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 a vehicle repair facility, methods systems and computer elements for monitoring method for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, methods systems and computer elements for optimizing environmental impact associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility and a use of environmental impact score(s) generated by the methods and systems disclosed herein for optimizing an environmental impact associated with an operation of a 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 a vehicle repair facility, methods systems and computer elements for monitoring method for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, methods systems and computer elements for optimizing environmental impact associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility and a use of environmental impact score(s) generated by the methods and systems disclosed herein for optimizing an environmental impact associated with an operation of a 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. However, monitoring these impacts can be challenging due to the variety of factors that can affect the accuracy of monitoring data, such as inconsistent data used to determine such environmental impacts.

[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 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 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 data associated with environmental property factors,

[0009] • determining, based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility and the data associated with environmental property factors, one or more environmental properties associated with the performed vehicle repair processes,

[0010] • determining, based on the determined one or more environmental property / ies and the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, one or more environmental impact score(s),

[0011] • providing the determined environmental impact score(s), in particular for monitoring the environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. In another aspect disclosed is a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, 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 method comprising the steps of:

[0012] • providing at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, a digital representation of the vehicle repair facility and data associated with environmental property factors, wherein the digital representation of the vehicle repair facility includes energy data associated with energy inputs to the vehicle repair facility, material data associated with material inputs to the vehicle repair facility and waste data associated with waste generated by the vehicle repair facility,

[0013] • determining, based on the digital representation of the vehicle repair facility and the data associated with environmental property factors, one or more environmental properties associated with the performed vehicle repair processes,

[0014] • determining, based on the determined one or more environmental property / ies and the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, one or more environmental impact score(s),

[0015] • providing the determined environmental impact score(s) for monitoring the environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

[0016] 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:

[0017] • 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 data associated with environmental property factors,

[0018] • an environmental property generator configured to determine, based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility and the data associated with environmental property factors, one or more environmental properties associated with the performed vehicle repair processes,

[0019] • an impact score generator configured to determine, based on the determined one or more environmental property / ies and the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, one or more environmental impact score(s),

[0020] • a data providing interface configured to provide the determined environmental impact score(s).

[0021] 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:

[0022] • a data providing interface configured to provide at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, a digital representation of the vehicle repair facility and data associated with environmental property factors, wherein the digital representation of the vehicle repair facility includes energy data associated with energy inputs to the vehicle repair facility, material data associated with material inputs to the vehicle repair facility and waste data associated with waste generated by the vehicle repair facility,

[0023] • an environmental property generator configured to determine, based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility and the data associated with environmental property factors, one or more environmental properties associated with the performed vehicle repair processes,

[0024] • an impact score generator configured to determine, based on the determined one or more environmental property / ies and the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, one or more environmental impact score(s),

[0025] • a data providing interface configured to provide the determined environmental impact score(s) for monitoring the environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

[0026] In yet another aspect disclosed is a use of environmental impact score(s) generated according to any of the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein for monitoring and / or optimizing the environmental impact of a vehicle repair facility associated with the environmental impact score(s).

[0027] In yet another aspect disclosed is a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for validating environmental impact data 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 one or more environmental properties associated with the performed vehicle repair processes, the method comprising the steps of:

[0028] • providing at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, environmental impact data associated with the operation of a vehicle repair facility and one or more validation input(s) associated with the environmental impact data,

[0029] • providing a validation rule set including one or more validation rules configured to the validate environmental impact data based on the generation of the environmental impact data,

[0030] • selecting at least one validation rule from the validation rule set for at least one validation input and generating at least one validation score by applying the at least one validation rule to the at least one validation input,

[0031] • depending on validation score, assign validated environmental impact data to the at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility.

[0032] In yet another aspect disclosed is an apparatus for validating environmental impact data 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 one or more environmental properties associated with the performed vehicle repair processes, the apparatus comprising:

[0033] • a data providing interface configured to provide at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, environmental impact data associated with the operation of a vehicle repair facility and one or more validation input(s) associated with the environmental impact data,

[0034] • a rule providing interface configured to provide a validation rule set including one or more validation rules configured to the validate environmental impact data based on the generation of the environmental impact data,

[0035] • a validation engine configured to select at least one validation rule from the validation rule set for at least one validation input and generating at least one validation score by applying the at least one validation rule to the at least one validation input and configured to assign - depending on validation score - validated environmental impact data to the at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility.

[0036] In yet another aspect disclosed is a use of environmental impact data validated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein for monitoring the environmental impact of a vehicle repair facility associated with the validated environmental impact data.

[0037] In yet another aspect disclosed is a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for optimizing the 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 one or more environmental properties associated with the performed vehicle repair processes, the method comprising the steps of:

[0038] • providing reference environmental impact score(s) associated with environmental impacts of reference vehicle repair facilities,

[0039] • providing environmental impact score(s) and associated data associated with the vehicle repair facility, wherein the environmental impact score(s) are generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein,

[0040] • comparing the environmental impact score(s) with the reference environmental impact score(s),

[0041] • based on deviation(s) between the environmental impact score(s) and the reference environmental impact score(s), optimizing at least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility,

[0042] • providing the optimized data associated with the vehicle repair facility for optimization of the environmental impact associated with an operation of the vehicle repair facility.

[0043] In yet another aspect disclosed is an apparatus for optimizing the 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 one or more environmental properties associated with the performed vehicle repair processes, the apparatus comprising:

[0044] • a data providing interface configured to provide reference environmental impact score(s) associated with environmental impacts of reference vehicle repair facilities and configured to provide environmental impact score(s) and associated data associated with the vehicle repair facility, wherein the environmental impact score(s) are generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein,

[0045] • an optimization unit configured to compare the environmental impact score(s) with the reference environmental impact score(s) and configured to optimize - based on deviation(s) between the environmental impact score(s) and the reference environmental impact score(s) - at least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility,

[0046] • a data providing interface configured to provide the optimized data associated with the vehicle repair facility for optimization of the environmental impact associated with an operation of the vehicle repair facility.

[0047] In yet another aspect disclosed is a vehicle repair facility associated with environmental impact score(s) as generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein.

[0048] 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 impact score(s) related to the environmental impact associated with an operation of the vehicle repair facility, wherein the digital asset is generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein.

[0049] 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.

[0050] 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.

[0051] Any disclosure, embodiments and examples described herein relate to the methods, the apparatuses, the uses, vehicle repair facilities, the digital assets and 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.

[0052] Embodiments 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.

[0053] 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. In addition, quality and reliability of environmental impact data associated with such environmental impact is crucial since low quality or low reliability negatively impact the quality and reliability of monitoring and / or optimizing the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facilities.

[0054] By utilizing standardized input data containing information about inputs (such as material inputs and energy inputs) to the facility, as well as releases (such as waste and emissions) 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 method ensures consistency and accuracy in the assessment process, allowing facilities to track their progress and identify areas for improvement. This is particularly important in the context of environmental impact reduction, as it enables facilities to make informed decisions about their operations and take effective steps to reduce their carbon footprint. By using a digital representation of the vehicle repair facility as input data, the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility may be determined in line with the operations performed within the facility, e.g. in line with the used materials and process step(s). This allows to flexibly determine and / or monitor and / or evaluate the environmental impact of a wide range of different vehicle repair facilities performing different repair processes.

[0055] By validating the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, accuracy of such data can be ensured, hence allowing reliable determination of the environmental impact score(s). By validating the input data, a more reliable and stable environmental impact monitoring and / or optimization can be achieved.

[0056] By determining environmental property / ies based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility and the data associated with environmental property factors, a more accurate and realistic calculation of environmental impact scores can be achieved since the use of such environmental property / ies allows to consider environmental property / ies associated with specific operations performed within a given vehicle repair facility. This is particularly important in the context of vehicle repair facilities, as the environmental property / ies associated with these operations can vary significantly depending on the type of repairs being performed and the equipment being used.

[0057] By using a scoring system considering both the determined environmental property / ies and the specific conditions of the vehicle repair facilities upon determining the environmental impact score a more comprehensive and accurate assessment of the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facilities is enabled. By using the scoring system, the dimensionality of the factors influencing the environmental impact can be reduced while allowing comparison with industry benchmarks. The scoring system allows to provide a clear and transparent way to evaluate the environmental impact of different vehicle repair facilities, allowing them to identify areas where they can improve and work towards achieving best practices. The scoring system is also useful for monitoring and controlling operations of the vehicle repair facility, such as repair processes, as it provides a standardized way to evaluate the environmental impact of different processes and operations.

[0058] By using a scoring system that considers a range of environmental impact factors, the method simplifies the assessment process and makes it easier for vehicle repair facilities to understand and address their environmental impact. This reduction in dimensionality also makes it easier for vehicle repair facilities to communicate their environmental performance to stakeholders and customers, fostering transparency and accountability in the industry. The environmental impact score provides a single, numerical value that represents a vehicle repair facility's overall environmental impact, allowing for easy comparison and benchmarking against other vehicle repair facilities. This feature is particularly useful for regulatory compliance and public reporting, as it provides a simple and standardized method for measuring and communicating environmental performance.

[0059] By comparing the determined environmental impact score(s) with reference environmental impact score(s), the environmental impact of vehicle repair facilities may be optimized by adjusting the data associated with the vehicle repair facility used to determine the environmental impact score(s). 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.

[0060] By providing environmental impact data and validation input(s) associated with the environmental impact data and validation rules, the environmental impact data associated with the vehicle repair facility may be validated. This enhances the quality of the environmental impact data associated with vehicle repair facility and used to monitor the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility. As a result, the validation of environmental impact data in particular based on the generation of such environmental impact data enables more reliable monitoring of the environmental impact associated with the vehicle repair facility. Advantageously, the methods and apparatuses disclosed herein do not rely on high data traffic by requiring detailed data associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility, for example repair processes performed in such facility, but only require certain properties of the data used to generate the environmental impact data for validation. Since the data properties are related to the quality of the data used to generate the environmental impact data and the environmental impact data generation itself, the validation remains meaningful without requiring transfer of large data set used to generate the environmental impact data. This further reduces the environmental impact of the computing resources required to validate environmental impact data, while still allowing for meaningful validation.

[0061] 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.”

[0062] 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.

[0063] 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.

[0064] The environmental impact data may relate to one or more environmental properties of the vehicle repair facility and / or repair processes performed therein. The environmental impact data may include one or more environmental properties of the vehicle repair facility and / or repair processes performed therein. The environmental impact data may include emission data. 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 (CH4) emission, nitrous oxide (N2O) emission, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) emission, perfluorocarbons (RFCs) emission, sulphurhexafluoride (SFe) emission, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) emission, combinations thereof and additional emissions.

[0065] 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.

[0066] 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 emission 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 overall design and operations. Environmental property factors may include weighting factors that describe the extent of the influence of a given substance 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 various aspects of the repair process, such as the use of energy, water, and materials. 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 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.

