehicle repair facility associated with the determined environmental property data. This way, the deviation can be determined more reliable, enabling more reliable optimization of the environmental property data based on the determined deviations. The reference environmental property data may be generated based on environmental property data associated with multiple vehicle repair facilities. The reference environmental property data may be an average of such reference environmental property data. The reference environmental property data may include predefined threshold value(s) for at least a part of the environmental property data. The threshold value(s) may reflect or may be associated with or may include an average environmental impact associated with a group of vehicle repair facilities and / or the vehicle repair facility market. The average environmental impact associated with a group of vehicle repair facilities may be determined by classifying vehicle repair facilities into different groups and determining the average environmental impact for such groups based on the environmental impact associated with vehicle repair facilities present within such groups. The vehicle repair facilities may be classified according to their size and / or location. The threshold value(s) may further include historic environmental impact data associated with the vehicle repair facility.

[0071] Comparison may include classifying at least a part of the determined environmental property data using a classifier. The classifier may be a binary classifier classifying the environmental property data into acceptable or not acceptable. The environmental property data may be classified as acceptable if the environmental property data is above at least one predefined threshold value. The classifier may classify environmental property data into a plurality of predefined classes. The predefined classes be associated with a high environmental impact, a medium environmental impact and a low environmental impact. The predefined classes may be associated with a more granular grading of the environmental impact, for example by using more than 3 different classifications. Examples of such classes include “highly sustainable”, “sustainable” or “not sustainable”. For instance, the vehicle repair facility may be rated as “sustainable” if the determined environmental property data is classified as acceptable. Comparison of the environmental property data with predefined threshold value(s) allows to compare and rate the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility with predefined standards. This way, transparency on the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility is enabled.

[0072] In an embodiment, optimizing the vehicle repair facility data includes determining a deviation of at least a part of the environmental property data to at least a part of the target environmental property data and minimizing the deviation between the environmental property data and the target environmental property data by adjusting the vehicle repair facility data. Adjusting the vehicle repair facility data may include adjusting at least a part of input data and / or at least of output data included in the vehicle repair facility data. Adjusting the vehicle repair facility data may include adjusting the material consumption, the energy consumption, the waste generation and / or the release generation indicated by the input data and / or the output data.

[0073] In an embodiment the method further includes a step of generating control data based on the optimized vehicle repair facility data. The control data may be configured to control and / or monitor the one or more vehicle repair processes. By generating control data based on the optimized vehicle repair facility data, the repair processes can be controlled in a reliable manner such that the optimized environmental property data is achieved by such repair processes.

[0074] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

[0075] In the following, the present disclosure is further described with reference to the enclosed figures. The same reference numbers in the drawings and this disclosure are intended to refer to the same or like elements, components, and / or parts.

[0076] FIG. 1 illustrates an example block diagram of a vehicle repair facility.

[0077] FIG. 2A-2B illustrate block diagrams of example vehicle repair processes performed within a vehicle repair facility.

[0078] FIG. 3A illustrates an example of environmental impact classifications associated with vehicle repair process(es) performed within a vehicle repair facility.

[0079] FIG. 3B illustrates different inputs and outputs used for determining environmental property data associated with the environmental impact classifications illustrated in FIG. 3A.

[0080] FIG. 4 illustrates an example system for monitoring an environmental impact associated with the operation of a vehicle repair facility.

[0081] FIG. 5 illustrates determination of environmental property data associated with repair processes performed within a vehicle repair facility based on various input data by the system illustrated in FIG. 4.

[0082] FIG. 6A illustrates an example of a data structure including a mapping between predefined environmental impact factors and different input classes associated with inputs to a vehicle repair facility.

[0083] FIG. 6B illustrates a further example of a data structure including a mapping between predefined environmental impact factors and different input classes associated with inputs to a vehicle repair facility.

[0084] FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an example of calculations performed by the environmental property generator illustrated in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 to determine environmental property data associated with vehicle repair process(es) performed within a vehicle repair facility. FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an example of calculating the volatile organic content

[0085] (VOC) releases described in the context of FIG. 6.

[0086] FIG. 9A illustrates a flow chart of an example method for monitoring an environmental impact associated with the operation of a vehicle repair facility.

[0087] FIG. 9B illustrates an embodiment of the method of FIG. 9A.

[0088] FIG. 9C illustrates another embodiment of the method of FIG. 9A.

[0089] FIG. 9D illustrates yet another embodiment of the method of FIG. 9A.

[0090] FIG. 10A illustrates an example of a graphical user interface for generating input data associated with one or more input(s) provided to the vehicle repair facility and output data associated with one or more output(s) generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

[0091] FIG. 10B illustrate an example of a graphical user interface for displaying environmental property data associated with repair processes performed within a vehicle repair facility.

[0092] FIG. 11 illustrates an example system of a method for optimizing an environmental impact of a vehicle repair facility.

[0093] FIG. 12 illustrates an example flowchart of an apparatus for optimizing an environmental impact of a vehicle repair facility.

[0094] DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0095] FIG. 1 illustrates an example block diagram of a vehicle repair facility. The vehicle repair facility may be used to repair vehicles. Repair may involve the use of coating material(s). The vehicles may include any vehicles propelled by a combustion engine and / or an electric engine. The vehicles may include land vehicles. The vehicles may include ships and / or boats. The vehicles may include air vehicles. The vehicles may include automotives. The vehicles may include cars. Repair may include repairing one or more vehicle parts. Repair may include repairing a coating present on the surface of the coating or the vehicle part. Repair may include recoating of a coated surface and / or coating of a vehicle part and assembly of the coated vehicle part to the vehicle.

[0096] The vehicle repair process may start at the check-in 102 with a vehicle owner bringing a damaged vehicle to the repair vehicle facility. The vehicle may be inspected at step 104 to identify the damages on the vehicle, such as damages to coated vehicle parts. At step 104 the required repairs may be identified. This may include identifying the required coating material(s) and optionally vehicle parts as well as the type of repair to be performed. For instance, vehicle parts may be required if the damage to the coating cannot be repaired without exchanging the vehicle part the damage is present on. After determination of the required coating material(s) and optionally vehicle parts, their availability may be determined. For instance, it may be determined whether the coating material(s) and vehicle parts are in stock or whether they need to be ordered from suppliers.

[0097] At step 106, the damaged coating may be repaired. Repair may involve spot repair where the damage to the coating is repaired without repainting the whole vehicle part and / or without removing the damaged vehicle part and reassembling a newly coated vehicle part. Repair may involve removal of the damaged vehicle part, coating of an uncoated vehicle part with one or more coating materials, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2A, and assembly of the coated vehicle part. Repair may be performed within a paint unit 110. Repair may be performed within the paint unit and assembly unit 112. The paint unit may comprise a paint booth where the coating material(s) are applied to the vehicle orthe part thereof as described in the context of FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B. The paint booth may comprise ventilation to ensure constant climate conditions and to remove coating material overspray (e.g. coating material which is not applied to the surface during application but is present as mist in the air).

[0098] With reference to FIG. 2A illustrating a spot repair process or an edge to edge repair process 216, the process may begin with masking 202. This allows to safeguard areas not intended for painting and seals off those sections, preventing any unintended spillage, splashes, or sprays from damaging or marring them. Special masking tapes or other materials resistant to paint and solvents may be used for this purpose. Prior to the masking, car parts may be disassembled to allow better access to the damaged coating.

[0099] Following the masking, surface preparation 204 is performed. In this step, the surface to be painted may be thoroughly cleaned and readied. Any dust, oil, or other contaminants may be removed from the surface to ensure that the subsequent layers of primer, basecoat, and clearcoat adhere properly. Surface preparation might involve processes like degreasing, abrasion by sanding, or chemical treatments, depending on the specifics of the surface and the repair. Surface preparation 204 may involve removing all coating layers present on the substrate.

[0100] The surface preparation may be followed by application of primer coating material. The primer coating material may be a primer coating material and / or a primer-surfacer coating material. The formed primer layer may serve as an intermediary between the raw surface and the layers formed from subsequently applied coating material(s). The primer layer may help to hide any imperfections or blemishes on the surface and may enhances the adhesion of the following layers. The primer coating material may include corrosion inhibitive pigments to protect the substrate from corrosion, oxidization, and other environmental damages. The applied primer coating material may be dried and / or cured. Afterwards, a sandable primersurfacer may be applied and dried and / or cured. Curing of the primer and / or primer-surfacer may be performed at room temperature or at temperatures of less than 100 °C to avoid any damage to the vehicle or parts thereof. The primer-surfacer may allow to improve intercoat adhesion and may provide sufficient stone chipping resistance to the resulting coating.

[0101] The cured primer layer or the cured primer-surfacer layer may be treated by sanding 208. The sanding step may allow to smooth the formed coating layer and to rectify any irregularities or rough spots. This may ensure a smooth base for the subsequent application of the basecoat coating material. Different grades of sandpaper may be used, starting from coarse to fine, to achieve a perfectly smooth surface.

[0102] After the sanding step, a basecoat material may be applied to the sanded primer layer or primer-surfacer layer. The basecoat material may be a coating material comprising at least one color pigment and / or at least one effect pigment. Examples of color pigments include inorganic and organic color pigments. Inorganic color pigments may include natural and synthetically produced pigments based on inorganic compounds and includes white pigments, inorganic colored pigments and black pigments. Organic color pigments are practically insoluble in the application medium and may include azo pigments and polycyclic pigments, i.e. organic non-azo pigments characterized by at least one aromatic and / or heteroaromatic ring system. Examples of effect pigments include luster pigments, such as metal effect pigments, pearlescent pigments and interference pigments, flaky graphene, flaky iron oxide and micronized titanium dioxide. The basecoat material may further comprise at least one binder and at least one solvent. The solvent may be organic solvent(s) and / or water. The basecoat material may further comprise at least one crosslinking agent which may react with functional groups present in the binder(s). The basecoat material may be liquid under application conditions, e.g. during application to the sanded primer layer or primer-surfacer layer. The basecoat material may be solid under application conditions. The basecoat material may be prepared by mixing one or more pigment formulation(s) with a pigment free formulation and optionally a crosslinker component. The pigment formulation(s) may include one or more color or effect pigment(s) and a binder. The pigment formulation(s) may further include a solvent. The pigment free formulation may contain a binder, solvent(s), a rheology modifier and optionally a crosslinking agent. The rheology modifier may include an inorganic and / or organic thickening agent. The crosslinking component may include at least one crosslinking agent. The composition of the basecoat material may be determined by performing color matching operations known in the state of the art. Briefly, the appearance (e.g. the color and / or texture) of area(s) adjacent to the damage is determined, for example using a spectrophotometer. The determined color data and / or texture data is used to determine a best matching coating material formulation from a plurality of candidate coating formulations, for example using color matching algorithms known in the state of the art. Each candidate coating formulation may be associated with a mixing formula which signifies the amounts of pigment formulation(s), pigment free formulation and optionally crosslinker component to be mixed to achieve the candidate coating formulation. The basecoat material may be prepared based on a mixing formula associated with a determined best matching coating formulation. The prepared basecoat material may be applied in one or more layers, for example via commonly known spray application methods, such as pneumatic spray application or electrostatic spray application. Application of the basecoat material in several layers allows to attain the desired depth of color and uniformity. The applied basecoat material(s) may be dried and / or cured. The formed basecoat layer may match in appearance to the adjacent coating areas such that the repair is not visible to the eye of the human observer, hence allowing to achieve a uniform appearance of the coating after repair.

