=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1979/paper-03
|storemode=property
|title=TracyML - A Modeling Language for Social Impacts of Product Life Cycles
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1979/paper-03.pdf
|volume=Vol-1979
|authors=Stefanie Betz,Andreas Fritsch,Andreas Oberweis
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/er/BetzFO17
}}
==TracyML - A Modeling Language for Social Impacts of Product Life Cycles==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1979/paper-03.pdf
TracyML - A Modeling Language for Social
Impacts of Product Life Cycles
Stefanie Betz, Andreas Fritsch, and Andreas Oberweis
Institute of Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods (AIFB)
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany
{stefanie.betz,andreas.fritsch,oberweis}@kit.edu
Abstract. In order to analyse the impacts of production and consump-
tion on social sustainability, Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) has
emerged as an extensive and promising, yet still young methodology.
S-LCA captures the whole life cycle of a product and aims to include
all relevant affected stakeholders. It therefore requires large amounts of
data and produces likewise complex results, which makes the presen-
tation of findings challenging. We argue that conceptual models make
the complexity of S-LCA study results easier to handle. In particular,
Domain-Specific Modeling Languages (DSML) support users in structur-
ing and communicating a complex problem domain. This paper presents
TracyML, a DSML which provides transparency of social impacts as-
sociated with a product’s life cycle. Special emphasis has been laid on
the graphical notation and understandability of the resulting models. We
have evaluated the utility of TracyML by performing interviews with
domain experts.
Keywords: Domain-Specific Modeling Language, Product Life Cycle Modeling,
Social Life Cycle Assessment
1 Introduction
Sustainable consumption and production is one of the grand challenges of sustain-
able development. It requires action from all members of society, be it international
organizations, governments, businesses or individuals [15]. Sustainability is ul-
timately concerned with human well-being [33], but is generally understood as
consisting of multiple dimensions (e.g. social, environmental, economic) that
need to be considered [3]. It is indeed a “wicked problem”, a challenge to be
addressed, that requires one to consider multiple levels of (long-term) effects
and affected stakeholders [3]. So, to improve a product’s sustainability, there
is a need for tools and methodologies that take a holistic perspective to pro-
vide the necessary information for directed action. In practical terms, improved
sustainability could be achieved for example by replacing materials with more
environmentally friendly alternatives or implementing auditing procedures to
improve and monitor working conditions at suppliers. A holistic perspective then
Copyright © by the paper’s authors. Copying permitted only for private and academic
purposes.
In: C. Cabanillas, S. España, S. Farshidi (eds.):
Proceedings of the ER Forum 2017 and the ER 2017 Demo track,
Valencia, Spain, November 6th-9th, 2017,
published at http://ceur-ws.org
2 Stefanie Betz, Andreas Fritsch, and Andreas Oberweis
prevents negative environmental or social impacts simply being shifted along
the supply chain or from one stakeholder group to another. The Social Life
Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) methodology provides such an approach to assess
impacts on human stakeholders and their well-being throughout a product’s
life cycle. Due to the (necessary) extensiveness of this approach, it produces
complex results that are not easily processed and hard to compare [4]. It has been
argued that visual representations help to convey information more effectively
than text [2]. However, this is not true for any arbitrary graphical depiction –
a diagram must be constructed in a way that supports understanding [18]. To
this end, we have developed TracyML, a Domain-Specific Modeling Language
for Social Impacts in Product Life Cycles. The design is based on cognitive and
conceptional principles, in order to provide a modeling language that effectively
communicates the results of S-LCA studies. For example, the language provides
mechanisms to reduce the number of elements in a diagram. This refers to what
Moody [22] describes as the principle of “Complexity Management”, to not
cognitively overload the human mind.
1.1 State of the Art in Social Life Cycle Assessment
S-LCA is an adaption of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) technique to the
social dimension of sustainability. The rigorous approach of LCA led to its wide
adaptation in the field of environmental sustainability [4]. In 2009, the Life Cycle
Initiative condensed the latest research on S-LCAs [5] and compiled a guideline
document (the guidelines) in order to initiate and inspire a broader use and
further development of this still young methodology [4]. In the guidelines, S-LCA
is described as “a social impact (and potential impact) assessment technique
that aims to assess the social and socio-economic aspects of products and their
potential positive and negative impacts along their life cycle” [4, p. 37]. The
S-LCA technique was since used in several studies (e.g. [8], [20], [10]).