[0067] Environmental impact score(s) may refer to any numerical or quantitative value that measures the environmental impact of a vehicle repair facility. Environmental impact score(s) may refer to any numerical or quantitative value that measures the environmental impact of a vehicle repair facility. The score(s) may be proportional or indirectly proportional to the environmental impact, and may be determined from various data sources, including emission data and vehicle repair facility data. Environmental impact score(s) may be numerical value(s) that represent the environmental impact of a vehicle repair facility in a specific context, such as a numerical score for energy consumption, material consumption, waste generation, and emission generation. The scores may be based on factors such as inputs into the vehicle repair facility, for example energy inputs and material inputs, and outputs produced by the facility, such as generated waste and generated emissions. Environmental impact score(s) may be used to compare the environmental performance of different facilities, may be used to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental mitigation strategies and to identify opportunities for improvement. Environmental impact score(s) may refer to a specific set of numerical values that represent the environmental impact of a vehicle repair facility. The score may vary per input type and / or per output type. For instance, material consumption may be associated with a different score than energy consumption. This may allow to weight different environmental impact score(s) and may enable to reflect specific environmental concerns for a given region or facility. For example, the score associated with water consumption may be assigned a higher weight for a facility located in a region with scarce water resources than for a facility located in a region with sufficient water resources. Weighting may enable the prioritization of environmental impacts based on their severity or urgency. For instance, a higher weight may be associated with a score related to generated emissions, such as greenhouse gas emissions, as compared to a score related to noise pollution, which may have a lesser impact on the environment. Weighting can help facilities allocate resources more effectively. By assigning higher weights to environmentally critical areas, vehicle repair facilities can channel their efforts and resources towards making the most significant improvements.

[0068] The environmental property / ies may indicate or may be associated with an environmental impact associated with energy inputs and material inputs to the respective process step or process as well as waste and releases to air, water and / or soil produced by the respective process step or process. The environmental property / ies may be determined from the consumption of materials within the respective process step or process, the consumption of energy within the respective process step or process and / or the generation of waste and releases to air, water and / or soil within the respective process step or process. The environmental property / ies may include one or more characteristic(s) that are attributable to environmental impact of the energy inputs and material inputs to the respective process step or process as well as waste and releases to air, water and / or soil produced by the respective process step or process. The environmental property / ies may include environmental, technical or circularity characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the energy inputs and material inputs to the respective process step or process as well as waste and releases to air, water and / or soil produced by the respective process step or process.

[0069] 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.

[0070] 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.

[0071] 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.

[0072] The environmental property / ies may digitally specify the environmental impact of operations of the vehicle repair facility, such as consumed material(s) and / or consumed energy, and / or the environmental impact of output(s) produced by the operation of the vehicle repair facility, such as generated 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 / ies and hence also the environmental impact score(s) determined therefrom 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 / ies 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 / ies may include further environmental characteristics of the input(s) or the output(s).

[0073] 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.

[0074] In an embodiment the data associated with the vehicle repair facility includes data associated with resources consumed by the vehicle repair facility and outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility. Consumed resources may include consumed material and / or consumed energy. Consumed material may include material consumed by the operation of the vehicle repair facility. 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. Outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility may include generated waste and / or generated emissions, such as VOC emissions.

[0075] In an embodiment, the data associated with the vehicle repair facility includes material consumption data, energy consumption data and waste generation data. 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 processes, such as tape, gloves, mixing cups, plastic foil, paper, 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.

[0076] 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) or a combination 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) or a combination 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.

[0077] Electric energy consumption data may include electric energy identifier(s), the amount of consumed electric energy and the emission 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 emission 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 production of electric and / or thermal energy 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.

[0078] 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 the location of the vehicle repair facility and / or size data associated with the 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 total inputs and total releases signified by the vehicle repair process data. The time data may indicate the time period for which the total inputs and total releases 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 respective vehicle repair facility.

[0079] In an embodiment the data associated with the vehicle repair facility is generated according to a predefined data scheme defining 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 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 / ies and the environmental impact score. This allows to obtain comparable and reliable environmental impact scores, allowing comparison of different vehicle repair facilities with respect to their environmental impacts.

[0080] In an embodiment the data associated with environmental property factors includes predefined environmental impact factor(s) associated with the associated with the material(s) to be used within the repair process, electric energy to be consumed within the repair process, thermal energy to be consumed within the repair process, waste generated during the coating process and / or releases to air, soil and / or water generated during the repair process. Data associated with environmental property factor(s) 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 inputs consumed by the vehicle repair facility and / or releases generated by the vehicle repair facility. The predefined environmental impact factor(s) may include 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. The predefined environmental impact factor(s) may be applied to consumed input material(s), consumed energy, generated waste and / or releases to air, soil and / or water to determine the respective environmental property / ies. The predefined environmental impact factor(s) may be multiplied with the amount of consumed input material(s), consumed energy, generated waste and / or releases. This may allow to convert the consumption of inputs and / or the release of outputs (e.g. waste and / or releases to air, soil and / or water) to a common unit represented by respective environmental property / ies.

[0081] 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 ma 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.

[0082] 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.

[0083] 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.

[0084] 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.

[0085] 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.

[0086] 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.

[0087] In an embodiment, at least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility is validated by using a rule-based engine including one or more plausibility rule(s). The environmental property / ies 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 / ies and / or environmental impact score(s). 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 released by the vehicle repair facility.

[0088] 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.

[0089] 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 / ies and the environmental impact score(s). Use of such plausibility rule(s) allows to identify unplausible data points, hence avoiding generation of incorrect and unreliable environmental property / ies and environmental impact score(s). Validation may hence allow to improve the accuracy and the reliability of the determined environmental impact score. Improved reliability and accuracy results in an improved trustworthiness of the determined score(s) and allows to reliably compare different vehicle repair facilities in terms of their environmental impact.

[0090] In an embodiment the determined one or more environmental property / ies include emission data associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. 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.

[0091] In an embodiment the environmental property / ies is / are related to a standard unit for measuring carbon footprints. The environmental property / ies 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 emission data in terms of kg CO2 eq. allows for a straightforward comparison and quantification emission data of different facilities and activities. In an embodiment the determined environmental property / ies are associated with the consumption of the one or more material(s), the consumption of thermal energy, the consumption of electric energy and / or the generation of waste and / or releases to air, soil and / or water. Environmental property / ies may quantify the consumption of the one or more material(s), the consumption of thermal energy, the consumption of electric energy and / or the generation of waste and / or releases to air, soil and / or water. The environmental property / ies may be associated with the consumption of one or more materials, including but not limited to materials used in the repair process, such as coating materials, rising materials, and vehicle parts and materials used in the production of energy, such as fossil fuels or renewable energy sources. The environmental property / ies may be associated with the consumption of thermal energy, including but not limited to energy used for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, energy used for lighting, including both traditional lighting and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The environmental property / ies may be associated with the consumption of electric energy, including but not limited to energy used for powering machinery and equipment, such as application devices and ventilators, energy used for lighting, including both traditional lighting and LEDs. The environmental property / ies may be associated with the generation of waste and / or releases to air, soil, and / or water, including but not limited to waste generated during the repair process, such as oil, fuel, and other hazardous materials. Emissions generated during the production of energy, such as greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels or air pollutants from industrial processes, and / or vehicle repair processes, such as VOC emissions from coating materials and / or rinsing materials.

[0092] In an embodiment the determined environmental property / ies is / are associated with at least one environmental impact classification. The determined environmental property / ies may represent quantifiable representation(s) of the respective environmental impact classification. The determined environmental property / ies may be aggregated into environmental impact classification(s) using a rulebased engine including one or more aggregation rule(s). The rule(s) may signify the environmental impact classification and associated environmental property / ies. The rule may signify the environmental impact classification and associated environmental property / ies per facility. The different environmental impact classifications may be associated with a consumption of the one or more material(s), a consumption of thermal energy, a consumption of electric energy and / or generation of waste and / or releases. The environmental property / ies may be determined by determining the material consumption, thermal energy consumption, electric energy consumption and / or generation of waste and / or releases to air, soil and / or water based on the provided material consumption data, energy consumption data and waste generation data. Environmental property / ies may be determined using predefined environmental impact factor(s) associated with the material(s) to be used within the repair process, electric energy to be consumed within the repair process, thermal energy to be consumed within the repair process, waste generated during the coating process and / or releases to air, soil and / or water generated during the repair process. Environmental property / ies 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).

[0093] In an embodiment the environmental impact score(s) quantify / ies the environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. The environmental impact score(s) may be numerical value(s). The environmental impact score(s) may be classification(s) or classification label(s). The classification may be a discriminator discriminating between a plurality of levels, such as “high environmental impact”, “medium environmental impact” and “low environmental impact”.

[0094] In an embodiment the environmental impact score(s) is / are determined by comparing the determined environmental property / ies or aggregated environmental property / ies to reference property / ies and by comparing at least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility to respective reference vehicle repair facility data. The environmental impact score(s) may be determined by comparing the environmental impact classification(s) to reference environmental impact classification(s) and by comparing at least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility to respective reference vehicle repair facility data. The environmental impact score(s) may be determined by comparing the aggregated environmental property / ies associated with the environmental impact classification(s) to aggregated environmental property / ies associated with reference environmental impact classification(s) and by comparing at least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility to respective reference vehicle repair facility data. The environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on a deviation between the determined environmental property / ies and the reference property / ies and based on a deviation between at least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility to respective reference vehicle repair facility data. Lower deviation(s) may result in higher environmental impact score(s) while higher deviations may result in lower environmental impact score(s) or vice versa.

[0095] The environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on a linear or non-linear correlation between the respective environmental property / ies and the reference property / ies. The environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on a linear or non-linear correlation between the respective data associated with the vehicle repair facility and the reference vehicle repair facility data. The environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on a linear or non-linear correlation between the reference environmental property / ies and the environmental impact score or sub score. The environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on a linear or non-linear correlation between the reference vehicle repair facility data and the environmental impact score or sub score. The environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on a linear or non-linear relationship between the environmental property / ies and the environmental impact score(s) or sub score(s). A higher degree of correlation may result in higher impact score(s) while a lower degree of correlation may result in lower impact score(s) or vice versa.

[0096] The environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on a linear or non-linear relationship between the vehicle repair facility data and the environmental impact score(s) or sub score(s). The linear or non-linear relationship between the environmental property / ies and the environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on reference environmental property / ies. Likewise, the linear or non-linear relationship between the environmental property / ies and the environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on the reference vehicle repair facility data. The relationship may represent a correlation between the degree of environmental impact associated with the respective environmental property or data point in the vehicle repair facility data and the resulting score. A higher environmental impact may be associated with lower environmental impact score(s) and a lower environmental impact may be associated with higher environmental impact score(s) or vice versa.

[0097] In an embodiment the environmental impact score(s) is / are determined for one or more data point(s) included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility and for one or more determined environmental property / ies. The environmental impact score may be determined for one or more environmental impact classifications. The environmental impact score may be determined for aggregated environmental property / ies associated with one or more environmental impact classification(s). In an embodiment the method further includes a step of aggregating the determined environmental impact score(s) to generate a cumulative environmental impact score. The determined environmental impact score(s) may be aggregated to a single numerical value. The determined environmental impact score(s) may be aggregated per data point or per combination of data points. Aggregating may include summing determined environmental impact score(s). Aggregation may allow to reduce the dimensionality of the score and the complexity associated with said score. This allows to compare different vehicle repair facilities in a reliable and robust manner.

[0098] In an embodiment, the method further includes a step of normalizing the determined environmental impact score(s) or aggregated environmental impact score(s). Normalization may include adjusting the environmental impact score(s) being present on different scales to a common scale. This may allow for fair comparison between various scores. For instance, scores associated with further impact categories may be compared after normalization. Normalization may allow to adjust a plurality of scores such that weighting between the different scores may be considered. Normalization may be performed using different techniques, such as min-max normalization, Z-Score normalization (Standardization), decimal scaling and mean normalization.

