Holiwast
The Holiwast Decision Support Tool was a web-based tool that allowed simultaneous comparisons of up to five stakeholder views or scenarios of municipal waste management policies.
The client
EU’s Sixth Framework Programme – European Union
Our role
The Holiwast Decision Support Tool was developed by 2.-0 LCA consultants as part of the 6th European Union Framework Programme on Research and Development and was on-line for 10 years. Project completed June 2007 and closed 2017.
Holistic assessment of waste management technologies
The Holiwast Decision Support Tool was a tailor-made web-based tool that allowed simultaneous comparisons of up to five stakeholder views or scenarios of municipal waste management policies. It was developed as part of an EU research project. The purpose of the decision support tool was to elucidate differences in understanding and opinions between the different stakeholders involved in municipal waste management decisions. For each scenario or stakeholder, it was possible to model different waste compositions, policy instruments, constraints and acceptable technologies. Results were presented in terms of differences between scenarios or stakeholders and in terms of environmental impacts and economic costs. The results were intended as a starting point for a dialogue between the stakeholders, to open up for an understanding of the differences in opinions, and eventually facilitate an agreement on the factual basis for decision making. The decision support was online for 10 years, and was discontinued due to lack of financing in July 2017.
Best available technologies
Environmental results were calculated with data for “best available technologies” and were thus seen as a comparison of potential results for an optimised system. Results were not intended to represent any specific existing system, and the tool was not comparing existing systems with future planned systems. However, using the “Export to Excel” functions under “Feedback”, the results of the simulations could be listed alongside similar data for any existing system, when these were available. Compared to technical tools, the decision support tool was not intended for comparing specific technologies, nor to model the impacts from specific combination of technologies. Rather, the decision support tool optimised the combination of pre-defined technologies, based on the user’s choice of optimisation criteria and policy instruments. To make the operation simple, the user could not modify the technology data. Specific versions of the software, with other technology data, more representative of specific local situations, could be supplied on request.
Default data
The tool provided default data for all entries, in order to allow users to complete calculations, even when they did not have complete knowledge of all details of the local situation. Users could also start from a completely empty scenario. Finally, upon creating a new scenario, users could use this as a template for other scenarios. Especially when several stakeholders were working together on a session, it was practical to create a session scenario template with the local waste composition and other local data predefined, so that all stakeholders used this as their starting point.