A generic product life cycle proceeds through the phases extraction of raw
materials, production (of the product and its components), distribution, use
of the product and finally disposal or recycling [4]. The guidelines identify
workers, local community (the communities in proximity of a site), society
(national and global), consumers and value chain actors (such as suppliers and
competition) as potentially affected stakeholders of a product system. Each
stakeholder category is further divided into subcategories, e.g. “child labor” and
“fair salary” (among others) for workers. The methodological sheets for the
guidelines (the methodological sheets) [6] list possible indicators per subcategory.
Several paths for advancing S-LCA are pointed out in the guidelines: among
other points, it is stated that models for the presentation of findings would be
helpful to cope with the complexity of study results. In general, a S-LCA study
requires large amounts of data and produces likewise complex results [4].
TracyML - A Modeling Language for Social Impacts of Product Life Cycles 3
1.2 The Potential of DSMLs for S-LCA
Information Design has been described as “the art and science of preparing
information so that it can be used by human beings with efficiency and effec-
tiveness” [17, p. 15]. Its goal is “to present the right information [...] in the most
effective and efficient form” [17, p. 16]. Visual modeling languages can be seen as
a manifestation of Information Design. They have been developed as a tool to
bridge the gap between end users and the implementation of an information sys-
tem [2]. According to Moody [22], visual languages bear the potential to convey
information more effectively (especially to non-technical users) than text. This
can be attributed to two characteristics of a visual language: (1) The possibility to
spatially arrange graphical and textual elements. (2) Visual representations can
be processed in parallel by the human mind (see [21]). Moody’s core proposition
is that this effectiveness is not an intrinsic feature of visual notations, but must
be “designed into them” – creators of modeling languages should therefore no
longer consider the design of the visual syntax subordinate to the design of the
semantics [22]. To this end, he establishes “principles” for designing effective
visual notations, which have been integrated in the methodical approach that we
used for TracyML (see Sect. 2).
Domain-Specific Modeling Languages (DSMLs) – in distinction to general pur-
pose modeling languages such as ERM or UML – are modeling languages designed
for specific purposes [11]. According to Frank [14], they have gained popularity
over the recent years for several reasons: (1) No restriction to a basic vocabulary;
DSMLs provide the possibility to describe large models with domain-level con-
cepts. (2) They may improve model quality and integrity. (3) There is freedom
to design a specialized graphical notation that helps to improve clearness and
comprehensibility. (4) Specific concepts may support users with structuring a
domain for a certain purpose. For the purpose of this work, the main reason
for designing a DSML is that it gives a certain freedom in graphical notation
that allows for appealing and effective visualizations,1 while still avoiding the
pitfalls of an arbitrary graphical depiction (e.g. inconsistency). Furthermore, a
well defined syntax and semantic allows for a straightforward implementation of
the modeling language into a software system.
2 Applied Research Methodology
TracyML, as a design artifact, is intended to provide utility [25] for S-LCA
researchers as well as for practitioners in the field of sustainable production and
consumption. NGOs and firms that strive to improve product sustainability can
use it as a tool to provide transparency on the product’s social impacts.
When designing the language we applied a method proposed by Frank [14] to
ensure research rigor. The main design phases are: (1) Clarification of Scope and
Purpose (2) Analysis of Generic Requirements (3) Analysis of Specific Require-
ments (4) Language Specification (5) Design of Graphical Notation (6) Develop-
ment of Modelling Tool (7) Evaluation and Refinement. In this paper, we will
1
See [22] for a critique of common GPML notation.