[0103] A clearcoat material may be applied to the dried and / or cured basecoat layer in step 212. The clearcoat material may be applied by spray application as previously described. The clearcoat material may be transparent (e.g. may not contain any pigments or may only contain transparent pigments) or semitransparent (e.g. may contain pigments in a concentration which do not fully hide the underlying basecoat layer). The layer produced from the clearcoat material may provide a protective coating against environmental effects, corrosion, and UV light degradation, promote unmatched color retention, and provide a smooth, unblemished, and even finish. Clearcoat materials applied in clearcoat application may include solid (e.g. powder) or liquid (e.g. waterborne or solventborne) clearcoat materials. Clearcoat materials may include 1 K materials (e.g. materials not prepared by mixing 2 separate components) and 2K materials (e.g. materials prepared from mixing a binder component with a hardener component). 1 K materials may include acrylic melamine clearcoats typically based on a combination of acrylic polyols (Ac) and amino cross-linking agents (MF, melamine resins) and 1 K polyurethane clearcoats. 2K materials include 2K polyurethane clearcoats and 2K epoxy acid clearcoats. The applied clearcoat material may be dried and / or cured.

[0104] After curing of the clearcoat material, an inspection 214 may be performed. The inspection may include visual inspection of the repaired area. In inspection, the optical properties of the produced coating may be evaluated. The optical properties may be visually evaluated. The optical properties may be evaluated by determining surface property data and comparing the determined surface property data, such as L*a*b* values or L*C*H* values, to given (e.g. predefined) surface property data. This may ensure that the produced coating fulfils predefined optical properties, such as a predefined color. The optical properties may be evaluated visually and by determining color data. If inspection fails, steps 204 to 212 may be performed again. If the repaired spot passes the inspection, the repair job may be deemed finished.

[0105] In contrast to FIG. 2A, FIG. 2B illustrates a repair process 222 involving removal of the vehicle part comprising the damaged coating, coating of a new vehicle part and assembly of the coated vehicle part. The damaged part may be removed in step 218

[0106] Once the damaged part has been successfully removed, a new vehicle part is coated with one or more coating layers. The new vehicle part may be a plastic part. The new vehicle part may be a metallic part. The new vehicle part may comprise plastic and metallic parts. A primer layer may be applied in step 206 as described in the context of FIG. 2A. The primer layer may provide corrosion resistance and may act as an adhesion promoter to ensure sufficient adhesion of the formed coating to the substrate. The applied primer material may be dried and / or cured. Inc contrast to the process illustrated in FIG. 2A, curing may be effected at temperatures above 80°C. Formation of a primer layer may further include application of a primer-surfacer layer as described in the context of FIG. 2A.

[0107] Following the formation of the primer layer, a basecoat material may be applied in step 210 as described in the context of FIG. 2A. The applied basecoat material may be dried and / or cured. To save energy, the applied basecoat material may only be dried and the clearcoat material may be applied in step 212 wet- in-wet, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2A. The applied clearcoat material may be dried and cured. Curing may be performed at temperatures above 80°C. Curing may result in joint curing of the basecoat material and the clearcoat material.

[0108] After curing of the clearcoat material and optionally the basecoat material, the coated vehicle part is inspected as described in the context of FIG. 2A. If inspection is passed, the coated vehicle part is mounted on the vehicle. If inspection is failed, a new vehicle part is coated by repeating steps 206 to 212.

[0109] Returning to FIG. 1 , mounting of the coated vehicle part to the vehicle may be performed within assembly unit 112 of the vehicle repair facility.

[0110] FIG. 3A illustrates an example of environmental impact classifications associated with vehicle repair process(es) performed within a vehicle repair facility. The vehicle repair facility may include a facility as illustrated in FIG. 1. The repair process may include a spot repair or edge to edge repair process as illustrated in FIG. 2A or a repair process involving exchange of the damaged vehicle part as illustrated in FIG. 2B.

[0111] One or more process steps of the repair process may be associated with environmental impact classifications. The environmental impact classifications may represent environmental impact classes to which environmental property data associated with the respective process step may be assigned. The total environmental impact per environmental impact classification may represent the sum of environmental property data associated with such environmental impact classification. The environmental property data may indicate or may be associated with an environmental impact associated with inputs to the vehicle repair facility and outputs generated by the vehicle repair facility. The environmental property data may be determined from the amount of the inputs and the outputs. The environmental property data may include one or more characteristic(s) that are attributable to environmental impact of the inputs and the outputs. The environmental property data may include environmental, technical or circularity characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the inputs and the outputs. The environmental property data may be associated with environmental impact categories. The environmental property data may represent a quantifiable representation of the respective environmental impact categories. Environmental impact categories may characterize different types of environmental impacts associated with the inputs to the vehicle repair facility and the outputs generated by the vehicle repair facility. The environmental impact categories may include the global warming potential (quantified by kg CO2 eq. / year or working hour or billed our or per repair process), photochemical ozone creation potential (quantified by kg. ethene eq, / year or working hour or billed our or per repair process), acidification potential (quantified by kg SO2 eq. / year or working hour or billed our or per repair process), eutrophication potential (quantified by kg phosphate eq. / year or working hour or billed our or per repair process), resource depletion (quantified by the consumption of fossil fuels) and / or cumulative energy demand (quantified by the primary energy usage throughout the respective repair process).

[0112] At least a part of the process steps of the repair process or the repair process may be associated with environmental impact classification(s). Each process step of the repair process may be associated with such environmental impact classification(s). The environmental impact classification(s) may be identical for the one or more process step(s). The environmental impact classification(s) may be identical for each process step included in the repair process. The environmental impact classification(s) may be related to emissions 302 associated with material consumption, energy consumption and waste generation, energy consumption 304 and VOC emissions 306. The environmental impact classifications may further include the abiotic resource depletion potential (ADP) 308 and / or the water consumption 310.

[0113] In the example illustrated in FIG. 3A, repair process(es) (such as processes described in the context of FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B) performed within a vehicle repair facility, such as the facility illustrated in FIG. 1 , may be associated with a plurality of defined environmental impact classifications 312. The environmental impact classifications may include emissions 302, energy consumption 304 and VOC emissions 306. The environmental impact classifications may further include the abiotic resource depletion potential (ADP) 308 and / or the water consumption 310. The environmental impact classifications may be associated with inputs consumed by the vehicle repair facility, such as consumed material and energy, as well as with outputs generated by the vehicle repair facility, such as generated waste and releases. The environmental impact classifications may include environmental impact property data related to or associated with or assigned to such classifications. The environmental impact classifications may be associated with a life cycle assessment. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) may be used to assess the environmental impacts associated with a vehicle repair facility.

[0114] With reference to FIG. 3B, environmental property data which may be included in or assigned to the environmental impact classifications associated with repair process(es) 216, 222 performed within a vehicle repair facility, such as the processes shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, are illustrated. Environmental impact classification “emissions 302” may include environmental property data associated with emissions, such as CO2 emissions, generated from the consumption of inputs, such as electric energy, thermal energy, coating materials and rinsing materials such as primer materials, primer-surfacer materials, basecoat materials and clearcoat materials, substrates such as plastic substrates, metallic substrates and substrates comprising plastic and metallic parts, consumables such as tape, gloves, paper, plastic foil and mixing cups, and emissions generated by the outputs, such as emissions associated with the treatment of generated waste and emissions generated by the fleet of the vehicle repair facility. Thermal energy may be consumed for heating and / or for generation of hot water. Hot water may be used for heating fresh air to be supplied to the basecoat material application cabin. Thermal energy may be consumed for exhaust air purification. Exhaust air may be purified by thermal oxidation, for example to remove VOCs present within the exhaust air. Electric energy may be consumed by electric machines, such as robots, machines generating pressurized air, ventilators, cooling, energy recovery systems and electric vehicles of the fleet. Generated waste may include residual waste, paper waste, hazardous waste such paint residues, plastic waste and scrap metal.

[0115] Environmental impact classification “energy consumption 304” may include environmental property data associated with the consumption of energy, such as thermal energy, electric energy and energy consumed by the fleet, such as energy from hydrogen.

[0116] Environmental impact classification “VOC 306” may include environmental property data associated with the generation of VOC emissions. VOC (volatile organic compound) emissions may be generated from evaporation of organic solvents present within the applied coating material(s) and / or rinsing material during and / or after application. VOC emissions may be generated from all organic compounds used within coating material(s) or being associated with the application of coating materials that have an initial boiling point of lower than 280°C. In addition VOC emissions may be generated by coating material overspray. VOC emissions may not include any VOC emissions generated by application of the coating material(s) and / or by the use of the rinsing material(s) which are intercepted by technical measures configured to remove VOC from the air.

[0117] Use of such environmental impact classification(s) allows to provide a reduced dimension of indicators indicating the environmental impact associated with the respective repair process or the vehicle repair facility. The reduced dimension may allow to more efficiently monitor the environmental impact associated with the repair process(es) and / or the vehicle repair facility by having to monitor less variables while retaining the information contained in the environmental property data. In addition, the reduced dimension allows to compare different vehicle repair process(es) more efficiently and / or different vehicle repair facilities performing such repair process(es) in terms of their environmental impact.

[0118] FIG. 4 illustrates an example system for monitoring an environmental impact associated with the operation of a vehicle repair facility. The vehicle repair facility may be a facility as illustrated in FIG. 1. One or more repair process(es), such as the process(es) illustrated in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B may be performed within the vehicle repair facility. The system may be used to implement the methods illustrated in FIG. 9A to FIG. 9D. The environmental impact may be associated with or relate to environmental property data associated with the repair processes performed within the vehicle repair facility, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B.

