FreeSens: An Open-Source Multi-Criteria Environmental Sustainability Screening Platform for Sensor Design

Abstract

The increasing use of sensors in healthcare, environmental monitoring, or agri-food applications has amplified concerns regarding their post-use environmental burden, particularly in the context of escalating global electronic waste (e-waste). Although current devices offer high analytical performance, their design often relies on non-renewable, non-biodegradable materials and energy-intensive fabrication processes. To support sustainable environmental decisions at early R&D stages, where detailed inventories and proprietary LCA databases are often unavailable, we present FreeSens software, an open and accessible environmental screening tool that integrates a life cycle perspective into sensor design. FreeSens enables rapid benchmarking across four core domains: raw material origin, fabrication pathway, operational reagent and solvent footprint, and functional lifetime. The framework quantifies eight indicators, including global warming potential, acidification and eutrophication potentials, resource depletion, biodegradability, reagent and solvent footprint, and fabrication method, delivering a composite sustainability score that facilitates sensor-to-sensor comparison. Application of FreeSens to sensor and biosensor archetypes reveals trade-offs between analytical performance and environmental compatibility and illustrates how early design choices can be prioritized before the application of the detailed ISO-compliant LCAs. FreeSens is intended to complement, not replace, ISO-compliant LCA. Its results should be interpreted as indicative environmental screening benchmarks for eco-design prioritization and subsequent detailed assessment.