4 Stefanie Betz, Andreas Fritsch, and Andreas Oberweis
present the scope, purpose and the identified specific requirements for the lan-
guage in Sect. 3 (Requirements for TracyML) and the final language specification
and graphical notation in Sect. 4 (Language Specification). To ensure practical
utility, we have collaborated with two NGOs that work on improving the social
sustainability of information and communication technology (ICT) hardware
products. They provided the necessary data and use-case (see Sect. 5 for a brief
description) for the definition of the language requirements and final evaluation.
Section 6 presents the results of our evaluation and a discussion of the language.
Finally we will relate our work to other research approaches in the field of DSML
and Sustainability (Sect. 7) and conclude with an outlook (Sect. 8).
3 Requirements for TracyML
The objective for TracyML is to facilitate the transparency 2 of social impacts
associated with product life cycles. This to done by enabling the modeler to
create detailed models of social sustainability characteristics of the life cycle of
a product. Emphasis is laid on the ease of use and comprehensibility for non-
technical users (be it in the role of a modeler or viewer of a diagram). Thus, we
give special attention to the graphical notation [22]. The domain and context of
the prospective usage of TracyML is the documentation and communication of
the results of a product’s S-LCA. Intended users of the language are stakeholders
of firms who want to understand, manage and communicate the sustainability of
their products. In the role of a modeler this could be a supply chain manager or
customer relationship manager. In the role of a viewer, the intended user group
would be any possible customer of the product. The diagrams could also be used
to communicate with other stakeholders such as governments, NGOs or suppliers.
After defining the scope and the desirable properties, a list of requirements
has been developed. Frank [13] proposes a set of formal and pragmatic require-
ments for DSMLs. While formal requirements contribute to the correctness and
completeness of a DSML, pragmatic requirements refer to the perspective of a
prospective user (simplicity, comprehensibility and convenience of use) and the
modeled domain. The discussion of these generic DSML requirements for Tra-
cyML is available under www.gotracy.org/workingpapers/tracyml_
specification.pdf. Within the scope of this paper, we present the specific
requirements for TracyML, that were defined and refined based on reflection
about the challenges inherent to the domain of S-LCA. This involved creating
preliminary diagrams using the use case data (see Sect. 5). Additionally, basic
S-LCA literature like the aforementioned guidelines [4] was taken into account.
The following list also explains the rationale for the defined specific requirements:
R1 The language should provide generic concepts to capture all production steps
from the extraction of raw materials to the final assembly of a product. While
the focus is on ICT hardware products, the modeling concepts should be at
a generic level that allows for modeling of arbitrary tangible products.
2
By “transparency” we mean the understandable disclosure of information.
TracyML - A Modeling Language for Social Impacts of Product Life Cycles 5
R2 The language should provide mechanisms to deal with data gaps. Data avail-
ability and quality is one of the current challenges for S-LCA [4]. For example,
even a large company like Apple struggles with providing transparency about
their complete supply chain [16]. The use case supply chain data, while
being extensive, also showed some gaps, like unknown production sites of a
component or missing supply chain branches.
R3 An organization might undertake actions to alleviate negative social impacts.
The language should provide concepts for reporting on these actions. The
integration into the modeling language should account for some flexibility, as
these actions might differ significantly for different use cases.
R4 Since the model can get very large, it would be useful to be able to sum-
marize parts of it. This less detailed view should still give insight into the
sustainability characteristics of the hidden components.
R5 When aggregating sustainability information, it must still be clear which
aspects of social sustainability are considered. The understanding of social
sustainability might differ depending on cultural or political background - to
counteract a possible bias, the S-LCA guidelines are based on international
agreements [4]. But still, to avoid misinterpretation, it must be clearly stated
which aspects are part of the aggregation.
R6 The integration of different sustainability aspects is initially restricted to
the stakeholder group ’workers’, as proposed by the S-LCA methodological
sheets. In parallel to the reasoning for R5, the integration of these aspects
should be flexible enough to be altered or extended at a later stage.
R7 The language should provide a way to include information on production sites,
i.e. where a component or material was extracted/produced. The assessment
of social impacts is usually location-based. This could be concrete production
sites (if known) or areas (countries, regions) for a generic assessment [4].