[0119] The system may include a computing unit 402. The computing unit may be a mobile device (e.g. a smartphone, tablet, computer, etc.) or a stationary device (e.g. desktop computer). The computing unit may include at least one processor 404 and a memory 418. The processor and the memory may be coupled to a local interface. The local interface may comprise, for example, a data bus with an accompanying address / control bus or other bus structure as can be appreciated.

[0120] The computing unit may include one or more network interfaces. The network interfaces may comprise, for example, a wireless transmitter, a wireless transceiver, and a wireless receiver. The network interfaces may include interfaces to hardware devices, such as printer 408, display 406 or input devices 410, 412. The hardware devices may be connected via such interfaces to the computing unit.

[0121] The memory may store data and several components, such as environmental impact monitoring unit 420, that are executable by the processor. In this respect, the term "executable" means a program file that is in a form that can ultimately be run by the processor. Examples of executable programs may be, for example, a compiled program that can be translated into machine code in a format that can be loaded into a random access portion of the memory and run by the processor, source code that may be expressed in proper format such as object code that is capable of being loaded into a random access portion of the memory and executed by the processor, or source code that may be interpreted by another executable program to generate instructions in a random access portion of the memory to be executed by the processor, etc. An executable program may be stored in any portion or component of the memory including, for example, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), hard drive, solid-state drive, USB flash drive, memory card, optical disc such as compact disc (CD) or digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, magnetic tape, or other memory components. In particular, stored in the memory and executable by the processor are programs or applications implementing the methods illustrated in FIG. 8A to FIG. 8D. The programs or applications, such as environmental impact monitoring unit 420, may be implemented by any one of a number of programming languages, for example, C, C++, C#, Objective C, Java®, JavaScript®, Perl, PHP, Visual Basic®, Python®, Ruby, Flash®, or other programming languages. Also stored in the memory may be a data store and other data. In addition, an operating system may be stored in the memory and executable by the processor.

[0122] The environmental impact monitoring unit may be configured to determine the environmental impact associated with repair process(es) performed within a vehicle repair facility. The environmental impact monitoring unit may be configured to determine the environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. The environmental impact monitoring unit may be configured to determine environmental property data associated with repair process(es) and / or associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. The environmental impact monitoring unit may be configured to determine the environmental property data associated with inputs to the process(es) and / orthe facility as well as outputs generated by the respective process(es) and / or the facility. The environmental impact monitoring unit may be configured to assign environmental property data to predefined environmental impact classification(s). The environmental impact monitoring unit may be configured to determine environmental property data using input data. The input data may include the data described in the context of FIG. 5 to FIG. 8. For instance, the input data may include data associated with the vehicle repair facility and environmental property factor data. The input data may be stored in one or more databases, such as databases 414 and 416.

[0123] With reference to FIG. 5, the environmental impact monitoring unit may include one or more subunits. A subunit may be configured to perform defined operations. For instance, the environmental impact monitoring unit may include a validation engine 502. The validation engine may be configured to validate at least a part of the input data. The input data may be generated according to a data model defining the data point(s) and associated data types to be included. The input data may be gathered or collected according to a given data schema defining the data point(s) to be gathered or collected and the data format associated with each data point. The data format may define one or more measurement unit(s) associated with the data point(s) to be collected. The input data may be gathered or collected by displaying the given data scheme within a graphical user interface and prompting the user to enter the values for data point(s) included in the data scheme. The data scheme may define one or more data point(s) as mandatory. The data scheme may further define one or more data point(s) as optional. The data collected via the data scheme may be submitted by the user as input data. The data may be submitted in a JSON format containing key value pairs signifying the data point(s) entered by the user. The key may signify the data point and the value may signify a variable that belongs to the key. The use of standardized input data allows for an accurate and reliable determination of the environmental property data. This improves accountability in the determined data and allows customers and insurance companies to reliably select sustainable vehicle repair facilities based on such determined environmental property data. Moreover, this standardization enables the comparison of environmental property data across different vehicle repair facilities and the development of industry-wide benchmarks.

[0124] For example, the validation engine may be configured to validate at least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair processes (e.g. the vehicle repair process data). Such data associated with the vehicle repair processes may include material consumption data 508, energy consumption data 510 and waste generation data 512. The material consumption data may include data associated with the consumption of coating material(s), rinsing material(s), auxiliary material(s) and substrate(s) and the consumption of fuel for the fleet operated by the vehicle repair facility. The energy consumption data may include data associated with the consumption of thermal energy, electric energy, data associated with consumption of feedstock used to generate electric and / or thermal energy and / or data associated with the provision of energy to the power grid. The waste generation data may include data associated with the amounts of generated waste, such as amounts per generated waste type. The validation engine may correspond to a rule-based engine including one or more plausibility rule(s). The rule-based engine may be configured to verify the input data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9C. The validation engine may be configured to provide the result of the verification and / or the verified input data to environmental property generator 504. The validation engine may be configured to generate message data if at least a part of the input material data could not be verified (see for example FIG. 9C).

[0125] Validation of the input data may ensure that complete and / or plausible input data is used to determine the environmental property data. This may improve the reliability and trustworthiness of the determined environmental property data. Moreover, this may allow more reliable comparison of vehicle repair facilities with respect to their associated environmental impact, hence improving the transparency and enabling customers and insurance companies to reliably select sustainable vehicle repair facilities based on such environmental property data.

[0126] The environmental impact monitoring unit may further include environmental property generator 504. The environmental property generator may be configured to determine the environmental property data 514 associated with the inputs and outputs, for example as described in the context of FIG. 6 to FIG. 9B. The environmental property generator may be configured to assign at least a part of the determined environmental property data to one or more predefined environmental impact classifications, for example as illustrated in FIG. 3A. The environmental property data determined by the environmental property generator may correspond to or signify the global warming potential associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

[0127] Referring back to FIG. 4 and with continued reference to FIG. 5, the memory may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory and data storage components. Volatile components are those that do not retain data values upon loss of power. Nonvolatile components are those that retain data upon a loss of power. Thus, the memory may comprise, for example, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), hard disk drives, solid-state drives, USB flash drives, memory cards accessed via a memory card reader, floppy disks accessed via an associated floppy disk drive, optical discs accessed via an optical disc drive, magnetic tapes accessed via an appropriate tape drive, and / or other memory components, or a combination of any two or more of these memory components. In addition, the RAM may comprise, for example, static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), or magnetic random access memory (MRAM) and other such devices. The ROM may comprise, for example, a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or other like memory device.

[0128] The processor may represent multiple processors and / or multiple processor cores and the memory may represent multiple memories that operate in parallel processing circuits, respectively. In such a case, the local interface may be an appropriate network that facilitates communication between any two of the multiple processors, between any processor and any of the memory, or between any two of the memories, etc. The local interface may comprise additional systems designed to coordinate this communication, including, for example, performing load balancing. The processor may be of electrical or of some other available construction.

[0129] Although the methods disclosed in FIG. 8A to FIG. 8D, and other various systems described herein may be embodied in software or code executed by general purpose hardware as discussed above, as an alternative the same may also be embodied in dedicated hardware or a combination of software / general purpose hardware and dedicated hardware. If embodied in dedicated hardware, each may be implemented as a circuit or state machine that employs any one of or a combination of a number of technologies. These technologies may include, but are not limited to, discrete logic circuits having logic gates for implementing various logic functions upon an application of one or more data signals, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) having appropriate logic gates, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other components, etc. Such technologies are generally well known by those skilled in the art and, consequently, are not described in detail herein.

[0130] Any logic or application described herein that comprises software or code may be embodied in any non- transitory computer-readable medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system such as, for example, a processor in a computer system or other system. In this sense, the logic may comprise, for example, statements including instructions and declarations that can be fetched from the computer-readable medium and executed by the instruction execution system. In the context of the present disclosure, a "computer-readable medium" can be any medium that can contain, store, or maintain the logic or application described herein for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system.

[0131] The system may further include at least one database connected to the computing unit 402 via a communication interface. The database(s) may store data associated with environmental impact factor(s) (e.g. environmental impact factor data). The environmental impact factor data may include predefined environmental impact factors associated with the inputs to the vehicle repair facility and the outputs generated by the vehicle repair facility. The predefined environmental impact factors may be derived from one or more different methods. The predefined environmental impact factors may be associated with environmental impact categories described in the context of FIG. 3A. The predefined environmental impact factors may be matched to inputs and outputs based on a mapping of the predefined environmental impact factors to input classes and output classes. The predefined environmental impact factors matched to the inputs and outputs may be multiplied with the amounts of inputs and outputs these factors are matched to. This may allow to convert the consumption of inputs and / or the generation of outputs (e.g. waste and / or releases to air, soil and / or water) to a common unit represented by respective environmental property data. The environmental impact factors may, for example, be determined by determining the emissions, such as CO2 emissions, CFC emissions, HCFC emissions, CF emissions, HC emissions, NOx emissions, SO2 emissions and / or HCI emissions associated with each component contained within the respective used material using one or more different model(s). Methods may include the CML2001 method, the EF 1.8 method, the ReCiPe 2016 method and / or the TRACI method. The environmental impact factor may be determined per input class and / or output class.

[0132] FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B illustrates examples of data structures including a mapping between predefined environmental impact factors and different input classes associated with inputs provided to a vehicle repair facility. The vehicle repair facility may be a facility as illustrated in FIG. 1. One or more repair process(es), such as the process(es) illustrated in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B may be performed within the vehicle repair facility. The predefined environmental impact factors may be determined as described in the context of FIG. 4 and FIG. 5. While FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B illustrate a data structure 604 including a mapping between predefined environmental impact factors and different input classes associated with inputs provided to the vehicle repair facility, the data structure may further include a mapping between predefined environmental impact factors and different output classes associated with outputs generated by the vehicle repair facility.

[0133] FIG. 6A illustrates a data structure in tabular form. The data structure may include different input classes, such as electric energy consumption classes 608 and thermal energy consumption classes 610. Each class may be associated with a description and a unit. Each class may further be associated with one or more predefined environmental property factors.

[0134] In contrast to the tabular data structure illustrated in the example of FIG. 6A, FIG. 6B illustrates an example of a data structure in JSON form. Different input classes, such as electric energy consumption classes and thermal energy consumption classes may be defined via key-value pairs. Each class may be associated with at least one predefined environmental property factor.

