GREEN DEAL INDEX
A unified index to measure, monitor and benchmark industrial performance against the objectives of the European Green Deal
What it is?
The Green Deal Index (GDI) is a quantitative sustainability index developed within CLARUS to assess how well an organisation, process, or scenario aligns with the European Green Deal objectives. It brings together multiple environmental performance indicators (not only CO₂) and consolidates them into an easy-to-interpret overall score, enabling consistent sustainability monitoring and comparison.
What it is for?
The Green Deal Index is designed for industrial stakeholders, particularly in the food and bio-based sectors, who need a practical way to measure and improve sustainability performance. It is relevant for sustainability and ESG managers, plant and operations teams, and decision-makers responsible for strategy, investments, and continuous improvement. It also supports wider project stakeholders, public authorities, and innovation actors interested in transparent and comparable sustainability assessment aligned with Green Deal priorities.
Benefits
The GDI provides a clear sustainability signal that helps organisations translate complex environmental information into actionable insight. By enabling performance comparison and benchmarking across processes, sites, or scenarios, it supports informed decision-making and helps prioritise the measures with the greatest potential impact. Its multi-dimensional approach improves transparency and credibility, strengthening sustainability management and communication by offering a robust indicator that goes beyond carbon-only assessments and better reflects real operational challenges and opportunities.
Status
The Green Deal Index has been formally defined within the CLARUS framework, supported by a structured methodology and a set of sustainability KPIs established in project documentation. It is being validated and demonstrated through pilot implementations within the project, ensuring that the index is grounded in real industrial conditions and can be further refined and scaled based on practical results, stakeholder feedback, and deployment needs.
Applications
The Green Deal Index can be used to assess sustainability performance at different levels, such as production processes, facilities, or operational alternatives, enabling organisations to compare “as-is” and “to-be” situations. It supports scenario evaluation and prioritisation by highlighting the most influential sustainability drivers and by guiding continuous improvement actions. The GDI is suitable for tracking progress across core environmental areas such as energy efficiency, water use, waste reduction, circularity performance, and broader footprint indicators, ultimately providing a structured way to identify the most sustainable operational strategy.
Access
The Green Deal Index methodology and related KPI framework are available through CLARUS public outputs and resources published on the official CLARUS website. Project documentation describing the Green Deal KPIs and the methodological foundations of the index can be accessed through the Deliverables section, supporting transparency and enabling stakeholders to understand, replicate, or adapt the approach for their own sustainability assessment needs.