Overall, TracyML is limited to social sustainability aspects. Additionally, the
initial design is currently restricted to the stakeholder group ’workers’ and the life
cycle phases ’extraction of raw materials’ and ’production’ (see R1). Extensions
of the language to further aspects of social sustainability and stakeholder groups
or even further dimensions of sustainability are conceivable for later evolution
stages of TracyML. In the following, we discuss the language specification.
4 Language Specification
The syntax of TracyML is specified in a meta model. In general, one distinguishes
meta type level (M2), type level (M1) and instance level (M0) [12]. A meta model
is then on level M2 and specifies a modeling language, while a model is defined
on level M1. In the context of enterprise modeling, a meta model could specify
concepts like “Process” or “Organisational Unit”. The model, on level M1, would
then specify, say, a “sales process” carried out by a “sales department”. A concrete
sale that happened on a specific time is then on instance level M0. This strict
separation between the abstraction levels is not always appropriate [12]. It is
6 Stefanie Betz, Andreas Fritsch, and Andreas Oberweis
possible that in some cases an element of a model appears as concrete instance
on level M0, but at the same time this concrete instance is also depicted in the
model (on level M1). Think about a transportation network model (at the M1
level) that needs to include concrete cities. These cities would be located on
instance level M0 [11]. This mapping of different abstraction levels in the model
(M1) has been discussed in detail by Frank [12]. He states that this mapping
on the different level is not always appropriate and depends on the use cases.
This is true for our use case. Regarding the domain and use case targeted with
TracyML, there is a also a need to model instances: locations (i.e. production
sites in countries or regions, see R7) and concrete activities (R3). As discussed
above, countries are a typical use case for instance-level concepts. Concerning
activities, the intention is to provide the possibility for organizations to report
on concrete activities, like an audit, that were performed at a specific production
site. Thus, a model would also include instances of activities – possibly combined
with an additional description of this activity (e.g. date, time, results of an audit)
in an information system.
The meta modeling language MEMO MML provides features to account for
such conceptional difficulties (see [12]) and is therefore utilized to specify the
meta model for TracyML. The meaning of the relevant concepts of MEMO
MML is explained alongside the language concepts in the following section.
4.1 Language Meta Model
Fig. 1: Meta model for TracyML.
The essential concept in the meta model (Fig. 1) is Component. A Component
represents a tangible product or a constituent part or material that is used in the
production of it. The concept UnknownComponent is introduced to account for
the fact that a component might consist of further, unknown components (see
R2). AbstractComponent is then an abstraction of unknown components and
TracyML - A Modeling Language for Social Impacts of Product Life Cycles 7
regular components. It has no notational correspondence and is denoted as ab-
stract by the cursive font in the meta model. The arrows connecting Component
and UnknownComponent with AbstractComponent represent the inheritance
relationship. Note that the Component concept is semantically overloaded on
purpose to focus on the social sustainability characteristics rather than details
of the production process. Therefore, TracyML does not distinguish between
different kinds of materials like auxiliary materials or operating materials (i.e.
material that is necessary for the production but not constituent part of the final
product). Whether or not to model such materials in a TracyML model is for
the prospective modeler to decide, but should be made clear to the viewer. This
is part of the decision where to stop the underlying assessment.
Each AbstractComponent may be composed of none or many subcompo-
nents (ComposedOfRelation). In a diagram, each component shows an impact
Level concerning one focused SocialValue, which is dependent on the loca-
tion of the production site. This location information can be derived ([d] in the
meta model) from the modeled component via its connected SiteLocation.
Based on this information, one can obtain ([o]) the impactLevel from an exter-
nal data source, e.g. a database that contains assessment data. SiteLocation is
on type level - therefore represented with white background. This means that in a
TracyML diagram, always a concrete instance of a location (e.g. “Germany” or
“Philippines”) is modelled (see 5 for the rationale). Additionally, cyclic “composed
of” relationships of AbstractComponents are not allowed (Constraint C1).