[0135] By using such data structure, the environmental property factors can be reliably mapped to inputs and outputs defined by the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. This way, the environmental property data can be reliably determined based on the determined amounts of inputs and outputs and the environmental property factors mapped to inputs and outputs associated with the determined amounts. This allows to determine the environmental property data in a reliable and accurate manner, allowing to provide transparency on the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility to customers and insurance companies.

[0136] FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an example of calculations performed by the environmental property generator 504 illustrated in FIG. 5 to determine environmental property data associated with vehicle repair process(es) performed within a vehicle repair facility. The environmental property generator 504 may be part of the environmental impact monitoring unit 420 described in the context of FIG. 4. The environmental property generator may be configured to determine amounts of inputs provided to the vehicle repair facility and amounts of outputs generated by the vehicle repair facility and to determine the environmental property data based on the determined amounts of inputs and outputs and the environmental property factor data. The environmental property generator may further be configured to aggregate at least a part of the determined property data into environmental impact classifications. An environmental impact classification may hence include the environmental property data assigned to such environmental impact classification.

[0137] The environmental property generator may be configured to determine environmental property data associated with one or more repair process(es) performed within the vehicle repair facility, such as processes(es) described in the context of FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, and / or associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. The environmental property data may be determined per predefined time period, such as per year or per working hour, or per repair process. The time period may be associated with time data included in input data, such as consumption data and waste generation data. The time period may be related to the time data included in the input data. The time period may correspond to the time data included in the input data. For instance, the environmental property generator may be configured to determine the amount of VOC released during the use of coating materials and rinsing materials containing organic solvents. The organic solvents contained in such material(s) may be released during the use of such material(s). The VOC emissions may be determined based on material consumption data 508 included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The VOC emissions may be determined per repair process or per defined time period, such as per working hour and / or per year.

[0138] With reference to FIG. 7, the amount of produced VOC emissions may be determined from material consumption data 508 as input data 802. The amount of produced VOC emissions may be determined by one or more intermediate calculation steps. The amount of produced VOC emissions may be determined per coating material type and / or per rinsing material type. For instance, the amount of produced VOC emissions may be determined for primer materials, basecoat materials and clearcoat materials separately. The total amount of produced VOC emissions may then be obtained by addition of the determined amounts of produced VOC emissions per coating material type and / or per rinsing material type.

[0139] In a first step (see step 804), the total amount of consumed material(s), such as coating material(s) and / or rinsing material(s), may be determined from the input data. The input data may be associated with time data, The time data may indicate a time period associated with the input data. The time data may indicate a time period during which the input data was gathered or acquired. The input data may represent data aggregated during said time period. The total amount of consumed material(s) may be determined by summing up the amount of material consumed per material type for a defined time period. For instance the amounts of primer materials, basecoat materials and clearcoat materials consumed within a given time period, such as a year, may be summed up. Based on the total amount of consumed material per material type, the amount of collected material per coating type, e.g. the amount of waste material per material type, may be determined (see step 806). The amount of collected material per material type may stem from leftover material of repair processes. Such leftover materials may be produced by production of more coating material via a mixing formula (see for example FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B) than required for a given repair process. The amount of collected material per material type may be determined by multiplying the total amount of consumed material per material type with the total amount of collected material for such material type and dividing the result by the total amount of consumed materials obtained in step 704.

[0140] In a next step (see step 808), the amount of applied coating material per coating material type may be determined. The amount of released VOC may be determined by subtracting the amount of collected coating material per coating material type from the total amount of consumed coating material of the same coating material type. For instance, the amount of VOC released per consumed primer material may be determined by subtracting the total amount of collected primer material determined in step 706 from the total amount of consumed primer material contained within the input data.

[0141] The amount of VOC emitted from such applied coating material per coating material type may be determined in step 810. The amount of VOC may be determined by dividing the amount of coating material for a given coating material type by the density of the coating material type times the VOC of the coating material type. The total amount of emitted VOC may be determined by summing up the amount of VOC emitted per material type. The amount of VOC may be determined per time period, such as per year or per working hour, or per repair process. The amount of VOC emitted from used material(s) may be included in the environmental property data 518.

[0142] Returning to FIG. 6, the environmental property generator may further be configured to determine the amount of consumed material(s) 708 and the amount of consumed auxiliaries 710. The amount of consumed material(s) and / or auxiliaries may not be determined if the material consumption data 508 already includes the amount of consumed material(s), such as coating material(s) and rinsing material(s), and consumed auxiliaries, such as tape, gloves, mixing cups, paper and plastic foils.

[0143] The environmental property generator may further be configured to determine the amount of generated waste 712. The amount of generated waste may be determined based on waste generation data 512 included in the data associated with the vehicle repair process(es) (e.g. the input data). Waste may be produced, for example, from residual coating materials and the use of consumables during repair processes. The amount of waste may be determined by determining the amount of waste per waste type. The amount of waste per waste type may be determined by assigning the waste to respective waste types and aggregating the amounts of assigned waste per waste type. The amount of waste per waste type may be determined based on the density of the respective waste type. The amount of waste may further be determined by allocating the determined amount of waste per waste type to different waste recycling processes. This way, a more granular determination of the environmental property data may be achieved by using different environmental property factors associated with such waste recycling processes. This allows to more accurately and reliably determine the environmental property data by considering the waste recycling processes used in the country or location the vehicle repair facility is located in. Allocation may be performed based on predefined waste recycling process shares associated with given location(s). For example, allocation may be performed based on predefined recycling process shares associated with a location matching the location of the vehicle repair facility. The shares may be gathered, for example from a database, by matching location data included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility with location data associated with the shares.

[0144] The environmental property generator may further be configured to determine the amount of consumed energy sources to generate thermal energy 704. The thermal energy may be used to generate hot water used for climatization of the paint booth, as described in the context of FIG. 1 . The thermal energy may be used for heating of the vehicle repair facility, such as workshop rooms contained in such facility. The amount of consumed energy sources may be determined from energy consumption data 510 as input data. The amount of consumed energy sources may be determined per time period, such as per year or per working hour, or per repair process

[0145] The environmental property generator may further be configured to determine the amount of consumed electric energy 706. The amount of consumed electric energy may be determined from the total amount of electric energy consumed by operating the vehicle repair facility per given time period, such as per year, as well as the amount of electric energy produced by the vehicle repair facility, for example by the use of solar panels and / or block heating power plant(s). The total amount of consumed electric energy may be determined by adding the amount of consumed electric energy and the amount of produced electric energy. The electric energy may be consumed by consumers operating on such electric energy, such as application robots, ventilators, pressurized air production, cooling, energy recovery etc.. The amount of consumed electric energy may be determined from energy consumption data 510 as input data. The amount of consumed electric energy may be determined per time period, such as per year or per working hour, or per repair process

[0146] The environmental property generator may be configured to determine the environmental property data 518 in step 702 based on the determine amounts of inputs, such as the amount of consumed energy sources for generating thermal energy 704, the amount of consumed electric energy 706 and optionally the amount of consumed material 708, 710, and the amounts of outputs, such as the amount of VOC emissions 714 and the amount of generated waste 712. The environmental property data may be determined per predefined time period, such as per year or per working hour, or per repair process. The time period may be associated with the time data included in the input data. The time period may be related to the time data included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The time period may correspond to the time data included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The environmental property generator may be configured to multiply the determined amounts of input(s) with associated environmental property factor(s) included in environmental property factor data 416. Likewise, the environmental property generator may be configured to multiply the determined amounts of output(s) with the associated environmental property factor(s) included in environmental property factor data 416. The environmental property generator may be configured to match a material input, such as a primer material input (e.g. an amount of consumed primer material), to the associated environmental property factor included in the environmental property factor data. The environmental property factor data may include one or more environmental property factor(s) per input type and / or output type. The factor(s) may be associated with a given environmental impact category, such as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The matching may be performed based on a mapping or linking of predefined environmental property factors to different classes, such as material consumption class(es), electric energy consumption class(es), thermal energy source consumption class(es), generated waste class(es) and generated release class(es). The mapping or linking may be included in the environmental property factor data. The matching may be performed based on a data structure including the mapping or linking. Examples of data structures including the mapping or linking are illustrated in FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B. The matching may be performed by matching one or more class(es) included in the environmental property factor data to respective input(s) and output(s) included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The class(es) may be matched by matching identifier(s) associated with the class(es) to identifier(s) associated with the input(s) and the output(s). Based on the mapping, the environmental property generator may be configured to multiply the amount associated with the mapped input(s) and output(s) with predefined environmental property factors associated with the respectively mapped class(es).

[0147] The determined environmental property data may be assigned to a one or more environmental impact classification(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The total environmental property data associated with such environmental impact classification may be determined by summing up the environmental property data assigned to such classification. The total environmental property data may be determined per predefined time period, such as per year or per working hour, or per repair process.

[0148] FIG. 9A illustrates an example flow chart of a method for monitoring an environmental impact associated with the operation of a vehicle repair facility. The vehicle repair facility may be a facility as illustrated in FIG. 1 . One or more repair process(es), such as the process(es) illustrated in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, may be performed within the vehicle repair facility. The method may be implemented by a system illustrated in FIG. 4. The environmental impact may be associated with or relate to the environmental impact associated with inputs provided to the vehicle repair facility, such as material inputs and energy inputs, and the environmental impact associated with outputs generated by the facility, such as generated waste and releases. The environmental impact may be associated with or relate to environmental property data associated with inputs provided to the vehicle repair facility, such as material inputs and energy inputs, and outputs generated by the facility, such as generated waste and releases. At least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, data associated with the vehicle repair facility and environmental property data associated with environmental property factors may be provided. The vehicle repair facility identifier may uniquely identify the vehicle repair facility. The vehicle repair facility identifier may include a unique ID, a name or a combination thereof. The vehicle repair facility identifier may be used to gather data associated with the vehicle repair facility (e.g. vehicle repair facility data) from one or more databases. The one or more databases may include such vehicle repair facility data interrelated with or linked to or associated with respective vehicle repair facility identifiers. The environmental property factors may indicate or signify or represent the environmental impact of inputs to the vehicle repair facility and outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility. The environmental property factors may signify values that represent the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced per unit of consumed input or generated output. Providing the data associated with the vehicle repair facility may include providing the vehicle repair identifier(s) and gathering the data associated with the vehicle repair facility based on at least one of the provided identifiers.

