The PLM Green Global Alliance (PGGA) is an international community of professionals who work with Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) enabling technologies and who are collaborating, educating, and advocating for a more sustainable decarbonized circular economy.

The mission of the PLM Green Global Alliance is to develop a global network and foster a coalition between professionals who use, develop, research, market, consult, teach, or support Product Lifecycle Management business strategies, technologies and software solutions that have value in transitioning to a more sustainable global economy and environmental ecosystems. One important role of PLM is its use to address the causes and consequences of climate change due to human-generated greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from products and processes.

We are highly focused on PLM enabling strategies and technologies. We are Green due to our environmental concern for the planet to sustain both healthy industries and future generations, and not because of politics or party affiliation. We are Global because addressing sustainability and climate change requires international cooperation. And finally we are an informal Alliance to build community and communication between participants who share common interests.

We are excited by the professional opportunities and motivated by the technical challenges to create a sustainable circular economy and low-carbon future for all industries, communities, nations, and life forms on the planet Earth that depend on healthy ecosystems.

Climate scientists and policy experts warn that we have less than ten years left, basically the rest of this decade as illustrated in the countdown clock at the top of this page, to slow then reverse the rise of GHG emissions that will enable a net-zero global economy by 2050. After that, with unabated global warming, a series of irreversible tipping points on the planet may be breached which current practices and technologies cannot save us from experiencing.

This decade, this year, now and not some point in the future, is the time to take action in big and small ways alike. As illustrated on this website, the PLM profession is uniquely qualified to participate in and accelerate the rapid transformation of industries and decarbonization of economies that will be required.

We seek to educate, advocate, and collaborate for greater recognition of the role and value of PLM technologies to help assess, reduce, mitigate, and adapt to (when necessary) climate change, which then contributes to sustainability. We hope to not only inform but more importantly to inspire.

There are many examples of how PLM-related technologies are doing just that, but very few focused platforms and open forums where professional resources and application case studies can be collected, researched, shared, discussed, and promoted for the common good.

Each of the PLM Green special interest groups have their own goals which can be found on their respective pages HERE.

The PGGA is an informal non-commercial international group and as such there is no process or cost to participate. Our only requirement is that you have a sincere professional, educational, or personal interest in the intersection of PLM and one of our theme topics. These themes currently include: Climate Change, Sustainability, Green Energy, Circular Economy and Life Cycle Assessment. If you do have interest and want to contribute, we invite you join our PLM Green Global Alliance LinkedIn Group where we now have over 1,000 members from around the world.

Just a note that this group is not a forum which will study or debate the environmental sciences of carbon emissions, global warming, or climate change. Nor are we a political or lobbying organization. These functions are already covered by many respectable science-based and public-policy global organizations. Their climate experts have concluded that human-generated climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions is happening now; the effects are already becoming severe and may become irreversible as well as devastating if current trends are not arrested.

Members of our informal alliance are invited to share and collaborate across a global community of professionals working with PLM that can help transform our economies to be more energy efficient, carbon neutral, and sustainable. We affirm that PLM is not a single technology nor software product, but a business strategy that is enabled by many different technologies, supporting software solutions, and expert subject matter consultancies.

These technologies include but are not limited to: Product Data Management (PDM), Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Computer-Aided Design (CAD), Digital Twins (DT), Digital Manufacturing (DMfg), Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing (AM/3DP), Product Portfolio Management (PPM), Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA),  Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR), Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), Visualization (Viz), Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO), Multi-Physics Simulation (MPS), Product Cost Management (PCM), Service Lifecycle Management (SLM), Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM), Configuration Lifecycle Management (CLM), Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT), High Performance Computing (HPC) and Enterprise Collaboration & Innovation Management (ECIM).

While there are dozens more, all together these segments comprise a dynamic global PLM ecosystem that attracts over $50B annually in technology investments. For descriptions and additional information about these underlying technologies visit the PLM Atlas website.

In the PLM Green Global Alliance we invite working professionals, users, researchers, teachers, students, developers, marketers, and followers to share example case studies and thought leadership of how PLM-enabling technologies can be used to:

• make products and processes more energy efficient and sustainable
• find and develop new sources of renewable green energy
• predict, monitor and track carbon footprints of products and processes
• account for Scope 1, 2, and most importantly 3 greenhouse gas emissions
• providing data, process, and platforms for performing Life Cycle Assessment
• decarbonize entire industries and economies
• store and transmit alternative energy supplies
• reduce or sequester human-generated carbon emissions
• capture naturally produced greenhouse and methane gasses
• pioneer and deploy green manufacturing processes
• design products and their lifecycles to be environmentally friendly
• simulate and test global geoengineering technologies as solutions
• recycle, reuse, or repurpose assets, materials, and natural resources
• support and accelerate the transformation to a circular economy
• minimize and mitigate the damage to infrastructures from global warming
• monitor a warming planet, changing weather patterns, and impact of climate change
• enhance the resiliency and sustainability of industries and communities

To support the above we have identified overarching “PLM Green Themes” along with sub-topics which we will use to help us prioritize our coverage of application examples.

During 2024, our third full year, we will continue researching, collecting, and discussing examples of the above applications along with sharing thought leadership blogs, white papers, success stories, and other useful resources submitted to us from around the globe. We will also continue to interview solution providers, large and small, to learn about their contributions to and solutions for sustainability. Look for these in our PLM Green Examples and PLM Green Resources website pages. Send us your examples with a link to reference and credit to info@plmgreenalliance.org.

Participate in our discussion by joining the PLM Green Global Alliance LinkedIn Group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12304531/. Register to receive our news by entering your email on the top right of any page on this website.

We also publish the PLM & Sustainability Newsletter on LinkedIn which you may separately subscribe to HERE.

We very much welcome the contribution of your ideas, experience, topics, and help by contacting our founders Richard McFall in North America at richard@plmgreenalliance.com or Jos Voskuil in Europe at tacit@planet.nl. Or visit the PLM Green Conversation and Collaboration website page for specific opportunities to participate and contribute.

Regards – Mit freundlichen Grüßen – בברכה – Cordiali Saluti – नमस्ते – Namaste – Cordialement – 敬具- Saludos – Saudações – 好日子 – Met vriendelijke groet