The electric steel production is in line with the circular economy concept due to the reuse of scrap. However, being energy intensive industries with a significant environmental impact, electric steelworks can increase their competitiveness and environmental sustainability through an adequate management of resource and energy. The paper presents a work related to the quantification of electric energy consumption and environmental impact of unconventional electric steelmaking scenarios while simultaneously monitoring the steel composition. The exploitation of an ad-hoc developed Decision Support Tool highlights that scrap quality strongly affects the monitored energy and environmental parameters (quantified in terms of Key Performance Indicators and aggregated in a Global Index). Moreover, the developed simulations pointed out that the removal of Fe-alloy addition during EAF tapping allows reducing slag and improving the yield by preserving also the steel quality while slightly increasing the electric energy consumption: in countries where the price and the emissions related to the production of electricity are low, this can be a good compromise to improve the environmental sustainability of the sector. The study shows that also limited modifications of the well-known electric steelmaking process could help to increase the sustainability of this energy intensive industrial production route. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.