[0149] The vehicle repair facility data may be associated with or may include time data. The time data may indicate the time period associated with the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. For instance, the time data may indicate the time period associated with the total inputs and total outputs signified by the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The time data may indicate the time period for which the total inputs and total outputs are recorded. The time period may include a year, a quarter or a month.

[0150] Data associated with the vehicle repair facility may include input data associated with input(s) provided to the vehicle repair facility and output data associated with output(s) generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility. Inputs provided to the facility may include consumed materials and / or consumed energy. Outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility may include generated waste and / or generated release(s) to water, soil and / or air. Input data may include material consumption data and energy consumption data. Output data may include waste generation data and optionally release generation data. Data associated with the vehicle repair facility may further include location data associated with the location of the vehicle repair facility, size data associated with the size of the vehicle repair facility, data associated with the number of processes performed within the vehicle repair facility for a given time period and / or the number of billed hours. Location data may include an address and / or a region and / or a country. Size data may include the number of employees employed by the respective vehicle repair facility.

[0151] Material consumption data may include data associated with consumed coating material(s), data associated with consumed rinsing material(s), data associated with consumed water, data associated with consumed auxiliary materials and data associated with fuel consumed by a fleet of the vehicle repair facility. Data associated with the consumed coating material(s) may include coating material identifier(s), amounts of consumed coating material(s), chemical and / or physical property / ies of the consumed coating material(s) or a combination thereof. Coating material identifier(s) may include identifier(s) uniquely identifying the consumed coating material(s) or coating material types (such as primer, basecoat, clearcoat, low VOC primer, low VOC basecoat, low VOC clearcoat). The coating material identifier(s) may include numbers and / or letters, coating material names, coating material type names or a combination thereof. Amounts of consumed coating material(s) may include total amounts per consumed coating material and / or total amounts per consumed coating material type. Chemical and / or physical property / ies of the consumed coating material(s) may include the density of the coating material(s) or coating material type(s), the VOC of the coating material(s) or coating material type(s), the solid contents of the coating material(s) or the coating material type(s) or a combination thereof.

[0152] Data associated with the consumed rinsing material(s) may include rinsing material identifier(s), amounts of consumed rinsing material(s), chemical and / or physical property / ies of the consumed rinsing material(s) or a combination thereof. Rinsing material identifier(s) may include identifier(s) uniquely identifying the consumed rinsing material(s) or rinsing material types (such as organic rinse, aqueous rinse). The rinsing material identifier(s) may include numbers and / or letters, rinsing material names, rinsing material type names or a combination thereof. Amounts of consumed rinsing material(s) may include total amounts per consumed rinsing material and / or total amounts per consumed rinsing material type. Chemical and / or physical property / ies of the consumed rinsing material(s) may include the density of the rinsing material(s) or rinsing material type(s), the VOC of the rinsing material(s) or rinsing material type(s), the solid contents of the rinsing material(s) or the rinsing material type(s) or a combination thereof.

[0153] Data associated with consumed auxiliary materials include auxiliary material identifier(s) and amounts of consumed auxiliary material(s). Auxiliary material may refer to material(s) required for the repair process excluding coating material(s) and rinsing material(s). Auxiliary material identifier(s) may include identifier(s) uniquely identifying the consumed auxiliary material(s) or auxiliary material types (such as tape, paper, gloves, mixing cups, plastic foil, fastening devices). The auxiliary material identifier(s) may include numbers and / or letters, auxiliary material names, auxiliary material type names or a combination thereof. Amounts of consumed auxiliary material(s) may include total amounts per consumed auxiliary material and / or total amounts per consumed auxiliary material type.

[0154] Data associated with fuel consumed by a fleet of the vehicle repair facility may include fuel identifier(s) and the amount of consumed fuel. Fuel may include fossil fuel, such as gasoline, diesel, natural gas, electricity or hydrogen. Fuel identifier(s) may include identifier(s) uniquely identifying the consumed fuel(s) or fuel types (such as gasoline, diesel, electricity, hydrogen). The fuel identifier(s) may include numbers and / or letters, fuel names, fuel type names or a combination thereof. Amounts of consumed fuel (s) may include total amounts per refueling process and / or total amounts per consumed fuel type.

[0155] Energy consumption data may include electric energy consumption data, data associated with a consumption of feedstock used to generate thermal energy and optionally data associated with the provisioning of electric energy to the power grid. Electric energy consumption data may include electric energy identifier(s), the amount of consumed electric energy and environmental property factor(s) associated with the consumed electric energy. The amount of consumed electric energy may correspond to or signify the amount of electric energy consumed from the power grid. Feedstock used to generate thermal energy may include oil, gas, propane, district heating and / or wood. The electric energy provided to the power grid may be produced by solar panels and / or by a combined heat and power plant associated with the vehicle repair facility. Data associated with the provisioning of electric energy to the power grid may include the amount of electric energy fed into the grid.

[0156] The data associated with the vehicle repair facility (e.g. the vehicle repair facility data) may be generated according to a data model defining the data point(s) and associated data types to be included in the vehicle repair facility data. Applying the data model to input data may result in vehicle repair facility data having a uniform data format and including data points required to reliably determine the environmental property data. The vehicle repair facility data may be gathered or collected or generated according to a given data schema defining the data point(s) to be gathered or collected and the data format associated with each data point. The data scheme may define the structure of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, and / or properties of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The properties of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility may include data types. The properties of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility may include possible or allowable values and / or value ranges. The properties of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility may be a physical unit of parameter(s) described by values contained in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The properties may define one or more measurement unit(s) associated with the data point(s) to be collected. The data scheme may define one or more criterion(s), a weight associated with the criterion(s), and data to be entered per criterion. Criterion(s) may include material consumption, electric energy consumption, consumption of sources for generating thermal energy and waste generation. The vehicle repair facility data may be gathered or collected by displaying the given data scheme within a graphical user interface and prompting the user to enter the values for data point(s) included in the data scheme, such as data to be entered per criterion, for example as illustrated in FIG. 10A. The data scheme may define one or more data point(s) as mandatory. The data scheme may further define one or more data point(s) as optional. The data collected via the data scheme may be submitted by the user as vehicle repair facility data. The data may be submitted in a JSON format containing key value pairs signifying the data point(s) entered by the user. The key may signify the data point and the value may signify a variable that belongs to the key. The use of a standardized structure for the vehicle repair facility data ensures consistency and accuracy during determination of the environmental property data. This allows to obtain comparable and reliable environmental property data, allowing comparison of different vehicle repair facilities with respect to their environmental impacts. By utilizing standardized input data containing information about inputs (such as material inputs and energy inputs) to the facility, as well as outputs (such as waste and releases) generated by the facility, the environmental impact of vehicle repair facilities can be assessed in a robust and reliable way. By using standardized input data, the determined environmental property data is more reliable and comparable, enabling customers as well as insurance industry to select vehicle repair facilities based on their environmental impact. This way, the environmental impact associated with the vehicle repair industry may be reduced.

[0157] Data associated with the vehicle repair facility may hence represent a digital representation of equipment, material and condition(s) used within the respective repair process(es) as well as the operation(s) performed within the vehicle repair facility. Data associated with the vehicle repair facility may hence represent a digital representation of the vehicle repair facility, all repair processes performed therein as well as all further processes and actions resulting in the consumption of inputs and the generation of outputs, such as the use of the fleet of the facility. Use of such a digital representation allows to digitally mirror the vehicle repair facility and operations performed therein, such as vehicle repair processes, hence allowing to determine the environmental impact associated with the operation of the repair facility in a data-driven manner and to optimize such environmental impact by adjusting inputs, outputs and / or operation(s) performed within the facility.

[0158] The environmental property factor data may include predefined environmental impact factor(s). The environmental property factor data may be associated with or relate to one or more method(s) used to determine such factor(s). Methods used to determine such factor(s) may include the CML2001 method, the EF 1.8 method, the ReCiPe 2016 method and / or the TRACI method. The environmental impact factor(s) may be associated with consumed inputs and / or outputs. Inputs may include material(s) consumed within the facility, such as coating material(s), rinsing material(s), auxiliaries, fuel etc.. Inputs may further include consumed energy, such as electric energy and / or sources for generating thermal energy. Output(s) may include generated waste material(s) and / or releases to air, soil and / or water. The environmental impact factor data may be stored in a database, such as database 416 of FIG. 4. The environmental property factor data may include one or more environmental property factor(s) per input type and / or output type. The factor(s) may be associated with a given environmental impact category, such as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The environmental property factor data may include a mapping or linking of predefined environmental impact factors to material consumption class(es), a mapping or linking of predefined environmental impact factors to electric energy consumption class(es), a mapping or linking of predefined environmental impact factors to thermal energy source consumption class(es), a mapping or linking of predefined environmental impact factors to generated waste class(es) and / or a mapping or linking of predefined environmental impact factors to generated release class(es). The material consumption class(es) may represent one or more consumed material type(s), in particular consumed coating material(s), consumed rinsing material(s), consumed water, consumed auxiliary material(s) and / or fuel consumed by a fleet of the vehicle repair facility. The electric energy consumption class(es) may represent consumed electric energy and / or electric energy provided to the power grid. The thermal energy consumption class(es) may represent one or more energy source type(s) consumed for generating thermal energy. The waste class(es) may represent one or more generated waste type(s). The generated release class(es) may represent one or more generated release type(s). The class(es) may be associated with class identifier(s). Based on the linking, predefined environmental property factors may be assigned to respective amounts of inputs and outputs. This way, the environmental property data may be reliably and accurately determined based on the amounts of inputs and outputs and respectively assigned predefined environmental property factors. The more reliable determination of the environmental property data may improve the trust of customers and insurance companies in the determined environmental property data and may aid in the selection of more sustainable vehicle repair facilities, allowing to reduce the overall environmental impact of the vehicle repair.

