ifu Hamburg GmbH: Latest News

ecoinvent v3 launched

Tue, 07 May 2013 16:54:00 +0200

Yesterday afternoon, the third generation of the ecoinvent database first saw the light of the day. From now on more data and even more quality are available for life cycle assessment. The database can already be used in Umberto NXT LCA. Therefore, Umberto is currently the only tool being able to process the data. Highlights of the new version include of course the new and updated data. Instead of 4.000 datasets as in the previous version, ecoinvent v3 contains more than 9.000, incl. water data. Furthermore the database supports consequential modeling besides attributional modeling. The product information has been enriched by additional physical and other properties. The global supply chains complete the major step towards an integrated analysis of products and processes. The new ecoinvent v3 and Umberto NXT LCA, the next generation of LCA software, open up entirely new worlds for life cycle assessment. From next week on the complete data and all features are available in the software. Learn more about Umberto NXT LCA. We offer special trainings for ecoinvent v3 as well. For current dates please visit our training website.

Umberto NXT LCA launched!

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:01:00 +0100

Umberto NXT LCA, the next generation of LCA software, is currently presented to the LCA experts at CILCA 2013 in Argentina. 40 participants attend to a training workshop held by Martina Prox and Colombian Umberto partner Carlos Naranjo to learn more about all the advantages of the new software. Customers with Maintenance and Support Contract will receive their version within the next days.

The software is based on a reliable and sound database, it is delivered with ecoinvent v2.2 and will be shipped with ecoinvent v3 after its official release. Besides the data itself Umberto NXT LCA includes several features which enhance the usability and make the working more comfortable and quicker.

Centerpiece of the software is the graphical editor. The processes and products to be analyzed are visualized as material flow networks incl. hierarchical modeling with subnets. The users can rely on features known from other software solutions, such as copy & paste of parts of networks or whole models, drag & drop of processes directly into the model, and multi-level undo/redo.

Of course Sankey diagrams play a big role within the software. For a better assessment and presentation of results it is possible to visualize mass and energy flows of models, individual products or certain categories as Sankey diagrams.

There is much more to explore. Download the free trial version. Register now!

Umberto User Workshop 2013 - Call for Abstracts

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:19:00 +0100

The annual Umberto User Workshop takes place in the Ruhr-metropolis Essen on September 11/12, 2013. This means: exciting topics, interesting people and a great atmosphere. Speakers Play an active part in this event. We are looking forward to receiving your abstracts. Send us a short description of your project (50 to max. 200 words in English language) until April 30, 2013 to: umberto-workshop@ifu.com.

More information about sending abstracts

Students This year, we again want to encourage students to apply for the Umberto Student Award 2013. Please send us your application in English language until June 15 to: award@umberto.de. More information on the Umberto Student Award Participants Register until April 30 and benefit from our attractive early bird price of €590 (plus VAT): To registration form More information on participation We are looking forward to welcoming you in Essen.

StUChem project launched

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:24:00 +0100

Information on environmental impacts of chemicals are seldom. There are two main reasons for this. On the one hand, there are only few detailed analyses, which provide the information. On the other hand producers of chemicals are rather reserved publishing such information. In the project "Structure-based Environmental Assessment of Chemicals" (StUChem) solutions are developed to close this data gap. Foundation is a methodology which enables estimating the environmental impact, when no or little data is available. Based on this a software tool for a broad user community will enable the assessment of chemicals. The project has just started and runs for 18 months. For further information on our research involvements please visit the website of our research department.

To research department

e!Sankey 3.1 - An Update with Consequences

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 17:13:00 +0100

The new year starts quite good for all e!Sankey 3 users. The current update to the version level 3.1 includes new features and improvements which make the creation of Sankey diagrams once again more comfortable. About Good Looking To make the design of arrows individually more adjustable colour gradients are possible from now on. The diagrams gain more quality by this as can be seen in the example below. A Case of Interpretation A substantial part of the update deal with improvements on the LiveLink to Microsoft Excel. For instance, the dialogue for editing the LiveLinks has been improved. You can now directly see the name of the linked cell and much more. The perhaps most important innovation is the satisfaction of a repeated user request: e!Sankey now interprets the value of a cell, whereas in former versions it was only the text displayed in the cell. That means, users can now format a cell or enter a formula, the value is displayed in the Sanke diagram. Users of current e!Sankey 3 versions will be informed automatically about the update when starting their software. For all the others: Test e!Sankey 3.1 with LiveLink to Microsoft Excel now. Register here for download

Study Confirms: Environmental Management Pays off!