[0099] In an embodiment the method further includes a step of determining the environmental impact associated with the vehicle repair facility by providing predefined threshold value(s) and comparing the determined environmental impact score(s) with at least one of the predefined threshold value(s). 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. This may allow to compare the determined environmental impact score(s) and / or the sum to historic impact score(s) and / or sum(s) to determine improved environmental impact with respect to the historic data or reduced environmental impact with respect to historic data. The further step may be performed prior to providing the environmental impact score(s). Comparison may include classifying the determined environmental impact score(s) and / or a sum of the determined environmental impact scores using a classifier. The classifier may be a binary classifier classifying the environmental impact score(s) and / or the sum of environmental impact score(s) into acceptable or not acceptable. The environmental impact score(s) and / or the sum of environmental impact score(s) may be classified as acceptable if the score(s) and / or the sum is / are above at least one predefined threshold value. The classifier may classify the environmental impact score(s) and / or the sum 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. Based on the comparison, the environmental impact of the repair facility may be classified. The environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility may be classified or rated based on the result of the comparison according to predefined classes. 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 impact score(s) and the sum is classified as acceptable. Comparison of the environmental impact score(s) 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.

[0100] In an embodiment providing the determined environmental impact score(s) or normalized environmental impact score(s) includes generating a digital asset including at least one of the identifier(s) associated with the vehicle repair facility and the determined environmental impact score(s) or the normalized impact score(s) and providing the generated digital asset. The digital asset may further include the result of the comparison of the environmental impact score(s) (e.g. the determined impact score(s) or the normalized impact score(s)) with the predefined threshold value(s) (e.g. an environmental impact rating). The digital asset may be a computer-readable file or database entry that contains the environmental impact score(s) and optionally the environmental impact rating and associated information, such as vehicle repair facility identifier(s), determined environmental property / ies, 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, comparing the impact of different facilities, or identifying areas for improvement in the facility's operations. The digital asset may also be used to generate reports, graphs, or other visualizations that help facility managers, regulators, or other stakeholders understand the environmental impact of the facility. The digital asset may be related to other digital entities, such as a database of environmental regulations, a repository of facility-specific data, or a system for tracking and analyzing environmental impacts across multiple facilities.

[0101] In an embodiment of the method for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, the one or more validation input(s) may relate to one or more properties associated with data used to generate the environmental impact data. Data used to generate the environmental impact data (e.g. generation data) may include data collected or gathered for one or more input(s) provided to the vehicle repair facility, one or more output(s) produced by operations of the vehicle repair facility, one or more repair processes performed within the vehicle repair facility. Such collected or gathered data may be used to generate the environmental impact data. Such data may include measured or calculated data related to one or more input(s), output(s) and / or operation(s). Such data may include data related to one or more vehicle repair process(es) performed within the vehicle repair facility. Properties associated with such generation data may relate to one or more quality indicators of the generation data that signify the relevance of the generation data to the operation(s) performed by the vehicle repair facility. Properties associated with such generation data may relate to the qualitative relevance of the generation data to the operation(s) performed by the vehicle repair facility. In other words, the properties signify the quality of the generation data with respect to the operation(s) performed by the vehicle repair facility.

[0102] In an embodiment of the method for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, the one or more validation input(s) relate to a geographical correlation between the location of the vehicle repair facility and the location associated with the data used to generate the environmental impact data. The geographical correlation may relate to the geographical location of operations performed within the vehicle repair facility and the relation of the data used to generate the environmental impact data to such operation(s). The environmental impact data may be generated based on generation data gathered from the non-limiting examples of one or more production locations of the vehicle repair facility, multiple production locations of vehicle repair facilities including the location of the vehicle repair facility associated with the provided validation input(s), one or more locations different to the location of the vehicle repair facility associated with the provided validation input(s) or any selection or combination thereof. Depending on where the generation data used to generate the environmental impact data was gathered, the geographical correlation may be determined. The higher the correlation, the higher the quality of the environmental impact data.

[0103] In an embodiment of the method for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, the one or more validation input(s) relate to a temporal correlation of the data used to generate the environmental impact data. The temporal correlation of the data may include the age of the data used to generate the environmental impact data and / or the time range covered by the data used to generate the environmental impact data. For example, the one or more validation input(s) may relate to the time period the data used for determining environmental impact data was collected. The time period may signify the age of the generation data. For example, the one or more validation input(s) may relate to the time range the generation data covers. The time range may signify the range over which the generation data was collected. Depending on the age and / or the time range of the data used to generate the environmental impact data, the temporal correlation may be determined.

[0104] In an embodiment of the method for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, at least one validation rule is selected based on validation input category / ies included within the validation input(s). The validation rule set may include one or more validation rule(s). The validation rules set may include one or more validation rule(s) relating to different environmental properties provided by the environmental impact data. This may also be referred to as environmental impact data type. The validation rules set may include one or more validation rule(s) relating to different validation input categories. The validation input categories may relate to geographical and / or temporal properties of the generation data used to generate the environmental impact data. The validation input categories may relate to at least a geographical correlation of data used to generate the environmental impact data, a temporal correlation of data used to generate the environmental impact data or any combination or selection thereof. The validation input categories may relate to geographical and / or temporal properties of the data used to generate the environmental impact data. The validation input categories may relate to properties of the generation process used to generate the environmental impact data.

[0105] In an embodiment of the method for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, the at least one validation rule is configured to generate a validation score based one or more properties associated with data used to generate the environmental impact data. The validation rule may be configured to generate a validation score based on one or more validation input(s). The validation score may be determined per validation input category and / or per validation input.

[0106] In an embodiment of the method for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, the at least one validation rule is configured to generate a validation score based on a geographical correlation and / or a temporal correlation of data used to generate the environmental impact data and environmental impact data. In an embodiment of the method for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, environmental impact data is validated if the validation score indicates at least partially valid environmental impact data. At least the validated part of the environmental impact data may be assigned to the at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility.

[0107] In another embodiment of the method for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, environmental impact data is not validated if the validation score indicates at least partially non-valid environmental impact data. The non-valid environmental impact data may be replaced by reference environmental impact data. The reference environmental impact data may be assigned as validated environmental impact data to the at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility. Alternatively, the non-valid environmental impact data may be rejected and no environmental property / ies or environmental impact score(s) may be determined.

[0108] In an embodiment of the method for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, the validation score per validation input is aggregated and the validated environmental impact data is assigned to the at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility based on the aggregated score. The validation scores may include weighted summed scores and / or summed scores. The aggregated validation score may be determined per validation input category and / or per environmental property included in the environmental impact data.

[0109] In an embodiment of the method for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, further comprising a step of providing the validated environmental impact data for determining an environmental impact score for monitoring the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility. The environmental impact score may be determined based on the validated environmental impact data and the one or more validation input(s).

[0110] In an embodiment of the method for optimizing the environmental impact associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility, further including a step of generating control data based on the optimized data. The control data may be configured to control and / or monitor the one or more vehicle repair processes.

[0111] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

[0112] 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.

[0113] FIG. 1 illustrates an example block diagram of a vehicle repair facility.

[0114] FIG. 2A, FIG. 2B illustrate block diagrams of example vehicle repair processes performed within a vehicle repair facility. FIG. 3A illustrates an example of environmental impact classifications associated with vehicle repair process(es) performed within a vehicle repair facility.

[0115] FIG. 3B illustrates different contributions for determining environmental property / ies associated with the environmental impact classifications illustrated in FIG. 3A.

[0116] FIG. 4 illustrates an example system for monitoring an environmental impact associated with the operation of a vehicle repair facility.

[0117] FIG. 5 illustrates determination of an environmental impact score based on various input data by the system illustrated in FIG. 4.

[0118] FIG. 6 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 / ies associated with associated with vehicle repair process(es) performed within a vehicle repair facility.

[0119] FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an example of calculating the volatile organic content

[0120] (VOC) emissions described in the context of FIG. 6.

[0121] FIG. 8A illustrates an example flow chart of a method for monitoring an environmental impact associated with the operation of a vehicle repair facility.

[0122] FIG. 8B illustrates an example flowchart of another method for monitoring an environmental impact associated with the operation of a vehicle repair facility.

[0123] FIG. 8C illustrates an example flowchart of yet another method for monitoring an environmental impact associated with the operation of a vehicle repair facility.

[0124] FIG. 8D illustrates an example flowchart of an embodiment of the example method shown in FIG. 8A to FIG. 8C.

[0125] FIG. 9A illustrates a data scheme used for generation of data associated with data associated with the vehicle repair processes used as input data for the method illustrated in FIG. 8A to FIG. 8C.

[0126] FIG. 9B, FIG. 9C illustrate data schemes associated with environmental impact score(s) generated by the methods illustrated in FIG. 8A to FIG. 8C.

[0127] FIG. 10 illustrates an example system for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility. FIG. 11 A, FIG. 11 B illustrate examples of providing validation inputs associated with environmental impact data to a validation engine.

[0128] FIG. 12A illustrates an example flowchart of a method for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility based on validation input(s).

[0129] FIG. 12B illustrates an example flowchart of a method for validating input data.

[0130] FIG. 13 illustrates an example flowchart of an embodiment of the method illustrated in FIG.

[0131] 12A.

[0132] FIG. 14A illustrates an example result of a validation per validation input category.

[0133] FIG. 14B illustrates an example data structure for different validation categories.

[0134] FIG. 15 illustrates an example flowchart of a method for validating environmental impact data based on validation input categories.

[0135] FIG. 16 illustrates an example flowchart of a method for optimizing environmental impact of facility.

[0136] FIG. 17 illustrates an example system of a method for optimizing environmental impact of facility.

[0137] DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0138] 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.

[0139] 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.

[0140] 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 paint unit 110 and assembly unit 112. Paint unit 110 may comprise a paint booth where the coating material(s) are applied to the vehicle or the 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).

[0141] 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 masking 202, car parts may be disassembled to allow better access to the damaged coating.

[0142] Following masking 202, 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.

[0143] Surface preparation 204 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.

[0144] The cured primer layer or the cured primer-surfacer layer may be treated by sanding 208. Sanding 208 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.

[0145] After sanding 208, 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.

[0146] 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 212 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 poylurethane clearcoats. 2K materials include 2K polyurethane clearcoats and 2K epoxy acid clearcoats. The applied clearcoat material may be dried and / or cured.

[0147] 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.

[0148] 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

[0149] 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.

[0150] 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.

[0151] 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.

[0152] 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.

[0153] 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.

[0154] 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.

[0155] 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 / ies associated with the respective process step may be assigned. The environmental impact classifications may represent the sum of environmental property / ies associated with such environmental impact classifications. The environmental property / ies may indicate or may be associated with an environmental impact associated with energy inputs and material inputs to the respective process step or process as well as waste and releases to air, water and / or soil produced by the respective process step or process. The environmental property / ies may be determined from the consumption of materials within the respective process step or process, the consumption of energy within the respective process step or process and / or the generation of waste and releases to air, water and / or soil within the respective process step or process. The environmental property / ies may include one or more characteristic(s) that are attributable to environmental impact of the energy inputs and material inputs to the respective process step or process as well as waste and releases to air, water and / or soil produced by the respective process step or process. The environmental property / ies may include environmental, technical or circularity characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the energy inputs and material inputs to the respective process step or process as well as waste and releases to air, water and / or soil produced by the respective process step or process.