[0159] An amount of the input(s) to the vehicle repair facility and an amount of the output(s) generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility may be determined based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The determined amount of input(s) may include an amount of consumed material(s), an amount of consumed electric energy and an amount of consumed energy source(s) for generating thermal energy. The determined amount of output(s) may include an amount of electric energy produced by the vehicle repair facility and provided to an energy grid, an amount of generated waste and / or an amount of generated release(s) to air, soil and / or water. Consumed material may include consumed coating material(s), consumed rinsing material(s), consumed auxiliary material(s) required for the repair processes, such as tape, gloves, mixing cups, plastic foil, paper, substrates, and fuel(s) consumed by the fleet of the vehicle repair facility. The consumed energy source(s) may include gas, oil, district heating, wood and propane. The electric energy produced by the vehicle repair facility, for example by using solar panels or a combined heat and power plant, may be provided to the power grid. Such provisioning of electric energy to the power grid may reduce the consumption of electric energy and hence also the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility. Generated waste may include coating material waste, rising material waste and auxiliary material waste. Generated releases may include emissions of volatile organic compounds, such as organic solvents, that are released from the coating materials and / or the rinsing materials during their use. The amount of input(s) and output(s) may be determined, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 6 and FIG. 7.

[0160] The environmental property data associated with the performed vehicle repair processes may be determined based on the data associated with environmental property factors and the determined amount of input(s) and output(s). The environmental property data may be determined per defined time span, such as per working hour or per year, per performed repair process and / or per billed hour. The environmental property data may be associated with the environmental property data associated with the input(s) and the output(s). The environmental property data may be associated with the environmental impact associated with the consumed input(s) and the generated output(s). The environmental property data may be associated with the consumption of material(s), the consumption of energy, the generation of waste and / or the generation of releases to air, soil and / or water. The environmental property data may relate to or may be associated with or linked to or assigned to environmental impact classifications, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. The determined environmental property data may represent(s) quantifiable representation(s) of the respective environmental impact classification they are assigned to. The environmental property data may be related to a standard unit for measuring carbon footprints, such as kg CO2 equivalents. This standard unit may quantify the environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions. The term "CO2 equivalent" may refer to the amount of a greenhouse gas that has the same global warming potential as one kilogram of carbon dioxide over a specific time period, typically 100 years. The environmental property data may include emission data associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. The emission data may comprise any data related to environmental footprint associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. The environmental footprint may refer to an entity and its associated environmental footprint. The environmental footprint may be entity specific. For instance, the environmental footprint may relate to the vehicle repair facility, repair processes, repaired vehicles, combinations thereof or additional entity-specific relations. Emission data may include data relating to the carbon footprint of the chemical product or a Product Carbon Footprint (PCF). Emission data may include data related to greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions may include emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, methane (CPU) emission, nitrous oxide (N2O) emission, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) emission, perfluorocarbons (PFCs) emission, sulphurhexafluoride (SFe) emission, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) emission, combinations thereof and additional emissions.

[0161] The environmental property data may be determined by matching the environmental property factors with input data associated with input(s) to the vehicle repair facility and output data associated with output(s) generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility and multiplying the matched environmental property factors with determined amounts of input(s) associated with the input data and determined amounts of output(s) associated with the output data. The environmental property factors may be matched based on a mapping between the environmental property factors and input classes and / or output classes, respectively. The input classes may include material consumption classes, electric energy consumption classes, thermal energy consumption classes, generated waste classes and / or generate release classes. Identifiers associated with such classes may be matched to identifiers included in the input data and the output data, respectively. This way, the environmental property factors may be reliably multiplied with the respective amounts of inputs and outputs, allowing a reliable and accurate determination of the environmental property data. In addition, different environmental impact factors may be mapped to a given amount of input or output, allowing to determine environmental property data associated with different environmental impact categories. The environmental property data may be determined per predefined time period, such as per year or per working hour, or per repair process. The time period may be associated with the time data included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The time period may be related to the time data included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The time period may correspond to the time data included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility.

[0162] Reference environmental property data may be provided and a deviation of at least a part of the determined environmental property data to the provided reference environmental property data may be determined. This step may be generally optional. The reference environmental property data may be associated with location data indicating a region or country. The reference environmental property data may be associated with time data indicating a time period. The reference environmental property data may be associated with size data indicating a size of the vehicle repair facilities. The reference environmental property data may be generated based on reference environmental property data associated with a plurality of vehicle repair facilities. The reference environmental property data may be an average of such reference environmental property data. The reference environmental property data may include historic environmental property data associated with the vehicle repair facility (e.g. environmental property data determined for previous time period(s)). The reference environmental property data may be determined as previously described based on data associated with such reference vehicle repair facilities and the environmental property factor data. The reference environmental property data may be generated by classifying vehicle repair facilities into different groups and generating the reference environmental property data for such groups. The vehicle repair facilities may be classified according to their size and / or location. The reference environmental property data may be provided based on location data included in the vehicle repair facility data.

[0163] Determining the deviation may include comparing the determined environmental property data to the provided reference environmental property data. Comparison may include mapping at least a part of the data points included in the reference environmental property data to respective data points included in the determined environmental property data and determining the deviation based on the mapping. Comparison may include classifying the determined environmental property data and / or the vehicle repair facility associated with the environmental property data using a classifier. The classifier may be a binary classifier classifying the environmental property data into acceptable or not acceptable. The environmental property data may be classified as acceptable if at least a part of the data point(s) included in the environmental property data are below respective predefined threshold values. The classifier may classify the environmental property data and / or the vehicle repair facility associated with the environmental property data into a plurality of predefined classes. The predefined classes may be associated with respective threshold value(s) or range(s). The predefined classes be associated with a high environmental impact, a medium environmental impact and a low environmental impact. The predefined classes may be associated with a more granular grading of the environmental impact, for example by using more than 3 different classifications. For example, the environmental property data and / or the vehicle repair facility associated with the environmental property data may be classified as “sustainable” if at least a part of the data point(s) included in the environmental property data are below respective predefined threshold values or ranges associated with the low environmental impact class. By comparing the determined environmental property data with the reference environmental property data, the environmental impact associated with the vehicle repair facility can be rated, enabling more reliable optimization of the determined environmental property data as well as enabling customers and insurance companies to more reliably select sustainable vehicle repair facilities to reduce the environmental impact associated with the repair of vehicles. In addition, this allows to track the environmental impact over time to evaluate the effectiveness of implemented measures for reducing the environmental property data and hence also the environmental impact.

[0164] The determined environmental property data and optionally the deviation may be provided for monitoring the environmental impact of the operation of the vehicle repair facility. Providing the environmental property data and optionally the deviation may include displaying the determined environmental property data and optionally the deviation within a graphical user interface, for example as described in the context of FIG. 10A. The graphical user interface may further display the reference environmental property data used to determine the deviations. The determined environmental property data may be displayed in combination with historic environmental property data (e.g. environmental property data associated with such facility and having been determined for previous time period(s)). This may allow to determine whether measures to improve the environmental impact have been successfully implemented or not. In addition or alternatively, providing the determined environmental property data and optionally the deviations may include storing such data in a database. The environmental property data and optionally the deviations may be interrelated with a repair vehicle facility identifier to allow retrieval of such databased on such identifier(s).

[0165] The method provides a reliable way for vehicle repair facilities to monitor their environmental impact and to identify environmental impact reduction potentials within repair process(es). By using a digital representation of the vehicle repair facility, e.g. the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, the environmental impact of the operation of the vehicle repair facility may be determined in line with the repair process layout, e.g. in line with the repair process step(s) as well as the material(s) and equipment(s) used in such process step(s) and the operation(s) performed during such process step(s). This is particularly important in the context of vehicle repair facilities, as the environmental property data associated with these operations can vary significantly depending on the type of repairs being performed and the equipment being used. The use of a standardized method to collect data associated with the vehicle repair facility allows to reliably rate and compare different vehicle repair facilities in terms of their environmental impact as well as to compare the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility to reference environmental impacts, leading to an improve transparency in terms of environmental impact for the vehicle repair facility and its customers. This transparency enables optimization of the environmental property data to reduce the environmental impact as well as customers to select vehicle repair facilities based on their environmental impact, allowing to reduce the environmental impact associated with the vehicle repair.

[0166] By using environmental impact factors indicating the environmental impact of inputs to the vehicle repair facility and outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility and by mapping such factors to amounts of determined inputs and outputs, a more accurate calculation of the environmental impact can be achieved. By using environmental impact factors associated with different environmental impact categories, the environmental property data may be determined for different environmental impacts, hence providing a broader understanding of the overall environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. By using environmental impact factors determined according to different environmental impact methods, the determination of the environmental property data can be tailored to regulatory requirements that need to be fulfilled, hence improving the accountability and reliability of the determined environmental property data.

[0167] FIG. 9B to FIG. 9D illustrated embodiments of the method described in the context of FIG. 9A. The method described in the context of FIG. 9A may include one or more of the embodiments described in the context of FIG. 9B to FIG. 9D.

[0168] The embodiment described in FIG. 9B may include assigning at least a part of the determined environmental property data to one or more environmental impact classification(s) and providing the environmental property data assigned to the environmental impact classification(s). The determined environmental property data may be assigned to the one or more environmental impact classification(s) using a rule-based engine including to one or more accumulation rule(s). The rule(s) may signify the environmental impact classification and associated environmental property data point(s). The rule(s) may signify the environmental impact classification and associated environmental property data point(s) per vehicle repair facility. This way, the assignment may be tailored to the needs of the vehicle repair facility and / or the regulation(s) defining the determination of environmental impact which are applicable in the region or country the vehicle repair facility is located in. This may enable transparency on the environmental impact according to the needs of the vehicle repair facility, the regulation(s) and / or the customers The different environmental impact classifications may be associated with a consumption of input(s) and / or a generation of output(s). Consumed input(s) may include consumed material(s) and consumed electric energy. Generated output(s) may include generated waste and / or generated releases. Environmental property data point(s) associated with consumed material(s) and / or consumed electric energy may be included in or assigned to the environmental impact classification for emissions, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. Environmental property data point(s) associated with consumed electric energy and consumed sources to generate thermal energy may be included in or assigned to the environmental impact classification for energy consumption 304, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. Environmental property data point(s) associated with generated VOC releases may be included in or assigned to the environmental impact classification for VOC emissions, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. Aggregation of at least a part of the environmental property data allows to reduce the complexity associated with the evaluation of the determined environmental property data by significantly reducing the number of data point(s) to be evaluated. This allows to more efficiently and reliably compare different repair process(es) and / or vehicle repair facilities in terms of their environmental impact. A total environmental property data per environmental impact classification may be determined. This step may be generally optional. The total environmental property data may be determined based on environmental property data assigned to the respective environmental impact classification. The total environmental property data may be determined per predefined time period, such as per year or per working hour, or per repair process. Deviation(s) between at least a part of the total environmental property data and reference environmental property data associated with the respective environmental impact classification may be determined, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9A. This way, the total environmental property data and hence also the environmental impact reflected by such total environmental property data may be rated. This way, the transparency on the environmental impact may be improved, allowing customers and / or insurance companies to more reliably select sustainable vehicle repair facilities to reduce the environmental impact associated with vehicle repairs. In addition, this allows vehicle repair facilities to optimize the environmental impact by reducing the environmental impact associated with consumed input(s) and / or generated output(s).