The 0..1 multiplicity for SiteLocation accounts for the fact that the
location of a production site might be unknown. For an UnknownComponent
and for Components with no connected SiteLocation the impactLevel
is always unknown (C3). The attributes hasSubComponentsHighImpact,
-MediumImpact etc. are true whenever any subcomponent shows a high, medium,
low or unknown impact level. These attributes are flags for a variant of the
Component symbol, that summarizes all subcomponents – it is described in the
following section. Per known component one can specify Activities that are
performed by an organization in order to address social impacts.
The SocialValue and ValueRelation concepts set a model into the
larger context of social sustainability. A social value would be for example the
absence of child labour or non-excessive working hours. These social values can
be grouped together thematically e.g. to capture all values concerned with the
stakeholder group workers [4]. An aggregation over these thematically grouped
social values would then be a social value in itself, which is expressed by the
ValueRelation concept. The social dimension of sustainability can also be seen
as consisting of several social values [26]. As for the AbstractComponents,
there should not be cyclic relationships between the SocialValues (C2).
Finally, any TracyML diagram is put into the context of one set of social
values (here, the social values concerned with working conditions). Each diagram
shows the impact levels of each component concerning only one focusedValue.
This is due to the fact that the user should not be overloaded with information [22].
A software tool could allow a user to switch between the different social values.
8 Stefanie Betz, Andreas Fritsch, and Andreas Oberweis
Dialect: TracyML strict: In the design of TracyML, one can identify a
conflict between the desirable properties of a DSML “completeness & correctness”
and “ease of use” (see [13]): a diagram that does not explicitly model information
gaps (see R2) is prone to misunderstanding. A viewer of a diagram cannot see
whether a diagram shows all relevant known components down to the initial raw
materials. To guide the modeler in creating more complete diagrams, we set up
the following optional constraint: Only UnknownComponents or Components
that are raw materials can be “leaves” of the modeled “graph”.
This requires introducing the concept RawMaterial, and it adds another
layer of complexity that makes it harder for a novice user to pick up the mod-
eling language. Thus, we developed the optional dialect TracyML strict (e.g
experienced users might opt for the dialect) to account for this conflict. The
dialect does further not allow subsuming Components. As we want to keep the
dialect as compatible as possible with the basic TracyML language, we did not
define a new symbol for RawMaterial: TracyML strict provides a spatial area
RawMaterialArea – any Component that is arranged within this area changes
its semantic to RawMaterial. The modeled graph is then still valid independent
from the used dialect, which would not be the case when RawMaterials were
represented by their own symbol. This way, a modeler can switch freely between
both dialects, as long as the subsumed variant of Component is not used. A
corresponding modeling tool could account for this and automatically “retract”
or “extend” subsumed components when switching dialects. See Fig. 5 for an
example diagram that uses TracyML strict.
4.2 Graphical Notation
Fig. 2: Simplified exemplary TracyML diagram.
Figure 2 presents a simple exemplary diagram to explain the use of the
notation. It depicts a component ’sensor’ that is a subcomponent of a ’circuit
board’. The circuit board shows the variant of the Component symbol depicting
a stack to denote that it has further subcomponents that are not in the focus of
the example diagram. Further subcomponents that are used in the production
TracyML - A Modeling Language for Social Impacts of Product Life Cycles 9
of the sensor are not known, which is represented by the UnknownComponent
symbol. TracyML uses color to convey information concerning the severeness
of social impacts. In this diagram, the impacts concerning the SocialValue
health and safety are disclosed. The circuit board is assembled in Germany where
the potential impact (e.g. work related injury) is relatively low (green color).
The production of the sensor in the Philippines shows a medium impact level
(yellow color) for health and safety. Further diagrams for other social values are
available, as shown with the grayed out circles. There exists also an aggregated
social assessment for these values, which is shown with the bigger S-circle in the
middle. Finally, one can see that the production site of the circuit board was
visited to assess the working conditions. The firm producing the sensors was
so far only contacted (phone icon) in order to prepare further steps to improve
working conditions.