[0156] The environmental property / ies may be associated with environmental impact categories. Likewise, the environmental impact classification(s) may be related to environmental impact categories associated with environmental property / ies included in or assigned to such environmental impact classification. The environmental property / ies may represent quantifiable representation(s) of the respective environmental impact categories. Environmental impact categories may characterize different types of environmental impacts associated with the energy inputs and material inputs to the respective process step or process as well as waste and releases to air, water and / or soil produced by the respective process step or process. 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).

[0157] 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.

[0158] 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 material and energy consumed by the process(es) as well as with waste and releases generated by such process(es). The environmental impact classifications may include environmental impact property / ies 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 aspects and potential impacts associated with a repair process. It may involve compiling an inventory of relevant energy and material inputs and environmental releases and evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with identified inputs and releases.

[0159] With reference to FIG. 3B, environmental property / ies 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 / ies associated with emissions, such as CO2 emissions, generated from the consumption of 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, 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.

[0160] Environmental impact classification “energy consumption 304” may include environmental property / ies associated with the consumption of energy, such as thermal energy, electric energy and energy consumed by the fleet, such as energy from hydrogen.

[0161] Environmental impact classification “VOC 306” may include environmental property / ies associated with the generation of VOC emissions. VOC (volatile organic content) emissions may be generated from evaporation of organic solvents present within the applied coating material(s) upon drying and / or curing of such coating material(s). VOC emissions may further be generated from rinsing materials used to rinse the application equipment used to apply the coating material(s). 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.

[0162] Use of such environmental impact classification(s) allows to provide a reduced dimension of indicators indicating the environmental impact associated with the respective process or process(es) and hence also the environmental impact associated with the respective vehicle repair facility. The reduced dimension may allow to more efficiently monitor and / or evaluate the environmental impact associated with the process(es) and / or the vehicle repair facility by having to consider less variables. However, a reliable monitoring and / or evaluating can still be ensured since the classification(s) reflect the environmental property / ies bundled in or assigned to such classification. 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.

[0163] 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. 8A to FIG. 8D. The environmental impact may be associated with or relate to environmental property / ies associated with consumed energy, consumed materials, generated waste and generated emissions or releases to soil, water and / or air, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B.

[0164] The system may include a computing unit 402. The computing unit 402 may be a mobile device (e.g. a smartphone, tablet, computer, etc.) or a stationary device (e.g. desktop computer). Computing unit 402 may include at least one processor 404 and a memory 418. Processor 406 and memory 418 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.

[0165] Computing unit 402 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 402.

[0166] Memory 418 may store data and several components, such as environmental impact monitoring unit 420, that are executable by the processor 404. In this respect, the term "executable" means a program file that is in a form that can ultimately be run by the processor 404. 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 418 and run by the processor 404 , 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 418 and executed by the processor 404, or source code that may be interpreted by another executable program to generate instructions in a random access portion of the memory 418 to be executed by the processor 404, etc. An executable program may be stored in any portion or component of the memory 418 including, for example, random access memory (RAM), readonly 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 418 and executable by the processor 604 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 418 may be a data store and other data. In addition, an operating system may be stored in the memory 418 and executable by the processor 404.

[0167] Environmental impact monitoring unit 420 may be configured to determine the environmental impact associated with repair process(es) performed within a vehicle repair facility. Environmental impact monitoring unit 420 may be configured to determine the environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. Environmental impact monitoring unit 420 may be configured to determine environmental property / ies associated with repair process(es) and / or associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. Environmental impact monitoring unit 420 may be configured to determine environmental property / ies associated with energy inputs and material inputs to the process(es) and / or facility as well as waste and releases to air, water and / or soil produced by the respective process(es) and / or facility. Environmental impact monitoring unit 420 may be configured to classify environmental property / ies according to predefined environmental impact classification(s). Environmental impact monitoring unit 420 may be configured to determine environmental property / ies using input data. The input data may include the data described in the context of FIG. 5 to FIG. 8C. For instance, the input data may include vehicle repair facility data 414 and data associated with environmental impact factors (e.g. environmental impact factor data). The input data may be stored in one or more databases, such as databases 414 and 416. Environmental impact monitoring unit 420 may be configured to determine environmental impact score(s) based on the determined environmental property / ies.

[0168] With reference to FIG. 5, environmental impact monitoring unit 420 may include one or more subunits. A subunit may be configured to perform defined operations. For instance, environmental impact monitoring unit 420 may include a validation engine 502. Validation engine 502 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 a precise calculation of the impact score based on environmental property / ies determined from such input data, considering factors such as material inputs, energy consumption, and waste generation. This ensures that the assessment is based on accurate and reliable data. Moreover, this standardization enables the comparison of emissions across different facilities and the development of industry-wide benchmarks.

[0169] For example, validation engine 502 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. Material consumption data 508 may include data associated with the consumption of coating material(s), auxiliary materials and substrates and the consumption of fuel for the fleet operated by the vehicle repair facility. Energy consumption data 510 may include data associated with the consumption of thermal energy, electric energy, data associated with consumption of feedstock used to generate energy and / or energy production data. Waste generation data 512 may include data associated with the amounts of generated waste, such as the amounts of generated waste types. Validation engine 502 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. 8C. Validation engine 502 may be configured to provide the result of the verification and / or the verified input data to environmental property generator 504. Validation engine 502 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. 8C).

[0170] Verification of the input data may ensure that complete and / or plausible input data is used to determine the impact score. This may improve the reliability and trustworthiness of the determined impact score. Moreover, this may allow more reliable comparison of vehicle repair facilities with respect to their associated impact scores, hence allowing to more reliably optimize the environmental impact based on such determined impact score.

[0171] Environmental impact monitoring unit 420 may further include environmental property generator 504. Environmental property generator 504 may be configured to determine one or more environmental property / ies 518 associated with the energy inputs and material inputs to the process(es) and / or facility as well as waste and releases to air, water and / or soil produced by the respective process(es) and / or facility, for example as described in the context of FIG. 6 to FIG. 8B. Environmental property generator 504 may be configured to classify determined environmental property / ies based on one or more predefined environmental impact classifications, for example as illustrated in FIG. 3A. Environmental property generator 504 may be configured to provide the determined environmental property / ies 518 to impact score generator 506 of environmental impact monitoring unit 420. Environmental property generator 504 may further be configured to provide (validated) input data, such as material consumption data 508, energy consumption data 510 and waste generation data 512, to impact score generator 506. The environmental property / ies determined by environmental property generator 504 may correspond to or signify the global warming potential associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

[0172] Impact score generator 506 may be configured to generate one or more environmental impact score(s) associated with the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility. Impact score generator 506 may generate one or more environmental impact score(s) associated with environmental property / ies of the vehicle repair facility. Impact score generator 506 may be configured to generate an environmental impact score 522 based on the environmental property / ies 518 determined by environmental property generator 504 and (validated) input data received from environmental property generator 504, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A and FIG. 8B. Impact score generator 506 may be configured to provide the determined impact score 522. The determined impact score 522 may be provided, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 8D. The determined impact score 522 may be provided for monitoring the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility and / or operation of the vehicle repair facility. The scoring system reduces dimensionality. By using a scoring system that considers a range of data associated with the environmental impact of the facility, the assessment process is simplified and the environmental impact can be monitored more efficiently. This reduction in dimensionality also makes it easier for facilities to communicate their environmental performance to stakeholders and customers, fostering transparency and accountability in the industry. Such transparency may add in overall reduction of environmental impact since customers can use such transparency when deciding on a vehicle repair facility to repair their vehicle, hence driving reduction in environmental impact by deciding to repair their car at facilities having a reduced environmental impact. In addition, such transparency may allow to reward environmental impact reduction, leading to an overall reduction in environmental impact in the vehicle repair facility sector.

[0173] Referring back to FIG. 4 and with continued reference to FIG. 5, the memory 418 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 418 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.

[0174] Processor 404 may represent multiple processors 404 and / or multiple processor cores and the memory 404 may represent multiple memories 418 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 404, between any processor 404 and any of the memory 418, or between any two of the memories 418, etc. The local interface may comprise additional systems designed to coordinate this communication, including, for example, performing load balancing. The processor 404 may be of electrical or of some other available construction.

[0175] 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.

[0176] 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 404 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.

[0177] The computer-readable medium may comprise any one of many physical media such as, for example, magnetic, optical, or semiconductor media. More specific examples of a suitable computer-readable medium would include, but are not limited to, magnetic tapes, magnetic floppy diskettes, magnetic hard drives, memory cards, solid-state drives, USB flash drives, or optical discs. Also, the computer-readable medium may be a random access memory (RAM) including, for example, static random access memory (SRAM) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM), or magnetic random access memory (MRAM). The computer-readable medium may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or other type of memory device.

[0178] The system may further include at least one database connected to 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 factor(s) associated with material(s) to be used within the repair process(es), energy to be consumed within the repair process(es), thermal energy to be consumed within the repair process(es), waste generated during the repair process(es) and / or release to air, soil and / or water generated during the repair process(es). The predefined environmental impact factors(s) may be derived from one or more different methods. The predefined environmental impact factor(s) may be associated with environmental impact categories described in the context of FIG. 3A. The predefined environmental impact factor(s) may be applied to consumed input material(s), consumed energy, generated waste and / or releases to air, soil and / or water to determine the respective environmental property / ies. Respective predefined environmental impact factor(s) may be multiplied with the consumed input material(s), consumed energy, generated waste and / or releases to air, soil and / or water to determine the environmental property / ies. This may allow to convert the consumption of inputs and / or the release of outputs (e.g. waste and / or releases to air, soil and / or water) to a common unit represented by respective environmental property / ies. The environmental impact factor(s) may, for example, 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 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 environmental property / ies mentioned with respect to the environmental impact classification illustrated in FIG. 3B.

[0179] FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of an example of calculations performed by the environmental property generator 504 illustrated in FIG. 5 to determine environmental property / ies associated with associated with vehicle repair process(es) performed within a vehicle repair facility. The environmental property generator 504 may be part of environmental impact monitoring unit 420 described in the context of FIG. 4. Environmental property generator 504 may be configured to perform various calculations required to determine environmental properties 518 and to aggregate such determined property / ies into associated environmental impact classifications. An environmental impact classification may hence represent the sum of all environmental properties assigned to such environmental impact classification.

[0180] Environmental property generator 504 may be configured to determine environmental property / ies 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. For instance, environmental property generator 504 may be configured to determine the amount of VOC released during the use of coating materials containing organic solvents. The organic solvents contained in such coating material(s) may be released during drying and / or curing of the applied coating materials. The organic solvents may further be present in overspray formed during spray application of the coating materials. 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.

[0181] With reference to FIG. 7, the amount of produced VOC emissions may be determined from material consumption data 508 as input data 702. The amount of produced VOC may be determined by one or more intermediate calculation steps. The amount of produced VOC may be determined per coating material type. For instance, the amount of produced VOC may be determined for primer materials, basecoat materials and clearcoat materials separately. The total amount of produced VOC may then be obtained by addition of the determined amounts of produced VOC per coating material type.

[0182] In a first step (see step 704), the total amount of consumed coating material(s) may be determined from the input data 702. The total amount of consumed coating materials may be determined by adding the amount of coating material consumed per coating 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 added.

[0183] Based on the total amount of consumed coating material per coating material type, the amount of collected coating material per coating material type, e.g. the amount of waste coating material per coating material type not being applied to the surface of vehicles or vehicle parts during the respective repair process, may be determined (see step 706). The amount of collected coating material per coating 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 as described in the context of FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B than required for a given repair process. The amount of collected coating material per coating material type may be determined by multiplying the total amount of consumed coating material per coating material type with the total amount of collected coating material and dividing the result by the total amount of consumed coating materials obtained in step 704.