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:39:00 +0100

The world energy scene changes rapidly. This is due to two main reasons. First, there is a continuously increasing demand for energy. Energy sources, like oil or gas, are finite resources. The easy formula is: increasing demand means higher prices. Second, there is a growing effort to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Natural disasters show the necessity for climate protection quite plainly. From an economical point of view the rising costs are of course the main challenge for companies today. The task is to increase efficiency by improving the energy usage. What many companies do not know: That is active environmental protection. The analysis of greenhouse gas emissions (carbon footprints) in this context is not only the basis for measures to protect the climate, but also an instrument for identifying saving potentials in energy usage. Such an analysis enables the identification of the biggest emission drivers and to connect them directly to the energy consumption. In conclusion: Environmental management pays off, because it goes hand in hand with economic benefit. A current study, published by the consulting company Accenture together with the United Nations, confirms this connection. Within this study, 19 examples from different industries show that economic and environmental management are linked. For companies this means: direct economic benefits and image gain by active environmental protection. Thus, environmental management pays off twice. More about the study More about our solutions for carbon footprints

Umberto Student Award 2012 - These are the winners!

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:32:00 +0200

In keeping with tradition, this year's winners of the Umberto Student Award were presented at the User Workshop. Students from all over the world were called to submit their projects in which Umberto was applied. And submissions were international for sure: For instance, papers were handed in from Taiwan, South Africa or Brasil. Finally, the jury chose these three winners. Ramona Lehmann of the University of Applied Science Berlin, Germany achieved the third place with her bachelor thesis "The balance of single product packaging components by using the material flow management software Umberto". The second price was awarded to Austria. Michaela Raab of the Johannes Kepler University Linz delt with "the Sense of Organic Products from Abroad Focussing the Cultivation of Organic Cucumbers in Spain". First winner of this year's Umberto Student Awards is David Hidalgo of Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá D.C.), Colombia. His analysis of carbon emissions in Colombian aviation impressed the jury. IFU Hamburg again congratulates all winners. After the award is before the award: Therefore we call on all students to submit their project done with Umberto software to apply for the Umberto Student Award 2013. For further information please download the flyer at the end of this article. Please send your application to award@umberto.de before June 15, 2013. We are looking forward to receving your papers.

This was the Umberto User Workshop 2012!

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 13:31:00 +0200

As in the previous years, the internationality of the user community was obvious. Among other countries, participants came from Mexico, Colombia or France to talk about exciting projects in which Umberto has been applied. The program represented the whole range of the software's fields of application - from material flow cost accounting, over to carbon footprints up to life cycle assessment and process optimization. Célian Colon of evea for instance presented on the material flow cost accounting in the service economy. Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Thißen of Pforzheim University explained how to use air as a resource for more efficiency in the production. Maximilian Schüler of IFU Hamburg presented a true innovation concerning the software. He presented Umberto NXT LCA, the next generation in LCA software. The participants got a deep insight into the new software. All presentation of the workshop will be available soon in our download center. IFU Hamburg would like to thank all speakers and participants for making this event again a huge success. The next Umberto User Workshop will take place on September 18/19, 2012 in Essen, Germany.

Annual DBU report 2011 published

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 16:22:00 +0200

In the chemical industry there is growing concern about more environmentally friendly processes to produce and use chemicals. As early as in the 1980s large chemical accidents led to the publication of the first environmental reports. The necessity for responsible, sustainable production has strengthened since then for companies. This is connected to an increasing demand for tools to systematically gather, process and evaluate information on the environmental impact. In this context, IFU Hamburg together with the cooperation partners University of Applied Science Emden/Leer and the ETH Zürich develops a software solution that helps chemists and process engineers to assess chemicals and chemical processes. Especially in the development phase the software helps to identify the most efficient and environmentally-friendly products and processes. The solution will be part of the Umberto product family. To DBU report (in German)

Program of the Umberto User Workshop 2012 online

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 11:49:00 +0200

Umberto users from all over the world meet on September 17/18, 2012 for the annual Umberto User Workshop. The two days are devoted to life cycle assessment, material and energy efficiency, carbon footprinting and much more. Users report on their projects with the software to offer both solutions to certain requirements and to discuss methods and proceedings. For the preliminary program please click here: Program of the 17th Umberto User Workshop Be part of this event and register now.

To Registration