Figure 3 shows the Activity icons that we propose to be used with the
Component symbols. They have been inspired by the use case in the running
example: in order to improve social sustainability, the organization tries to get
in direct contact with lower tier suppliers as a first step (a). Some suppliers’
sites could also be visited to assess working conditions (b). Another exem-
plary Activity is negotiating for better working conditions (c). The proposed
Activities and corresponding icons are to be seen as examples, rather than
strict specifications, as the activities might change for different products and
supply chains. Therefore, further Activities to address other use cases can
be added relatively easily by defining new corresponding icons.
(a) Contact (b) Visit (c) Negotiation
Fig. 3: TracyML Activity icons.
The semantics of different SocialValues are expressed by icons to help
understanding the diagram. Figure 4 lists the icons that we propose to express
the social values concerning the stakeholder group workers. The structure of
TracyML allows for easy extension to further aspects of social sustainability by
defining corresponding SocialValue icons at a later stage.3
5 Example Application
Nager IT (www.nager-it.de) is a German start-up that works on one product
– a computer mouse – to continually improve its design and supply chain in terms
3
The icons for TracyML Activities and SocialValues were selected from the
font toolkit Font Awesome (http://fontawesome.io). Additionally, we evaluated
the understandability of the SocialValue icons. The results are available under
www.gotracy.org/workingpapers/tracyml_icon_evaluation.pdf.
10 Stefanie Betz, Andreas Fritsch, and Andreas Oberweis
(a) Freedom of Assoc. (b) Child Labour (c) Fair Salary (d) Working Hours
(e) Forced Labour (f) Equal Opp. (g) Health and Safety (h) Social Security
Fig. 4: TracyML SocialValue icons.
of social and ecological sustainability. Transparency concerning the current state
of the project is a priority.4 Being a relatively simple ICT product in terms of the
number of components (still, the known part of the supply chain encompasses
around 100 components or raw materials), it is a good starting point to address
the complex challenge of social sustainability. The firm provided an illustration
of the supply chain that served as inspiration for a preliminary diagram during
the design of TracyML and as data source for an exemplary S-LCA study.
In general, data sources for S-LCA studies can be governmental and non-
governmental organizations, corporate websites, sustainability reports or literature
and internet research [8]. We performed a generic S-LCA study for the computer
mouse utilizing regional data, rather than site-specific data. This has the advan-
tage that a generic approach is potentially applicable to any product rather than
only the use case product presented above. For each social value one or two indica-
tors were defined, for example Incidence of long working hours based on the ILO
study “Working time around the world” [19]. Finally, the data was classified via a
scoring system to identify low, medium and high impacts. A detailed description
and discussion for each of the indicators and the scoring system is available in a
report under https://gotracy.org/workingpapers/slca_study.pdf.
Available supply chain data and the results of the S-LCA study were then
used to create informative TracyML diagrams. Figure 5 shows the resulting
diagram for the solder wire that is used in the production of the computer mouse.
The focused social value is Health and Safety. This diagram also exemplifies
the use of the strict dialect of TracyML as it shows an area that denotes all
contained Components as raw materials, that are either extracted, or in the
case of residual solder, industry waste and e-waste taken back and recycled by
the corresponding firm. One can see that the origin of some raw materials like
copper or mineral oil is not known. The recycling or production of residual
solder, secondary tin and wax takes place in Germany and bears a relatively
low negative impact on health and safety. The same is true for secondary tin,
which is produced in Belgium. The production of kolophonium shows medium
4
See www.nager-it.de/projekt.
TracyML - A Modeling Language for Social Impacts of Product Life Cycles 11
Fig. 5: TracyML diagram for the solder wire that used for the computer mouse.
impact according to the S-LCA study.5 One can further see that the production
of activators uses mineral oil, but also other raw materials that are not known.
6 Evaluation and Discussion
We have conducted an evaluation of TracyML using semi-structured interviews
with experts in the field of sustainable production in order to assess and evaluate
the results of our work [30]. We interviewed two active members of Fairlötet, a
NGO that aims to reduce the negative social and environmental impact of solder
wire production and one member of Nager IT, who also provided the use case as
mentioned above.