[0184] In a next step (see step 708), the amount of applied coating material per coating material type may be determined. The amount of released volatiles 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 volatiles 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 702.

[0185] The amount of VOC emitted from such applied coating material per coating material type may be determined in step 710. 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 coating 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 such applied coating material may correspond to an environmental property 518.

[0186] Returning to FIG. 6, environmental property generator 504 may further be configured to determine the material consumption 608 and the auxiliaries consumption 610. The material consumption and / or auxiliaries consumption 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.

[0187] Environmental property generator 504 may further be configured to determine the amount of generated waste 612. 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 converting the amount of waste per waste type included in the input data into another unit of measurement.

[0188] Environmental property generator 504 may further be configured to determine the thermal energy consumption 604. 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 thermal energy consumed may be determined from energy consumption data 510 as input data. The thermal energy consumption may be determined per time period, such as per year or per working hour, or per repair process

[0189] Environmental property generator 504 may further be configured to determine the electric energy consumption 606. The electric energy consumption 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 use of solar panels associated with the vehicle repair facility and / or electric energy produced by block heating power plant(s) associated with the vehicle repair facility. The total amount of consumed electric energy may be determined by adding the consumed electric energy, the consumed fraction of energy produced by the use of solar panels as well as the consumed fraction of energy produced by the block heating power plant(s). 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 electric energy consumption may be determined from energy consumption data 510 as input data. The electric energy consumption may be determined per time period, such as per year or per working hour, or per repair process

[0190] Environmental property generator 504 may be configured to determine environmental property / ies 518 in step 602 based on the calculated VOC emissions 614, the calculated waste generation 612, the calculated thermal energy consumption 604, the calculated electric energy consumption 606 and optionally the calculated material consumption 608 and the calculated consumables consumption 610. Environmental property generator 504 may be configured to multiply the determined consumption of input(s) (such as material inputs and energy inputs determined in step 614, 612, 604, 604 and / or included in material consumption data 508) with associated environmental property factor(s) included in environmental property factor data 416. Likewise, environmental property generator 504 may be configured to multiply the determined generation of waste materials and VOC emissions with the associated environmental property factor(s) included in environmental property factor data 416. Likewise, environmental property generator 504 may be configured to multiply the amount of fuel included in material consumption data 508 with the associated environmental property factor(s) included in environmental property factor data 416. Environmental property generator 504 may be configured to match a material input, such as a primer material input (e.g. a primer material consumption) to the associated environmental property factor included in the environmental property data. The matching may be performed based on data included in the environmental property data. For instance, environmental property factor(s) included in such environmental property data may be associated with identifier(s) signifying the respective material input, energy input or release they are associated with. The environmental property data may include one or more factor(s) per input type and / or release type. The factor(s) may be associated with a given environmental impact category, such as described in the context of FIG. 3A.

[0191] The determined environmental property / ies may be assigned to a respective environmental impact classification, as illustrated in FIG. 3A. The environmental impact associated with such environmental impact classification may be determined by summing up the assigned environmental impact properties.

[0192] FIG. 8A 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 environmental property / ies associated with consumed energy, consumed materials, generated waste and generated emissions, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. The environmental impact may be associated with or relate to inputs, such as material inputs and energy inputs, to the facility and releases, such as generated waste and emissions, from the facility. The environmental impact may be associated with or relate to environmental property / ies associated with inputs, such as material inputs and energy inputs, to the facility and environmental property / ies associated with releases, such as generated waste and emissions, from the facility.

[0193] At least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, data associated with the vehicle repair facility and data associated with environmental property factor(s) may be provided (see block 802). 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.

[0194] The vehicle repair facility data may be associated with time data. The time data may indicate the time period associated with the vehicle repair process data. For instance, the time data may indicate the time period associated with the total inputs and total releases signified by the vehicle repair process data. The time data may indicate the time period for which the total inputs and total releases are recorded.

[0195] Data associated with the vehicle repair facility may include data associated with resources consumed by the vehicle repair facility and outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility. Consumed resources may include consumed material and / or energy. Outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility may include generated waste. Data associated with resources consumed by the vehicle repair facility and outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility may include material consumption data, energy consumption data and waste generation data. Data associated with the vehicle repair facility may include material consumption data, energy consumption data and waste generation data. Data associated with the vehicle repair facility may further include time data indicating a time period associated with such data, 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. Data associated with the vehicle repair facility may further include data associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. Data associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility may include economic data and employment data. Economic data may include financial data, data associated with reclamations, customer data and / or data associated with the productivity of the vehicle repair facility. Employment data may include data associated with the working conditions present within the vehicle repair facility, such as occupational safety data and / or data associated with labor wages.

[0196] 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.

[0197] 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.

[0198] 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). 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.

[0199] 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 refuelling process and / or total amounts per consumed fuel type.

[0200] Energy consumption data may include electric energy consumption data, data associated with consumption of feedstock used to generate thermal energy and optionally energy production data. Electric energy consumption data may include electric energy identifier(s), the amount of consumed electric energy and the emission 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 emission 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. The emission factor may be determined based on the energy sources used to generate the consumed electricity, the efficiency of the power plant used to generate the consumed electricity and the emissions associated with the extraction, transport, and processing of the fuels used in generation of the consumed electricity. 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 production of electric and / or thermal energy 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.

[0201] 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. 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 impact score. With reference FIG. 9A, the vehicle repair facility data may be gathered or collected or generated according to a given data schema 902 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 902 may define one or more criterion(s), a weight associated with the criterion(s), and data to be entered per criterion 914. Data to be entered 914 may include material consumption data 508, energy consumption data 510 and waste generation data 512. 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 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.

[0202] Data associated with the vehicle repair facility may hence represent a digital representation of equipment, material and condition(s) used within the respective repair facility steps as well as the operation(s) performed within the respective 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 releases, 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 exchange of coating material(s) and / or operation(s) performed within the facility.

[0203] Data associated with environmental property factor(s) may include predefined environmental impact factor(s). Data associated with environmental property factor(s) 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 releases. 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 and / or thermal energy. Output(s) may include generated waste material(s) and / or releases, such as emissions, 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 data associated with environmental property factor(s) may be retrieved from such database using material identifiers, energy identifiers, waste identifiers and / or release identifiers. Identifiers may include unique identifiers and / or names.

[0204] Based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility and the data associated with environmental property factors, one or more environmental properties associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility may be determined. Environmental property / ies may be determined, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7. Environmental property / ies may be associated with the consumption of material, consumption of thermal energy, consumption of electric energy and / or generation of waste and / or releases to air, soil and / or water. Environmental property / ies may relate to or may be associated with or linked to or assigned to environmental impact classifications, such as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. The determined environmental property / ies may represent(s) quantifiable representation(s) of the respective environmental impact classification they are associated with or assigned to. Environmental property / ies may include emission data associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. 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 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.

[0205] The environmental property / ies may be determined by determining the material consumption, thermal energy consumption, electric energy consumption and / or generation of waste and / or releases to air, soil and / or water based on the provided material consumption data, energy consumption data and waste generation data. Environmental property / ies may be determined using predefined environmental impact factor(s) associated with the material(s) to be used within the repair process, electric energy to be consumed within the repair process, thermal energy to be consumed within the repair process, waste generated during the coating process and / or releases to air, soil and / or water generated during the repair process. Environmental property / ies may be determined per defined time span, such as per working hour or per year, and / or per performed repair process. For instance, the amount of VOC associated with the used coating materials(s) and / or rinsing material(s) may be determined as illustrated in FIG. 7. The determined material consumption may then be used to determine the environmental property / ies based on the data associated with environmental property factors, for example as described in the context of FIG. 7. Likewise, the consumption of other materials used within the respective process step may be determined and may be used to determine associated environmental property / ies. The environmental property / ies may be related to a standard unit for measuring carbon footprints, such as kg CO2 equivalents.

[0206] Based on the determined one or more environmental property / ies and the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, environmental impact score(s) may be determined. The environmental impact score(s) may be determined by comparing the determined environmental property / ies to reference property / ies and by comparing at least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility to respective reference vehicle repair facility data. The reference property / ies and reference vehicle repair facility data may be provided prior to determining the environmental impact score(s). The reference property / ies and reference vehicle repair data may be provided at any point in time prior to determining the environmental impact score(s). The reference data property / ies and reference vehicle repair facility data may be provided from a database storing such reference data. At least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility may include the data associated with resources consumed by the vehicle repair facility and outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility, such as material consumption data, energy consumption data and waste generation data. At least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility may include the data associated with resources consumed by the vehicle repair facility and outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility and the data associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility, such as the economic data and the employment data. The environmental impact score(s) may be determined by comparing the environmental impact classification(s) to reference environmental impact classification(s) and by comparing at least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility to respective reference vehicle repair facility data. The environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on a deviation between the determined environmental property / ies and the reference property / ies and based on a deviation between at least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility to respective reference vehicle repair facility data. Lower deviation(s) may result in higher impact score(s) while higher deviations may result in lower impact score(s).

[0207] The environmental impact score(s) may be determined for one or more data set(s) included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility (e.g. different input categories - see FIG. 9A). The data set(s) may include the data associated with resources consumed by the vehicle repair facility and outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility, the economic data and the employment data. For instance, the environmental impact score(s) may be determined for data associated with resources consumed by the vehicle repair facility and outputs generated by the operation of the vehicle repair facility the economic data and / or the employment data. Hence, the environmental impact score(s) may be determined per data set. This may allow to determine an environmental impact score per data set included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. This way, the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility may be determined more granular since environmental impact score(s) are determined for different categories including an ecology category, an economy category and a social category.

[0208] The environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on a linear or non-linear correlation between the respective environmental property / ies and the reference property / ies. The environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on a linear or non-linear correlation between the respective data associated with the vehicle repair facility and the reference vehicle repair facility data. The environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on a linear or non-linear correlation between the reference environmental property / ies and the environmental impact score or sub score. The environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on a linear or non-linear correlation between the reference vehicle repair facility data and the environmental impact score or sub score. The environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on a linear or non-linear relationship between the environmental property / ies and the environmental impact score(s) or sub score(s). A higher degree of correlation may result in higher environmental impact score(s) while a lower degree of correlation may result in lower environmental impact score(s).

[0209] The environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on a linear or non-linear relationship between the vehicle repair facility data and the environmental impact score(s) or sub score(s). The linear or non-linear relationship between the environmental property / ies and the environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on reference environmental property / ies. Likewise, the linear or non-linear relationship between the environmental property / ies and the environmental impact score(s) may be determined based on the reference vehicle repair facility data. The relationship may represent a correlation between the degree of environmental impact associated with the respective environmental property or data point in the vehicle repair facility data and the resulting environmental impact score(s). A higher environmental impact may be associated with lower environmental impact score(s) and a lower environmental impact may be associated with higher environmental impact score(s).

[0210] The reference property / ies may include reference environmental property / ies. The reference environmental property / ies may be determined from environmental property / ies associated with a plurality of vehicle repair facilities. 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 property / ies may be determined based on data associated with the vehicle repair facility, for instance by mapping data included in the reference property / ies, such as location data, time data and / or size data to data included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. Reference vehicle repair data may include reference data associated with resources consumed by a defined group of vehicle repair facilities and outputs generated by the operation of said group of vehicle repair facilities. Reference vehicle repair data may further include reference economic data and / or reference employment data. Reference vehicle repair data may be determined by classifying vehicle repair facilities into different groups and determining the respective reference data for such groups based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facilities present within such groups. The vehicle repair facilities may be classified according to their size and / or location. Reference vehicle repair facility data may be mapped to the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. For instance, data point(s) included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility may be mapped to respective data point(s) included in the reference vehicle repair facility data. After mapping, the mapped data point(s) may be compared to determine the environmental impact score.