[0169] The determined environmental property data assigned to the environmental impact classification(s) may be provided. In addition, the determined total environmental property data per environmental impact classification and / or the determined deviation(s) may be provided. Providing the data may include providing the environmental impact classification(s) and assigned environmental property data, optionally in combination with the total environmental property data, for display. The provided data may be displayed within a graphical user interface, for example as described in the context of FIG. 10B. Providing the data may include generating a digital asset, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9D.

[0170] The embodiment described in FIG. 9C may include validating at least a part of the provided data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The validated data associated with the vehicle repair facility may be used to determine the environmental property data as described in the context of FIG. 9A. At least a part of the provided data associated with the vehicle repair facility (e.g. the vehicle repair facility data) may be validated using a rule-based engine including one or more plausibility rule(s). Plausibility rule(s) may be associated with individual data point(s), multiple data points and / or the whole data set (e.g. the complete data contained in the provided vehicle repair facility data). Plausibility rule(s) associated with individual data point(s) may include one or more rule(s) defining threshold(s), such as minimum value(s) and / or maximum value(s), for individual data points present with the provided vehicle repair facility data. The individual data points may be included in the input data, such as the material consumption data 508 and the energy consumption data 510, and / or the output data, such as the waste generation data 512. Use of such plausibility threshold(s) allows to identify unplausible data points, hence avoiding storage and processing of unplausible vehicle repair facility data which may result in incorrect environmental property data.

[0171] Plausibility rule(s) associated with multiple data points may include one or more rules defining allowable combination of data points and optionally threshold(s) for data points contained in said combination. The threshold(s) may define minimum value(s) and / or maximum value(s) for data points present with the combination of data points. Use of such plausibility threshold(s) allows to identify unplausible data point combinations and optionally unplausible data points, hence avoiding storage and processing of unplausible data combinations which may result in incorrect environmental property data.

[0172] Plausibility thresholds associated with the whole data set may include one or more rules defining data to be contained within the provided vehicle repair facility data. This may ensure that the vehicle repair facility data includes all data points required to reliably determine the environmental property data.

[0173] If the received data is validated, the method may proceed to block 904 of FIG. 9A. If at least a part of the received vehicle repair facility data is not validated, message data may be generated. The message data may indicate that at least part of the vehicle repair facility data could not be validated. The message data may include an indication which data point(s) of the vehicle repair facility data could not be validated. The message data may be provided to a display device configured to display received message data. The display device may comprise a graphical user interface. The display device may display the message in response to receiving the message data. This allows to trigger correction of data point(s) identified as unplausible or incorrect or to gather missing vehicle repair facility data. Correction of data points may include generating message data indicating the unplausible or missing data and providing the message data to the vehicle repair facility owner. The message data may be provided to the vehicle repair facility data owner via common data transfer protocols.

[0174] By validating the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, accuracy and reliability of such data can be ensured, hence allowing reliable determination of the environmental property data. By validating the input data, trust in the determined environmental property data may be improved. This way, a more reliable and stable environmental impact monitoring and / or optimization can be achieved, allowing to reduce the overall environmental impact associated with vehicle repairs.

[0175] The embodiment illustrated in FIG. 9D may include generating a digital asset including the environmental property data determined as described in the context of FIG. 9A and providing the digital asset for access by data consumers. The digital asset may include at least one of the identifier(s) associated with the vehicle repair facility. This way, the digital asset may be linked to, in particular uniquely linked to, the vehicle repair facility. The digital asset may further include a time period the environmental property data was determined for, identifier(s) associated with the entity determining the environmental property data, reference environmental property data, deviations between the environmental property data and the reference environmental property data and / or historic environmental property data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The digital asset may include environmental property data assigned to environmental impact classification (s) and optionally total environmental property data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9B. Data consumer(s) may include the vehicle repair facility, for example if the method described in the FIG. 9A is executed or implemented by a third party. Data consumer(s) may include vehicle owners, vehicle drivers and / or insurance companies. The digital asset may be provided via a peer-to-peer communication channel between the entity performing the method illustrated in FIG. 9A and the vehicle repair facility. This may allow the vehicle repair facility to control access to such digital asset while enabling reliable sharing of the assets with data consumers. The digital asset may be provided via a communication interface for access by the data consumers. For instance, the digital asset may be provided for access via a homepage of the vehicle repair facility.

[0176] By using a digital asset that is linked (or assigned, attributed, allocated, attached) to the vehicle repair facility, customers can easily select sustainable vehicle repair facilities (e.g., facilities associated with a reduced environmental impact) to repair their vehicle. The digital asset may be used by the vehicle repair facility to provide transparency on its environmental impact and to enable comparison between different vehicle repair facilities with respect to environmental impact, allowing customers and vehicle insurers to select sustainable vehicle repair facilities based on the digital asset. This way, the overall environmental impact associated with vehicle repairs can be reduced.

[0177] FIG. 10A illustrates an example of a graphical user interface for generating input data associated with one or more input(s) provided to a vehicle repair facility and output data associated with one or more output(s) generated by an operation of a vehicle repair facility. The vehicle repair facility may be a facility as illustrated in FIG. 1. One or more repair process(es), such as the process(es) illustrated in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, may be performed within the vehicle repair facility. The graphical user interface 1004 may be displayed by the display device 406 described in the context of FIG. 4. The instructions for displaying the user interface may be generated by the processor of the system described in the context of FIG. 4 and may be provided to the display device. The graphical user interface may allow to gather at least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility used to determine environmental property data associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9A.

[0178] The graphical user interface may contain input fields associated with consumed inputs and generated outputs. The graphical user interface may allow a user to enter input data, such as material consumption data and electric energy consumption data, and output data, such as waste generation data. The material consumption data may be associated with consumed materials. Consumed materials may include consumed energy sources for generating thermal energy, consumed coating materials, consumed auxiliary materials, consumed fresh water, consumed rinsing materials, consumed thinners and / or consumed substrates, such as metal substrates and plastic substrates. The waste generation data may be associated with generated waste. Generated waste may include the amount of collected residual paint, the amount of residual auxiliary materials and / or the amount of residual substrates. The user interface may further contain input fields (not shown in FIG. 10A) allowing to enter general data associated with the repair process(es) performed within the vehicle repair facilities, such as the number of processes performed within the paint shop and the bodywork shop of the vehicle repair facility and / or the number of billed hours for such processes.

[0179] The data associated with the vehicle repair facility may at least in part be generated based on the data entered into the graphical user interface. Via the graphical user interface, data associated with the vehicle repair facility may be generated according to a predefined data scheme defining at least a part of the data point(s) to be included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. This way, missing or incorrect data point(s) may be avoided, allowing a more reliable determination of the environmental property data. This enables customers as well as insurance industry to select vehicle repair facilities based on their environmental impact, allowing to reduce the overall environmental impact associated with the vehicle repairs.

[0180] FIG. 10B illustrates an example of a graphical user interface for displaying environmental property data associated with repair processes performed within a vehicle repair facility. The vehicle repair facility may be a facility as illustrated in FIG. 1. One or more repair process(es), such as the process(es) illustrated in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, may be performed within the vehicle repair facility. The graphical user interface 1016 may be displayed by the display device 406 of the system described in the context of FIG. 4. The system may be configured to determine the environmental property data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4 and FIG. 9A.

[0181] The graphical user interface may display general data associated with the repair process(es) performed within the vehicle repair facilities, such as the number of processes performed within the paint shop and the bodywork shop of the vehicle repair facility and / or the number of billed hours for such processes. The graphical user interface may display at least a part of the display environmental property data. The environmental property data may be displayed in a tabular form. The environmental property data may be displayed in a graph form (not shown in FIG. 10B). The graphical user interface may display environmental property classifications and assigned environmental property data. The graphical user interface may further display reference environmental property data and / or deviations between the environmental property data and the reference environmental property data (not shown in FIG. 10B).

[0182] FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a system for optimizing an environmental impact of a vehicle repair facility. The vehicle repair facility may be a facility as illustrated in FIG. 1 . One or more repair process(es), such as the process(es) illustrated in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B may be performed within the vehicle repair facility. The system may be used to implement the method illustrated in FIG. 12. The environmental impact may be associated with or relate to environmental property data associated with the repair processes performed within the vehicle repair facility, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. The system may include a computing unit 1106 as described in the context of FIG. 4. The computing unit may include one or more network interfaces. The network interfaces may comprise, for example, a wireless transmitter, a wireless transceiver, and a wireless receiver. The network interfaces may include interfaces to hardware devices, such as printer 1110, display 1108 and / or input devices 1112, 1114. The hardware devices may be connected via such interfaces to the computing unit.

[0183] The memory 1120 may store data and several components, such as optimization unit 1122, that are executable by the processor. In particular, stored in the memory and executable by the processor are programs or applications implementing the method illustrated in FIG. 12. In addition, an operating system may be stored in the memory and executable by the processor.

[0184] The optimization unit may be configured to optimize the environmental property data associated with the vehicle repair facility. Optimization may be performed, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 12. The optimization unit may be coupled to the environmental impact monitoring unit illustrated in FIG. 4. Hence, the computing unit may include the environmental impact monitoring unit and the optimization unit.

[0185] Optimization of the environmental property data may allow to reduce the environmental impact associated with the operation of a vehicle repair facility, such as with repair processes performed within such facility. For example, the optimization may allow to reduce the amount of input(s), such as consumed material(s) and / or consumed energy, and / or the amount of output(s), such as generated VOC emissions.

[0186] The memory may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory and data storage components as described in the context of FIG. 4.

[0187] The processor may represent multiple processors and / or multiple processor cores and the memory may represent multiple memories that operate in parallel processing circuits, respectively. In such a case, the local interface may be an appropriate network that facilitates communication between any two of the multiple processors, between any processor and any of the memory, or between any two of the memories, etc. The local interface may comprise additional systems designed to coordinate this communication, including, for example, performing load balancing. The processor may be of electrical or of some other available construction.

