The PLM strategy consultancy CIMdata has published a new commentary on “How PLM is Decarbonizing Automotive Transport—Amid Political Uncertainty.” The publication was authored by PLM Green Global Alliance participant Mark Reisig, Executive Consultant at CIMdata, and Ameya Joshi, CEO and Founder of MobilityNotes.
In announcing the commentary CIMdata’s Cheryl Peck writes: “In this new commentary from CIMdata, we explain how PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) is a strategic tool for the automotive industry to achieve decarbonization. Despite political uncertainty in the U.S., PLM enables manufacturers to maintain momentum by focusing on global sustainability demands from Europe, China, and other markets. Decarbonization is no longer just a regulatory issue; it’s a competitive necessity driven by investors and consumers. Ultimately, companies that use PLM to embed sustainability—through electrification, circularity, and materials management—will be best positioned to succeed.”
A new post from Siemens published in LinkedIn Technology & Innovation News profiles how experts from bremenports and Siemens have developed a digital twin to help envision the international port of Bremerhaven achieving carbon neutrality by 2035. As one of the world’s most ambitious port decarbonization projects, the findings highlight that renewable energy and smart energy management are critical to its success.
Read on HERE to learn how this is to be possible by actually cutting carbon emissions, not through certificates and emissions trading.
(Header feature image courtesy and copyright of bremenports GmbH.)
Recently, I (Mark Reisig) delivered a CIMdata webinar titled, “Sustainability & PLM: An Industrial Perspective.” For those of you who were unable to attend I am excited to share the following summary of key points that I made. You can also view the recorded webinar hereat your leisure.
SUSTAINair, a project funded by the EU Horizon 2020 program, is at the forefront of revolutionizing aviation through its groundbreaking technologies and impactful solutions. SUSTAINair’s aim is to substantially increase the sustainability of the airframe value chain achieving a paradigm shift in aircraft manufacturing. The project’s solutions will bring significant benefits during production, operations, maintenance and EoL (end of life) aspects.
The final conference for the SUSTAINair project will be held on the11th and 12th of June, 2024, in Vienna, Austria. The conference will discuss advanced topics crucihttps://www.sustainair.eu/al to the future of aviation sustainability. Key themes include:
Circular Economy: Highlight the importance of the circular economy for essential aircraft materials, emphasizing sustainable practices in the aviation industry.
Life Cycle of Materials: Understanding the life cycle of materials, recycling processes, and waste reduction is key to fostering a circular approach that aligns with global environmental goals.
Smart Materials for Aircraft: Innovations in materials with unique properties aim to improve aircraft performance, durability, and environmental impact.
Innovative Aircraft Composition: Explore different methods that challenge traditional design and construction paradigms.
Digital Tools for Predictive Maintenance: As technology advances, digital tools enable more effective measures to be taken to combat wear and tear.
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM): New digital solutions for SHM, ensuring the longevity and safety of aircraft components.
This article from the SAP News Center written by Darren West emphasizes the role of the circular economy in achieving net-zero emissions. It states that energy efficiency and renewable energy can only address 55% of greenhouse gas emissions. The remaining 45% are tied to products, materials, and food.
Currently, the linear economy dominates, as only 7.2% of the world’s resources are reused or recycled. Thus, adopting Circular Economy requires significant short-term capital investment, more data, and a collaborative approach.
The European SUSTAINair initiative is to provide the aviation sector with a transition runway to a low-carbon circular economy while tackling the increase in resource consumption, waste, and emissions along the entire aviation component value chain.
The recent project report deliverable “New Recyclate Materials with LifeCycle Impact Assessment” defines Life Cycle Assessment and Circular Economy, and then explores a LCA-CE model for the aviation industry to bring the principles together for assessing the environmental impact of new materials.