[0211] The environmental impact score(s) may be determined for one or more environmental impact classifications. With reference to FIG. 9B, the environmental impact score(s) may be determined for one or more data point(s) included in the vehicle repair facility data. The environmental impact score 910 may be determined for the determined environmental property / ies 908. The environmental impact score may be determined for one or more data point(s) included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility and for one or more determined environmental property / ies. The environmental impact scores may be determined for material consumption data 508, energy consumption data 510 and waste generation data 512 (not shown in FIG. 9B) included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The environmental impact scores may be associated with data point(s) included in the data associated with the vehicle repair facility and / or with determined environmental property / ies. The scores may be associated with material consumption data, energy consumption data and waste generation data (see FIG. 9B). With reference to FIG. 8C and FIG. 9C, the determined environmental impact score (e.g. sub score) per data point or associated with the material consumption data, energy consumption data and waste generation data may be aggregated. With continued reference to FIG. 9C, the determined environmental impact score(s) may be normalized, this step being generally optional. Normalization may include adjusting the impact score(s) or the sub scores being present on different scales to a common scale. This may allow for fair comparison between various scores. For instance, scores associated with further impact categories, such as an economic or social impact category, may be compared after normalization. Normalization may allow to adjust a plurality of scores such that weighting between the different scores may be considered. Normalization may be performed using different techniques, such as min-max normalization, Z-Score normalization (Standardization), decimal scaling and mean normalization. Min-max normalization may rescale the data between a specified range (usually 0 and 1). Such normalization may be calculated by subtracting the minimum value of the impact scores and then dividing by the range of the impact scores. The Z-score normalization may standardize the impact score into a distribution with a mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1 . It may be calculated by subtracting the mean of the impact scores from each impact score and then dividing by the standard deviation. Decimal scaling may move the decimal point of impact scores of the dataset. The amount of movement may depend on the maximum absolute value in the dataset. Mean normalization may normalize the impact scores to have a mean of 0. Mean normalization may be calculated by subtracting the mean of the impact scores from each impact score.

[0212] The determined environmental impact score(s) or the normalized environmental impact score(s) may be compared to predefined threshold value(s), this step being generally optional. The threshold value(s) may reflect 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. This may allow to compare the determined environmental impact score(s) and / or the sum to historic impact score(s) and / or sum(s) to determine improved environmental impact with respect to the historic data or reduced environmental impact with respect to historic data. Comparing the determined environmental impact score(s) or normalized score(s) to the predefined threshold value(s) may include determining the sum of all environmental impact score(s) and comparing the sum to the predefined threshold value(s) and / or comparing at least one environmental impact score to predefined threshold value(s). The predefined threshold value(s) may be included in the reference data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The predefined thresholds may be provided separately from the reference data associated with the vehicle repair facility. Comparison may include classifying the determined environmental impact score(s) using a classifier. The classifier may be a binary classifier classifying the environmental impact score(s) and / or the sum of environmental impact score(s) into acceptable or not acceptable. The environmental impact score(s) and / or the sum of environmental impact score(s) may be classified as acceptable if the score(s) or the sum are above at least one predefined threshold value. The classifier may classify the environmental impact score(s) and / or the sum 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. Based on the comparison, the environmental impact of the repair facility may be classified. The environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility may be classified or rated based on the result of the comparison according to predefined classes. 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 impact score(s) and the sum is classified as acceptable. Comparison of the environmental impact score(s) with predefined threshold value(s) allows to compare and rate the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility with predefined standards. By this way, transparency on the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility can be provided.

[0213] Returning to FIG. 8A with continued reference to FIG. 9C, the determined environmental impact score(s) or the normalized environmental impact score(s) may be provided (see block 812). In addition, the result of the comparison of environmental impact score(s) to predefined threshold value(s) (e.g. the environmental impact rating) may be provided. Providing such score(s) and / or the environmental impact rating may include displaying the determined score(s) and / or the environmental impact rating within a graphical user interface. The determined score(s) and / or the environmental impact rating may be displayed in comparison to reference score(s) and / or predefined threshold value(s) within graphical representations allowing to compare the determined score(s) with reference score(s) and / or allowing to compare the environmental impact rating with predefined threshold value(s). The determined score(s) may be displayed in combination with historic score(s) (e.g. score(s) 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 such score(s) may include storing such score(s) in a database. The score(s) and / or the environmental impact rating may be interrelated with a repair vehicle facility identifier to allow retrieval of such score(s) based on such identifier(s). In addition to the score(s), determined environmental property / ies and / or environmental impact classification(s) may be provided. Such data may be displayed within a graphical user interface. This may allow to determine the contribution of each environmental property to the environmental impact associated with the operation of the facility.

[0214] With reference to FIG. 8D, providing the determined environmental impact score(s) or the normalized score(s) and optionally the environmental impact rating may include generating a digital asset. The digital asset may include at least one of the identifier(s) associated with the vehicle repair facility and the determined impact score(s) or the normalized impact score(s) and optionally the environmental impact rating. The digital asset may further include one or more environmental property / ies or environmental impact classifications. For instance, the digital asset may further include the environmental impact classification(s) illustrated in FIG. 3A. The digital asset may correspond to a data set including the identifier(s), the score(s) and optionally the environmental impact rating. The data set may further include the determined environmental property / ies and / or environmental impact classification(s). The digital asset may be linked to the vehicle repair facility. Linking may include linking the identifier(s) included in the digital asset to identifier(s) associated with the vehicle repair facility. The generated digital asset may be provided. The digital asset may be provided via a peer-to-peer communication channel between the entity performing the methods illustrated in FIG. 8A and FIG. 8D and the vehicle repair facility. This may allow to provide the result of the evaluation of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility to the vehicle repair facility.

[0215] By utilizing standardized input data containing information about material inputs to the facility, as well as releases (such as waste and emissions) 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 method ensures consistency and accuracy in the assessment process, allowing facilities to track their progress and identify areas for improvement. This is particularly important in the context of environmental impact reduction, as it enables facilities to make informed decisions about their operations and take effective steps to reduce their carbon footprint. By using a digital representation of the vehicle repair facility as input data, the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility may be determined in line with the operations performed within the facility, e.g. in line with the used materials and process step(s). This allows to flexibly determine and / or monitor and / or evaluate the environmental impact of a wide range of different vehicle repair facilities performing different repair processes.

[0216] By using a scoring system, the dimensionality of the factors influencing the environmental impact can be reduced while allowing comparison with industry benchmarks. The scoring system allows to provide a clear and transparent way to evaluate the environmental impact of different repair vehicle facilities, allowing them to identify repair processes that can be improved. The scoring system is also useful for monitoring and controlling operations of the vehicle repair facility, such as repair processes, as it provides a standardized way to evaluate the environmental impact of different processes and operations in comparison to a standard reflected by the reference data.

[0217] By using a scoring system that considers a range of environmental impact factors, the method simplifies the assessment process and enables vehicle repair facilities to reliably monitor their environmental impact. The reduction in dimensionality also makes it easier for the vehicle repair facilities to provide their environmental performance to stakeholders and customers, fostering transparency and accountability in the vehicle repair industry. The environmental impact score may correspond to a single, numerical value or to a set of numerical values that represents a vehicle repair facility's overall environmental impact, allowing for easy comparison and benchmarking against other vehicle repair facilities. This feature is particularly useful for regulatory compliance and public reporting, as it provides a simple and standardized method for measuring, monitoring and communicating environmental performance. The method provides a simple and effective way for vehicle repair facilities to monitor their environmental impact and to identify environmental impact reduction potentials within repair process(es). By using a standardized approach, the method ensures that the vehicle repair facilities can monitor or track their environmental impact and identify process(es) that can be improved with respect to environmental impact, leading to more sustainable repair processes. The scoring system also enables vehicle repair facilities to compare their environmental performance with industry benchmarks, allowing to identify process(es) that can be improved with respect to environmental impact to reduce the overall environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility.

[0218] FIG. 8B illustrates an example flowchart of another 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 environmental property / ies associated with consumed energy, consumed materials, generated waste and generated emissions, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. The environmental impact may be associated with or relate to inputs, such as material inputs and energy inputs, to the facility and releases, such as generated waste and emissions, from the facility. The environmental impact may be associated with or relate to environmental property / ies associated with inputs, such as material inputs and energy inputs, to the facility and environmental property / ies associated with releases, such as generated waste and emissions, from the facility.

[0219] At least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, data associated with the vehicle repair facility and data associated with environmental property factor(s) may be provided (see block 802), for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A.

[0220] Based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility and the data associated with environmental property factors, one or more environmental properties associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility may be determined, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8B.

[0221] It may be determined whether to aggregate determined environmental property / ies. If environmental property / ies are not to be aggregated, the method may proceed to block 806 of FIG. 8A. If aggregation is to be performed, the method may proceed to block 814.

[0222] Determined environmental property / ies may be aggregated into or assigned to environmental impact classification(s) in block 814. Determined environmental property / ies may be aggregated or assigned according to one or more accumulation rule(s). Aggregation or assignment of determined environmental property / ies may be performed using a rule-based engine including such aggregation rule(s). The rule(s) may signify the environmental impact classification and associated environmental property / ies. The rule may signify the environmental impact classification and associated environmental property / ies per vehicle repair facility. The different environmental impact classifications may be associated with the consumption of material and the generation of waste, the consumption of energy, and / or the generation of VOC emissions. Environmental property / ies associated with material consumption 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 / ies associated with energy consumption 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 / ies associated with VOC emissions 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. Use of environmental impact classification allows to bundle different environmental property / ies related to a similar classification, hence reducing the complexity of the result of the environmental property / ies determination and allowing to easily compare different vehicle repair facilities with respect to a simple matrix including only a limited number of environmental impact categories.

[0223] The determined environmental property / ies and / or environmental impact classification(s) may be provided. Such data may be displayed within a graphical user interface. This may allow to determine the contribution of each environmental property to the environmental impact associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. Along with determined environmental property / ies and / or environmental impact classification(s), reference property / ies and / or reference classification(s) may be provided. This may allow to compare the determined environmental property / ies and / or classification(s) with reference value(s) to determine deviations of the determined value(s) from the reference value(s). Such deviations may allow to identify potentials to reduce the environmental impact of material inputs, material outputs and / or releases to water, air and / or soil consumed or generated by the vehicle repair facility.

[0224] FIG. 8C illustrates an example flowchart of yet another 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 environmental property / ies associated with consumed energy, consumed materials, generated waste and generated emissions, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B. The environmental impact may be associated with or relate to inputs, such as material inputs and energy inputs, to the facility and releases, such as generated waste and emissions, from the facility. The environmental impact may be associated with or relate to environmental property / ies associated with inputs, such as material inputs and energy inputs, to the facility and environmental property / ies associated with releases, such as generated waste and emissions, from the facility. At least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, data associated with the vehicle repair facility and data associated with environmental property factor(s) may be provided (see block 802), for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A.

[0225] At least part of the data associated with the vehicle repair processes may be verified by using a rulebased 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 material consumption data 508, energy consumption data 510, waste generation data 512 and / or fleet data 514. 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 data, such as incorrect environmental impact scores, obtained upon processing such vehicle repair facility data containing unplausible data points.