With regard to the understandability, the interviewees appreciated the result-
ing diagrams as a way to quickly identify “social hotspots’ and that the diagrams
provides a good overview. Additionally, the consistency of the diagram is to be
seen as a plus especially with regard to future extensions and implementations of
the DSML. Moreover, the interviewees were in agreement with the different social
values currently represented in TracyML and the way they are expressed by
icons to help understanding the diagram. With regard to the easy-to-use focus the
interviewees stated that they very much value the simplicity of the language (e.g.
everything can be added through the one concept Component). Additionally, one
of the NGOs is eager to use the proposed DSML once it is properly implemented
in a software system. Two of the interviewees pointed out that it might be a
problem that the assessment of the impact shown in the highest listed component
could be seen as an aggregation and as such as an overall assessment. Also, the
efficient and understandable layout of large models has been discussed as an
issue. One way we plan to address this, is the implementation of TracyML in a
software tool that allows for dynamic contraction and expansion of Components
(see the discussion of the notational variant of Component in Sect. 4).
5
Considering that the underlying assessment is generic, i.e. only on country-level, one
could also talk of “potential impacts”
12 Stefanie Betz, Andreas Fritsch, and Andreas Oberweis
7 Related Work
We did not find any comparable DSML designs that are directly concerned with
social sustainability and product life cycles. But one can see DSMLs for modeling
business risks [31], business performance [32], or goals [7] as related to TracyML.
These DSMLs were also developed using a similar design approach.
Some modeling approaches concerned with sustainability can be found in
the area of (business) process languages. These approaches can be roughly6
separated into approaches concentrating on methodologies and frameworks to
integrate sustainability into business process lifecycles (e.g. [29], [27], [24]),
improving process sustainability using patterns (e.g. [23]), enabling and applying
sustainability performance measurement on processes (e.g. [9], [1]), and finally
designing and developing process languages for sustainability (e.g. [28]). Overall
we have realized that social sustainability is an often-overlooked dimension. To
the best of our knowledge in the existing approaches we found only two of them
with a focus on social sustainability (see [9], [1]). The work [9] introduces a
Capability Maturity Model including measures. But the proposed model only
provides suggestions and misses underlying KPIs. Additionally, this approach
is not presenting any process modeling languages. In [1] the authors apply
techniques of sustainable performance measurement on a use case. The researchers
used structured interviews and document review to determine the sustainability
performance measures used by the airline. Here again, the focus is not on modeling.
In [28] the authors develop an extended BPMN to measure the carbon footprint
of an individual process and apply the extended notation to a case study. The
extension is focusing only on environmental sustainability with a special focus
on energy consumption. To summarize, none of the presented approaches is
focusing on modeling a product’s social sustainability. Moreover, none of the
presented approaches provides a generic S-LCA serving as a data basis for
modeling sustainability.
8 Conclusion and Outlook
In this paper we have presented TracyML, a DSML to provide transparency of
social impacts associated with a products life-cycle. TracyML allows modeling
the results of a S-LCA assessment. Thus, it provides an approach for visualizing
a product’s sustainability. By including the concept Activity, a firm is further
enabled to communicate the actions it performs in order to address possible
negative social impacts. We have demonstrated its applicability in a use case and
we have evaluated the approach using an expert evaluation. We are aware that it
can be a problem to gather all the data needed to model the social sustainability.
Not only because of data being not available but also because the data may
not be in the correct or needed format. To reduce this problem we included the
element UnknownComponent as a placeholder when data is not available.
6
Some of the analyzed work are overlapping approaches.
TracyML - A Modeling Language for Social Impacts of Product Life Cycles 13
For future work it is still an open question, whether TracyML can and
should be expanded to further life cycle stages and stakeholder groups. While the
inclusion of further stakeholder groups would easily fit into the conceptual frame,
it is not clear how one could address for example the recycling and disposal
phase. Maybe the way to improve sustainability here is rather a question of how
to ensure and control final socially and environmentally sustainable recycling.
Thus, we are envisioning the development of interfaces between different systems
that are specialized on certain aspects of sustainability, in order to cover the full
life cycle of a product.
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