“Siemens Digital Industries Software today announced that Daimler Truck has adopted Siemens’ Simcenter™ STAR-CCM+™ software to develop next-generation, CO2-neutral vehicles. Simcenter, part of Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio, will provide Daimler Truck with the leading-edge computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solution it needs to transform its CAE development process to a full digital twin-driven multiphysics environment.
Image courtesy of Siemens Digital Industries Software and Daimler Truck
Daimler Truck plans to use Simcenter to improve aerodynamic performance, as well as explore and optimize innovative e-mobility propulsion and energy management systems including battery cooling and hydrogen technology. The software will also help support legacy combustion engine and exhaust system design and associated CO2 reduction.”
Learn more by reading the complete press release HERE.
“Decarbonizing the Atmosphere: Opportunities and Cautions” is a comprehensive article written for engineering professionals in the Spring 2022 issue of The Bent magazine from the Tau Beta Pi engineering professional society.
The article summarizes the massive scope of the technical challenge to stop emitting new greenhouse gasses, like C02 and methane, into the atmosphere, and the likelihood we will have to remove and sequester what we have already emitted.
In Part 1 of this series of posts from the PLM Green Global Alliance on the Role of PLM in Slowing Climate Change we identified four primary opportunities to employ Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) in reducing, mitigating, or adapting to climate change from human-generated Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, most importantly CO2. These four areas for using PLM strategies and solutions are in: developing Green Products, generating Green Energy, reducing Carbon Footprints, and adapting to Climate Change.
In this new Part 2 we will begin to examine one of those in more detail; the use of PLM-enabling technologies to collect, calculate, track, report, and most importantly reduce the carbon footprint of products and processes. This capability then enables a full and accurate accounting for the carbon footprint of individual companies, entire industries, and national economies that supply, produce or consume these products or services. It may very well prove to be the most important contribution of PLM by helping to lower emissions and slow climate change for the benefit of future generations to come.
This new series of posts by Klaus Brettschneider and Richard McFall, contributing members of the PLM Green Global Alliance (PGGA), will explore how Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) can be used to slow climate change by reducing human-generated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide and methane are the two most damaging GHG which are commonly reported on as CO2 equivalents, or CO2e, and are measured in billions of tons or gigatons. Carbon continues to build in the atmosphere due to human activities on the ground where it has now surpassed 410 ppm, nearly double that prior to the start of the industrial age. Since CO2 stays in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, a consensus is urgently building among climate scientists, elected officials, and NGOs like the International Energy Agency that the global economy must attain net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. This starts with a very challenging reduction of 50% by 2030, less than ten years away.
We begin our series by outlining the different roles and use cases that PLM can have in minimizing the carbon footprint – or “decarbonizing” – products, businesses, industries, and even entire economies. But first a brief level set on what PLM is and is not.
Decarbonizing the economy seems overwhelming, but the KPMG white paper “The Decarbonization Journey” is a valuable resource for companies seeking to assess how to get started in the near term and developing their own long-term strategies.
The contributing author Michael Hayes, KPMG’s Global Climate Change and Decarbonization Leader, writes: “Creating a low-carbon economy over the next 30 years is going to be one of the greatest challenges ever faced by the human race – we will not succeed unless there is a total and complete focus on decarbonization across all economic sectors.”
Learn what the five pillars to net zero are by reading this report available for downloading from KPMG HERE.
The authors write in their introduction that “The number of countries announcing pledges to achieve net-zero emissions over the coming decades continues to grow. But the pledges by governments to date – even if fully achieved – fall well short of what is required to bring global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050 and give the world an even chance of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C.”
“This special report is the world’s first comprehensive study of how to transition to a net zero energy system by 2050 while ensuring stable and affordable energy supplies, providing universal energy access, and enabling robust economic growth. It sets out a cost-effective and economically productive pathway, resulting in a clean, dynamic and resilient energy economy dominated by renewables like solar and wind instead of fossil fuels. The report also examines key uncertainties, such as the roles of bioenergy, carbon capture and behavioural changes in reaching net zero.”