[0226] 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 impact score(s).

[0227] 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. Use of such plausibility threshold(s) allows to ensure completeness of the gathered vehicle repair facility data, hence ensuring that all data required to determine environmental property / ies and the environmental impact score.

[0228] If the received data is verified, the method may proceed to block 804 of FIG. 8A. If at least a part of the received vehicle repair facility data is not verified, the method may proceed to decision block 820. In decision block 820, message data may be generated. The message data may indicate that at least part of the vehicle repair facility data could not be verified. The message data may include an indication which data point(s) of the vehicle repair facility data could not be verified. 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 message data. This allows to trigger correction of data point(s) identified as unplausible or incorrect or to obtain missing vehicle repair facility data from the vehicle repair facility owner. 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. The message data may be provided to the vehicle repair facility data owner via common data transfer protocols.

[0229] By validating vehicle repair facility data, reliable and robust determination of environmental property / ies and environmental impact score(s) can be ensured. Validation may allow to ensure that determination of environmental property / ies and environmental impact score(s) is performed on plausible and complete data, allowing to reliably compare the generated environmental property / ies and the environmental impact score(s) with reference data. Such comparison may allow to determine reduction of the environmental impact of the respective facility.

[0230] FIG. 10 illustrates an example system for validating environmental impact data 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 system may be used to implement the methods illustrated in FIG. 12A to FIG. 13. The environmental impact data may be associated with or relate to environmental property / ies associated with consumed energy, consumed materials, generated waste and generated emissions, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B.

[0231] The system may include a computing unit 1002 as described in the context of FIG. 4. Computing unit 1002 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 1008, display 1006 or input devices 1010, 1012. The hardware devices may be connected via such interfaces to the computing unit 1002.

[0232] Memory 1018 may store data and several components, such as validation engine 1020 and impact score generator 506, that are executable by the processor 1004. In particular, stored in the memory 1018 and executable by the processor 1004 are programs or applications implementing the methods illustrated in FIG. 12A to FIG. 13. In addition, an operating system may be stored in the memory 1018 and executable by the processor 1004.

[0233] Validation engine 1020 may be configured to validate environmental impact data associated with the vehicle repair facility based on one or more validation input(s). The configuration and functionalities of the validation engine are described in further detail in the context of FIG. 11A to FIG. 15. If the provided environmental impact data such as carbon footprint data passes validation, the validation engine may be configured to provide validated environmental impact data such as the carbon footprint data to impact score generator 506. If the provided environmental impact data such as the carbon footprint data fails validation, the validation engine may be configured to reject the environmental impact data such as the carbon footprint data and may not provide such data to the impact score generator 506 for further processing. For example, one or more reference value(s) may be provided to impact score generator 506 for further processing. Validation of the environmental impact data may ensure that plausible data is used to determine the impact score. This may improve the reliability and trustworthiness of the determined impact score. Moreover, this may allow more reliable comparison of vehicle repair facilities with respect to their associated impact scores, hence allowing to more reliably optimize the environmental impact based on such determined impact score.

[0234] Impact score generator 506 may be configured to generate an environmental impact score associated with the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility. Impact score generator 506 may generate an environmental impact score associated with environmental property / ies of the vehicle repair facility. Impact score generator 506 may be configured to generate an environmental impact score 522 based on the validated environmental impact data provided by validation engine 1020 or reference value(s) provided by validation engine 1020 and input data received from validation engine 1020, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12A to FIG. 13. Impact score generator 506 may be configured to provide the determined impact score 522. The scoring system reduces dimensionality. By using a scoring system that considers a range of data associated with the environmental impact of the facility, the assessment process is simplified and the environmental impact can be addressed more efficiently. This reduction in dimensionality also makes it easier for facilities to communicate their environmental performance to stakeholders and customers, fostering transparency and accountability in the industry. Such transparency may add in overall reduction of environmental impact since customers can use such transparency when deciding on a vehicle repair facility to repair their vehicle, hence driving reduction in environmental impact by deciding to repair their car at facilities having a reduced environmental impact. In addition, such transparency may allow to reward environmental impact reduction, leading to an overall reduction in environmental impact in the vehicle repair facility sector.

[0235] The memory 1018 may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory and data storage components as described in the context of FIG. 4.

[0236] Processor 1004 may represent multiple processors 1004 and / or multiple processor cores and the memory 1018 may represent multiple memories 1018 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 1004, between any processor 1004 and any of the memory 1018, or between any two of the memories 1018, etc. The local interface may comprise additional systems designed to coordinate this communication, including, for example, performing load balancing. The processor 1004 may be of electrical or of some other available construction.

[0237] The system may further include at least one database connected to computing unit 1002 via a communication interface. The database(s) 1014, 416 may store validation rule(s) 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 FIG. 11A and FIG. 11 B illustrate examples of providing validation inputs associated with environmental impact data to a validation engine.

[0238] FIG. 11A and FIG. 11 B may illustrate a vehicle repair facility 1102 and a validator 1106. Vehicle repair facility 11021 may comprise the validation input generator 1104. Validator 1106 may comprise the validation engine 1020, as e.g. illustrated in the context of FIG. 10. The validation input generator 1104 may be configured to generate and provide validation inputs to the validation engine 1020. Validation inputs may be provided together with the environmental impact data such as the carbon footprint data in association with the vehicle repair facility identifier.

[0239] In the embodiment of FIG. 11A the validation engine 1020 may be configured to generate a validation input data structure 1112 that may serve as a template for the environmental impact data concerned. The validation engine 1020 may be configured to request validation input from the validation input generator 1104. The validation engine 1020 may be configured to provide the validation input data structure 1112 to the validation input generator 1104. The validation input generator 1104 may be configured to generate the validation input 1108 according to the validation input data structure 1112. The validation input generator 1104 may be configured to provide the validation inputs 1108 according to the validation input data structure 1112 to the validation engine 1020. The validation engine 1020 may be configured to validate the environmental impact data 1110 based on the validation input data structure 1112.

[0240] In the embodiment of FIG. 11 B the validation input generator 1104 may be configured to generate and provide the validation input 1108 according to the validation input data structure 1112. The validation engine 1020 may be configured to request validation input from the validation input generator 1104. The validation input generator 1104 may be configured to generate the validation input 1108 according to the validation input data structure 1112. The validation input generator 1104 may be configured to provide the validation input according to the validation input data structure 1112 to the validation engine 1020. The validation engine 1020 may be configured to validate the environmental impact data 1110 based on the validation input data structure 1112.

[0241] Other embodiments for generating and providing validation input data are possible and the examples shown in FIG. 11 A and FIG. 11 B shall not be considered limiting. For example, the environmental impact data may be provided separately from the validation inputs associated with the environmental impact data.

[0242] FIG. 12A illustrates an example flowchart of a method for validating environmental impact data associated with an operation of a vehicle repair facility based on validation input(s). 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. 10. The environmental impact data may be associated with or relate to environmental property / ies associated with consumed energy, consumed materials, generated waste and generated emissions, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B.

[0243] At least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, environmental impact data associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility and one or more validation input(s) related to the generation of the environmental impact data may be provided. Identifier(s) associated with the vehicle repair facility may include the identifier(s) described in the context of FIG. 8A. The environmental impact data may relate to emission data associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility. The emission data may comprise any data related to environmental footprint, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A.

[0244] The validation inputs may relate to the generation of the environmental impact data associated with the vehicle repair facility. The validation inputs may relate to a technical data generation scheme according to which the environmental impact data was generated. The scheme may relate to standards such as ISO 14040, ISO 14044 and the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD). The scheme may relate to other standards or certifications depending on the environmental impact data.

[0245] The one or more validation inputs may relate to data use to generate the environmental impact data (e.g. generation data). The one or more validation inputs may relate to data use to generate the environmental impact data, wherein such generation data includes material consumption data, energy consumption data and waste generation data as described in the context of FIG. 5. The one or more validation input(s) may relate to one or more properties associated with the generation data used to generate the environmental impact data. The one or more validation inputs may relate to a geographical correlation and / or a temporal correlation of generation data used to generate the environmental impact data to the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

[0246] Geographical correlation may relate to the geographical location of operations performed within the vehicle repair facility and the relation of the data used to generate the environmental impact data to such operation(s). For example, the environmental impact data may be generated based on energy consumption data gathered from

[0247] • one or more locations of the vehicle repair facility,

[0248] • multiple locations of vehicle repair facilities including the location of the vehicle repair facility associated with the provided validation input(s),

[0249] • from one or more locations different to the location of the vehicle repair facility associated with the provided validation input(s).

[0250] Depending on the location the energy consumption data used to generate the environmental impact data is associated with, the geographical correlation may be determined. The higher the correlation the higher the quality of the environmental impact data. The temporal correlation may relate to the age of the generation data and / or the time range covered by the generation data. For example, the one or more validation input(s) may relate to the time period the generation data used for determining environmental impact data was collected. The time period may signify the maximum age of the generation data. For example, the one or more validation input(s) may relate to the time range the generation data covers. The time range may signify the range over which the generation data was collected. Depending on age and / or time range covered, the temporal correlation may be determined. The lower the age and / or the larger the time range covered the higher the temporal correlation also from statistical perspective and the higher the quality of the environmental impact data.

[0251] The environmental impact data and validation input(s) may be provided as entries to a digital user interface such as a display or a computing interface and the provided information may be associated with the digital identifier of the vehicle repair facility. To reliably track the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility, the digital identifiers associated with the vehicle repair facility may be linked to or related to environmental impact data and one or more validation input(s). This way the environmental impact data and associated validation inputs may be characterized and uniquely linked to digital identifiers.

[0252] A validation rule set including one or more validation rules configured to validate environmental impact data based on the generation of the environmental impact data may be provided. The validation rules may be configured to generate a validation score. The one or more validation rules may relate to a mapping of the validation input to the validation score, for example per validation input.

[0253] At least one validation rule may be selected from the validation rule set. At least one rule may be selected per validation category. The validation category may be included in the validation input(s). With reference to FIG. 15 the validation categories may include a check on the input data provided, the technical scheme according to which the environmental impact data was generated, the geographical correlation, the temporal correlation, the data completeness, one or more reference(es) for the environmental impact data. The validation rule set may include one or more validation rule(s) per validation category. The selection may be dynamic and / or static based on validation input and validation rule pairs. For example, validation input and validation rule pairs may be pre-defined. The one or more validation rules may be configured to generate the validation score per validation input. The validation rules may be configured to generate a pass or fail per validation input and / or validation rule as will be described further in the example of FIG. 15. The at least one validation rule may be configured to generate a validation score based one or more properties associated with data used to generate the environmental impact data. The at least one validation rule may be configured to generate a validation score based on a geographical correlation and / or a temporal correlation of data used to generate the environmental impact data and environmental impact data.

[0254] At least one validation score may be generated by applying the at least one validation rule to the validation input. As illustrated in FIG. 14A, the validation rule may be applied to the validation input data. A fail or pass may be assigned per validation input and associated validation rule depending on the validation score. For example, one or more validation rules may be configured to generate the validation score per validation input

[0255] • based on generation data including material consumption data 508, energy consumption data 510 and waste generation data 512

[0256] • based on the time period the generation data used for determining environmental impact data was collected

[0257] • based on a match between the location of the vehicle repair facility and the generation data.

[0258] Further for example, one or more validation rules may be configured to generate the validation score based the geographical correlation and / or the temporal correlation of data used to generate the environmental impact data.