[0188] The system may further include at least one database 414, 416, 1124 connected to computing unit via a communication interface. The database(s) 414, 416 may store vehicle repair facility data and / or data associated with environmental impact factor(s) (e.g. environmental impact factor data), for example as described in the context of FIG. 4

[0189] FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a method for an optimizing environmental impact associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility. The vehicle repair facility may be a facility as illustrated in FIG. 1. One or more repair process(es), such as the process(es) illustrated in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B, may be performed within the vehicle repair facility. The method may be implemented by the system illustrated in FIG. 11. The environmental impact may be associated with or relate to the environmental impact associated with inputs provided to the vehicle repair facility, such as material inputs and energy inputs, and the environmental impact associated with outputs generated by the facility, such as generated waste and releases. The environmental impact may be associated with or relate to environmental property data associated with inputs provided to the vehicle repair facility, such as material inputs and energy inputs, and outputs generated by the facility, such as generated waste and releases.

[0190] Target environmental property data associated a target environmental impact may be provided. The target environmental property data may include reference input data associated with reference input(s) and / or reference output data associated with reference output(s). The target environmental property data may be provided by gathering the target environmental property data from a database. The target environmental property data may be provided based on location data associated with the location of the vehicle repair facility.

[0191] Environmental property data and repair vehicle facility data associated with the environmental property data may be provided. The environmental property data may be determined as described in the context of FIG. 9A. The repair vehicle facility data may include data associated with the repair vehicle facility used to determine the environmental property data. The environmental property data and the repair vehicle facility data may be provided based on identifier(s) associated with the repair vehicle facility. The environmental property data and the repair vehicle facility data may be provided by gathering such data from a database, for example based on the identifier(s) associated with the repair vehicle facility.

[0192] The environmental property data may be optimized based on an optimization algorithm. The optimization algorithm may optimize an objective function. The objective function may relate to the target environmental property data and the environmental property data. The objective function may be optimized with respect to the vehicle repair facility data using the target environmental property data as constraint(s). The optimization algorithm may be configured to recursively determine environmental property data based on modified repair vehicle facility data and to compare the recursively determined environmental property data with the target environmental property data. The optimization algorithm may be configured to minimize the deviation between the environmental property data or the recursively determined environmental property data and the target environmental property data by adjusting the repair vehicle facility data. Adjusting the vehicle repair facility data may include adjusting the at least a part of the input data associated with input(s) to the facility and / or at least a part of the output data associated with output(s) generated by the facility. The optimization algorithm may be selected from the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, total least squares and / or procrustes analysis algorithms. The Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm is commonly used in nonlinear least squares regression problems and minimizes the sum of squared deviations between observed and predicted data points by adjusting the parameters of a nonlinear model. The total least squares algorithm may be used to minimize the deviation between data points in both the dependent and independent variables. It finds the line or plane that minimizes the perpendicular distances from the data points to the fitted line or plane. Procrustes Analysis minimizes the deviation between two sets of points by adjusting the scaling, rotation, and translation of one set of points to best align with the other set.

[0193] The optimized vehicle repair facility data may be provided for optimizing the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility. The optimized vehicle repair facility may be provided for display. Providing the optimized vehicle repair facility data may include generating control data based on the optimized data and providing the control data for controlling and / or monitoring repair process(es) performed within the vehicle repair facility.

[0194] Based on the provided optimized vehicle repair facility data, one or more measures to achieve the optimized data may be determined. For instance, measures to achieve a determined reduction in energy consumption may be determined. Such measures may be determined from candidate measures associated with such reductions.

[0195] By optimizing the environmental property data based on target environmental property data, savings in terms of required input(s) and / or generated output(s) can be reliably identified, enabling the vehicle repair facility to reduce its environmental impact by implementing such identified savings. By using target environmental impact data reflecting the physical layout of the repair process and / or material(s) to be used therein, the optimization of the environmental property data can be performed in line with the process layout of the repair processes. This ensures that the optimized vehicle repair facility data can be implemented to reduce the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility. The optimization may allow to reduce the environmental impact of vehicle repair facilities, hence resulting in an overall reduction of the environmental impact of the vehicle repair industry.

[0196] The present disclosure has been described in conjunction with preferred embodiments and examples as well. However, other variations can be understood and effected by those persons skilled in the art and practicing the claimed invention, from the studies of the drawings, this disclosure and the claims.

[0197] Any steps presented herein can be performed in any order. The methods disclosed herein are not limited to a specific order of these steps. It is also not required that the different steps are performed at a certain place or in a certain computing node of a distributed system, i.e. each of the steps may be performed at different computing nodes using different equipment / data processing.

[0198] As used herein ..determining" also includes ..initiating or causing to determine", “generating" also includes ..initiating and / or causing to generate" and “providing” also includes “initiating or causing to determine, generate, select, send and / or receive”. “Initiating or causing to perform an action” includes any processing signal that triggers a computing node or device to perform the respective action. In the claims as well as in the description the word “comprising” or “including” or similar wording does not exclude other elements or steps and shall not be construed limiting to the elements or steps lined out. The indefinite article “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality. A single element or other unit may fulfill the functions of several entities or items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in the mutual different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used in an advantageous implementation or further elements may be included.

[0199] Providing in the scope of this disclosure may include any interface configured to provide data. This may include an application programming interface, a human-machine interface such as a display and / or a software module interface. Providing may include communication of data or submission of data to the interface, in particular display to a user or use of the data by the receiving entity.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for monitoring an environmental impact associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, wherein one or more vehicle repair processes involving the use of coating materials are performed within a vehicle repair facility and wherein the environmental impact relates to environmental property data associated with the performed vehicle repair processes, the method comprising the steps of:- providing at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, data associated with the vehicle repair facility and environmental property factor data associated with environmental property factors indicating the environmental impact of inputs to the vehicle repair facility and outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility,- determining, based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, an amount of the input(s) to the vehicle repair facility and an amount of the output(s) generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility,- determining, based on the data associated with environmental property factors and the determined amount of the input(s) and the output(s), the environmental property data associated with the performed vehicle repair process(es),- providing the determined environmental property data for monitoring the environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data associated with the vehicle repair facility includes input data associated with one or more input(s) provided to the vehicle repair facility and output data associated with one or more output(s) generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the input data includes material consumption data and energy consumption data and wherein the output data includes waste generation data and optionally release generation data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the material consumption data includes data associated with consumed coating material(s), data associated with consumed rinsing material(s), data associated with consumed water, data associated with consumed auxiliary material(s), data associated with fuel consumed by a fleet of the vehicle repair facility, any single data or any combinations thereof.

5. The method of claim 3 or 4, wherein the energy consumption data includes electric energy consumption data, data associated with a consumption of feedstock used to generate thermal energy, data associated with the provisioning of electric energy to the power grid, any single data or any combinations thereof.

6. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the data associated with the vehicle repair facility is generated according to a predefined data scheme defining one or more data point(s) included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility.

7. The method of any one of the claims preceding claims, wherein the environmental property factor data includes a mapping of predefined environmental impact factors to material consumption class(es), a mapping of predefined environmental impact factors to electric energy consumption class(es), a mapping of predefined environmental impact factors to thermal energy source consumption class(es), a mapping of predefined environmental impact factors to generated waste class(es) and / or a mapping of predefined environmental impact factors to generated release class(es).

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the material consumption class(es) represent one or more consumed material type(s), in particular consumed coating material(s), consumed rinsing material(s), consumed water, consumed auxiliary material(s) and / or fuel consumed by a fleet of the vehicle repair facility, and / or wherein the electric energy consumption class(es) represent consumed electric energy and / or electric energy provided to the power grid, and / or wherein the thermal energy consumption class(es) represent one or more energy source type(s) consumed for generating thermal energy, and / or wherein the waste class(es) represent one or more generated waste type(s), and / or wherein the generated release class(es) represent one or more generated release type(s).

9. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the determined amount of input(s) includes an amount of consumed material(s), an amount of consumed electric energy and an amount of consumed energy source(s) for generating thermal energy, and wherein the determined amount of output(s) includes an amount of electric energy produced by the vehicle repair facility and provided to an energy grid, an amount of generated waste and / or an amount of generated release(s) to air, soil and / or water.

10. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the environmental property data is determined by matching the environmental property factors with input data associated with input(s) to the vehicle repair facility and output data associated with output(s) generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility and multiplying the matched environmental property factors with determined amounts of input(s) associated with the input data and determined amounts of output(s) associated with the output data.

11. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the determined environmental property data is associated with at least one environmental impact classification, in particular wherein the determined environmental property data represents one or more quantifiable representation(s) of the environmental impact classification or classifications.

12. The method of any one of the claims preceding claims, wherein the determined environmental property data includes emission data associated with emissions generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility, energy consumption data associated with energy consumed by the operation of the vehicle repair facility, waste data associated with waste generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility, releases data associated with release(s) to air, soil and / or water generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility, water consumption data associated with the water consumed by the operation of the vehicle repair facility, any single data or any combination thereof.

13. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein providing the determined environmental property data includes generating a digital asset including at least one of the identifier(s) associated with the vehicle repair facility and the determined environmental property data and providing the generated digital asset for access by one or more data consumer(s).

14. An apparatus for monitoring an environmental impact associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, wherein one or more vehicle repair processes involving the use of coating materials are performed within a vehicle repair facility and wherein the environmental impact relates to environmental property data associated with the performed vehicle repair processes, the apparatus comprising:- a data providing interface configured to provide at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, data associated with the vehicle repair facility and environmental property factor data associated with environmental property factors indicating the environmental impact of defined amounts of inputs to the vehicle repair facility and defined amounts of outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility,- a processor configured to■ determine, based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, an amount of the input(s) to the vehicle repair facility and an amount of the output(s) generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility,■ determine, based on the data associated with environmental property factors and the determined amount of the input(s) and the output(s), the environmental property data associated with the performed vehicle repair process(es),- a data providing interface configured to provide the determined environmental property data for monitoring the environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

15. A method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for optimizing an environmental impact associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, wherein one or more vehicle repair processes involving the use of coating materials are performed within a vehicle repair facility and wherein the environmental impact relates to environmental property data associated with the performed vehicle repair processes, the method comprising the steps of:• providing target environmental property data associated with a target environmental impact,• providing the environmental property data and repair vehicle facility data associated with the environmental property data, in particular wherein the environmental property data is generated according to the method of any one of claims 1 to 13 or by the apparatus of claim 14,• optimizing the vehicle repair facility data based on the target environmental property data and the environmental property data,• providing the optimized vehicle repair facility data for optimizing the environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

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