[0259] Depending on the validation score, the environmental impact data may be valid or non-valid. If validation score indicates a pass, the validated environmental impact data may be assigned to the identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility. For example, the validated environmental impact data may be provided to impact score generator 506 for further processing and may be used by impact score generator 506 to determine environmental impact score(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 8A to FIG. 8C. If validation score indicates a fail, the environmental impact data may not be assigned to the identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility. For example, a reference value may be provided to the impact score generator 506 for further processing, or the input data (e.g. the vehicle repair facility data) may be rejected.

[0260] Through validation of the environmental impact data the quality of the data generation and hence reliability of such data can be assessed. This way the reliability and trustworthiness of the determination of the environmental impact score associated with the vehicle repair facility may be increased. Such improved reliability allows to reliably compare different vehicle repair facilities with respect to their environmental impact scores indicating the environmental impact associated with the operation of such facilities. In addition, the verification ensures reliable comparison of the determined environmental impact score with reference scores to identify measures to optimize the environmental impact.

[0261] FIG. 12B illustrates an example flowchart of a method for validating input data.

[0262] Based on validation input at least one validation rule from the validation rule set may be selected as described in the context of FIG. 12A. The select validation rule may be applied to respective validation input category or validation input. Per applied validation rule a status flag signifying the pass or fail of respective validation input may be set. The status flag may include the validation score per applied validation rule. FIG. 13 illustrates an example flowchart of an embodiment of the method illustrated in FIG. 12A. The method shown in FIG. 13 may include blocks 1202 to 1206 of FIG. 12A. The method may include further blocks as described hereinafter.

[0263] In addition to FIG. 12A, the validation scores per validation input may be aggregated. For example, a total validation score may be provided by a weighted or non-weighted sum. Based on the aggregated score the environmental impact data may be pass or fail validation. On pass, the validated environmental impact data associated with the vehicle repair facility may be assigned to the identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility. For example, the validated environmental impact data may be provided for determining an environmental impact score to impact score generator 506.

[0264] FIG. 14A illustrates an example result 1402 of a validation per validation input category.

[0265] In the example of FIG. 14A the validation categories include the technical scheme according to which the environmental impact data was generated, the geographical correlation, the temporal correlation, the data completeness and one or more reference(es) for the environmental impact data. The references may include reference value(s). The validation rule set may include one or more validation rule(s) per validation category.

[0266] In the example of FIG. 14A, the result of the application of the validation rule to the respective validation input is illustrated for multiple vehicle repair facilities per validation category. The results are indicated by a status flag associated with the environmental impact data, such as emission data. The status flag may indicate passed or failed. The status flag may further indicate “in validation” (not shown). The status flag may be updated in the scope of the validation process. The status flag may include a validation score signifying the validation status. For example, validation scores may be determined per validation rule and the validation may fail based on individual scores (illustrated in the last row of FIG. 14A).

[0267] FIG. 14B illustrates an example data structure 1404 for different validation categories.

[0268] The input data structure may include the validation inputs that may correspond to the validation rules. The validation rules may include the scoring system assigning scores per validation input.

[0269] The validation inputs may be structured according to validation categories. One possible data structure for emission data is illustrated in FIG. 14B. The validation categories may relate to quality indicators for the environmental impact data in particular with respect to the underlying generation data and calculation mechanisms used to generate the environmental impact data. The validation categories may include the technical scheme according to which the environmental impact data was generated, the geographical correlation, the temporal correlation, the data completeness, and / or one or more reference(es) for the environmental impact data. Other data structures and validation categories may be similarly applicable. FIG. 15 illustrates an example flowchart of a method for validating environmental impact data based on validation input categories.

[0270] In the example of FIG. 15 the validation categories include the technical scheme according to which the environmental impact data was generated, the geographical correlation, the temporal correlation, the data completeness, one or more reference(es) for the environmental impact data. The validation rule set may include one or more validation rule(s) per validation category.

[0271] In the example of FIG. 15, the result of the application of the validation rule to the respective validation input is illustrated. The results may be indicated by a status flag associated with the respective category. The status flag may indicate passed or failed. The status flag may include a validation score signifying the validation status. The validation result 1508 may be combination of all status flags.

[0272] FIG. 16 illustrates an example flowchart of a method 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. 17. The environmental impact data may be associated with or relate to environmental property / ies associated with consumed energy, consumed materials, generated waste and generated emissions, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B.

[0273] The system may include a computing unit 1604 as described in the context of FIG. 4. Computing unit 1604 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 1610, display 1608 or input devices 1612, 1614. The hardware devices may be connected via such interfaces to the computing unit 1604.

[0274] Memory 1620 may store data and several components, such as optimization unit 1622, that are executable by the processor 1606. In particular, stored in the memory 1620 and executable by the processor 1606 are programs or applications implementing the method illustrated in FIG. 17. In addition, an operating system may be stored in the memory 1620 and executable by the processor 1606.

[0275] Optimization unit 1622 may be configured to optimize the environmental impact associated with the vehicle repair facility. Optimization may be performed, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 17. Optimization unit 1622 may be coupled to impact score generator 506 illustrated in FIG. 4 and / or FIG. 10. Hence, computing unit 1604 may further include environmental impact monitoring unit 420 and / or validation engine 1020 described in the context of FIG. 4 and FIG. 10.

[0276] Optimization 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, optimization may allow to reduce the amount of consumed material(s) and / or consumed energy and / or generated VOC emissions.

[0277] The memory 1620 may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory and data storage components as described in the context of FIG. 4.

[0278] Processor 1606 may represent multiple processors 1606 and / or multiple processor cores and the memory 1620 may represent multiple memories 1620 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 1606 , between any processor 1606 and any of the memory 1620, or between any two of the memories 1620, etc. The local interface may comprise additional systems designed to coordinate this communication, including, for example, performing load balancing. The processor 1606 may be of electrical or of some other available construction.

[0279] The system may further include at least one database connected to computing unit 1604 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

[0280] FIG. 17 illustrates an example system of a method for optimizing 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 method may be implemented by the system illustrated in FIG. 16. The environmental impact data may be associated with or relate to environmental property / ies associated with consumed energy, consumed materials, generated waste and generated emissions, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B.

[0281] Determined environmental impact score(s) may be compared with reference environmental impact score(s). The environmental impact score(s) may be determined, for example, as described in the context of FIG. 8A to FIG. 8C. Reference environmental impact score(s) may be provided from a database. Comparison may be performed on impact score level. Comparison may be performed on a combination of impact scores. Comparison may be performed on the whole impact score(s)

[0282] The deviation between the environmental impact score and the reference score may be minimized by adjusting vehicle repair facility data associated with the environmental impact score. The vehicle repair facility data may be adjusted based on reference vehicle repair facility data associated with the reference environmental impact score(s). Adjusting the vehicle repair facility data may include adjusting the material consumption data 508, energy consumption data 510 and / or waste generation data 512. The material consumption data 508, energy consumption data 510 and / or waste generation data 512 may be adjusted based on reference material consumption data, reference energy consumption data and / or reference waste generation data. Adjusting may further include determining environmental property / ies and environmental impact score(s) after adjusting such data. The adjusted impact score may be compared to the reference score(s) to determine whether the adjustment results in a minimization of the deviation. Adjustment may be performed using commonly known algorithms, such as the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, total least squares and / or procrustes analysis. 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. It is commonly used in shape analysis and data alignment.

[0283] The adjusted vehicle repair facility data may be provided for optimization of one or more processes performed within the vehicle repair facility. The adjusted vehicle repair facility may be provided for display. Providing the adjusted vehicle repair facility data may include generating control data based on the adjusted data and providing the control data for controlling and / or monitoring process(es) performed within the vehicle repair facility.

[0284] Based on the provided adjusted vehicle repair facility data, one or more measures to achieve the adjusted 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.

[0285] Optimization of the environmental impact of the vehicle repair facility may be performed in line with a given process layout of a physical facility, e.g. in line with given process step(s) to be performed, by minimizing the deviation in impact score(s) with respect to a reference impact score. Optimization may be performed in line with given material(s) to be used by using different variations or option(s) of energy consumption data associated with different environmental property / ies. Hence, the inventive system may be flexibly used to optimize the environmental impact of a vehicle repair facility.

[0286] 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.

[0287] 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. 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.

[0288] 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 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 method comprising the steps of:- providing at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, data associated with the vehicle repair facility and data associated with environmental property factors,- determining, based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility and the data associated with environmental property factors, one or more environmental properties associated with the performed vehicle repair processes,- determining, based on the determined one or more environmental property / ies and the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, one or more environmental impact score(s),- providing the determined environmental impact score(s).

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data associated with the vehicle repair facility includes material consumption data, energy consumption data and waste generation data.

3. The method of claim 2, 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 materials and data associated with fuel consumed by a fleet of the vehicle repair facility.

4. The method of claim 2 or 3, wherein the energy consumption data includes electric energy consumption data, data associated with consumption of feedstock used to generate thermal energy and optionally energy production data.

5. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the data associated with the vehicle repair facility is generated according to a predefined data scheme defining the structure of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, and / or properties of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility.

6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the data associated with environmental property factors includes predefined environmental impact factor(s) associated with the material(s) to be used within the repair process, electric energy to be consumed within the repair process, thermal energy to be consumed within the repair process, waste generated during the coating process and / or releases to air, soil and / or water generated during the repair process.

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein at least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility is validated by using a rule-based engine including one or more plausibility rule(s), and wherein the environmental property / ies are determined based on validated data associated with the vehicle repair facility.

8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the determined one or more environmental property / ies include emission data associated with the operation of the vehicle repair facility.

9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the environmental impact score(s) is / are determined by comparing the determined environmental property / ies or aggregated environmental property / ies to reference property / ies and by comparing at least a part of the data associated with the vehicle repair facility to respective reference vehicle repair facility data.

10. The method of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein providing the determined environmental impact score(s) includes generating a digital asset including at least one of the identifier(s) associated with the vehicle repair facility and the determined environmental impact score(s) and providing the generated digital asset.11 . The method of any one of claims 1 to 10, further including a step of determining the environmental impact associated with the vehicle repair facility by providing predefined threshold value(s) and comparing the determined environmental impact score(s) with at least one of the predefined threshold value(s).

12. 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:- 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 data associated with environmental property factors,- an environmental property generator configured to determine, based on the data associated with the vehicle repair facility and the data associated with environmental property factors, one or more environmental properties associated with the performed vehicle repair processes,- an impact score generator configured to determine, based on the determined one or more environmental property / ies and the data associated with the vehicle repair facility, one or more environmental impact score(s),- a data providing interface configured to provide the determined environmental impact score(s).

13. A method for validating environmental impact data 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 data relates to one or more environmental properties associated with the performed vehicle repair processes, the method comprising the steps of:- providing at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility, environmental impact data associated with the operation of a vehicle repair facility and one or more validation input(s) associated with the environmental impact data,- providing a validation rule set including one or more validation rules configured to the validate environmental impact data based on the generation of the environmental impact data,- selecting at least one validation rule from the validation rule set for at least one validation input and generating at least one validation score by applying the at least one validation rule to the at least one validation input,- depending on validation score, assign validated environmental impact data to the at least one identifier associated with the vehicle repair facility.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the one or more validation input(s) relate to a geographical correlation between the location of the vehicle repair facility and the location associated with the data used to generate the environmental impact data.

15. Use of environmental impact data validated according to the method of claim 13 or 14 for monitoring the environmental impact of a repair facility associated with the validated environmental impact data.

Images