On November 11th, we celebrated our 5th anniversary of the PLM Green Global Alliance (PGGA) with a webinar where Jos Voskuil (me) interviewed the five other PGGA core team members about developments and experiences in their focus domain, potentially allowing for a broader discussion.
In our discussion, we focused on the trends and future directions of the PLM Green Global Alliance, emphasizing the intersection of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Sustainability.
This new post from the PLM Green Global Alliance (PGGA) is next in a series on “Leaders in PLM & Sustainability” where we interview professionals from around the world who are working at the intersection of Product Lifecycle Management and Sustainability.
Our goal for these profiles is to recognize and encourage professionals who are contributing to the greening of PLM across their own work, industry, customers, and suppliers. This is fundamental to PGGA’s mission of creating a global network between professionals who use, develop, research, market, consult, teach, or support PLM business strategies, enabling technologies, and software solutions that have value in transitioning to a more sustainable global economy. As demonstrated by our non-commercial website, we execute this mission by educating, collaborating, and advocating for the role of PLM in creating a circular economy of low-carbon products and processes.
As referenced in our first profile featuring Mark Reisig, our second one recognizing Jos Voskuil, and third featuring Dave Duncan, there are numerous technical, economic, and geopolitical challenges in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by the end of this decade as climate scientists warn us is so critical. Yet, with each of these hurdles there are many rewarding “hands-on” career opportunities to participate in what may be the most important application of PLM we will ever experience.
The following post first appeared in PLM Green cofounder Jos Voskuil’s European weblog “PLM and Sustainability: talking with CIMPA” on 6 January 2025.
Most times in this PLM and Sustainability series, Klaus Brettschneider and Jos Voskuil from the PLM Green Global Alliance core team speak with PLM related vendors or service partners.
PLM Green contributor Klaus Brettschneider, who is Director of Sustainability Products at Linx-AS LLC, has authored a new thought-leadership whitepaper on “The Sustainability Thread: Rethinking the digital thread to drive sustainability performance and green R&D.”
In the executive summary, Klaus writes:
“The digital twin and digital thread concepts are now mainstream best practices for product lifecycle management (PLM) practitioners and innovation-minded organizations. The interconnectivity of product data models provides superior agility for manufacturers as the digital thread breaks through to once-siloed stakeholders with real-time, accurate information from R&D to commercialization to the customer and back.
Enter sustainability. With regulatory, consumer, and investor pressures on the rise, many manufacturers are running into stakeholders in new silos in the rush to deliver products to market—all the while, leadership wrestles with scattered data, multiple reporting frameworks, and aspirations of a more proactive green R&D posture.
In this white paper, the author posits the creation of a digital thread for sustainability data, simply stated herein as the sustainability thread. The paper explains how integrating sustainability requirements in an organization’s digital thread strategy can transform both sustainability performance and product development. It also explores through real-world use cases how the digitalization of sustainability-related processes can greatly improve operational efficiency and reporting accuracy.”
Continue exploring these topics covered in the whitepaper by downloading it HERE.
The latest PLM Green Global Alliance post is authored by Klaus Brettschneider, principal moderator for our Life Cycle Assessment study theme and Director of Sustainability Products for PLM consultancy Linx-AS.
Engineers and designers in New Product Development (NPD) and Research & Development (R&D) play a critical role in shaping the sustainability of products, processes, and systems. A McKinsey study documented that while product R&D in the manufacturing industry only accounts for 5% of a product’s cost, the decisions made then influence up to 80% of the resources ultimately consumed, thus defining the product’s environmental footprint.
As a result, NPD and R&D departments are increasingly expected to incorporate aspects of sustainability into their product designs and usage. A holistic understanding of the product’s environmental impact throughout its entire life cycle, from the material sourcing to manufacturing, distribution, usage, repair, and end-of-life disposition becomes necessary.
The PLM Green Global Alliance (PGGA) announces that a new focus theme on Product Life Cycle Assessment has been established to be led by PLM Green founding moderator Klaus Brettschneider.
PLM Green’s mission is to educate, advocate, and collaborate across the boundaries of technical disciplines, different industries, and international borders to advance the use of Product Lifecycle Management strategies and technologies in the transition to a sustainable decarbonized circular economy. There are many applications of PLM that can contribute to this transition which PGGA has begun to study as referenced in PLM Green Examples.
Due to the wide variety of these PLM use cases, the PGGA originally created four core topical themes on examining the application of PLM within Sustainability, Green Energy, Circular Economy, and Climate Change. Each special interest group is led by one or more volunteer moderators that presently includes Jos Voskuil from TacitIT, Klaus Brettschneider from LinxAS, Mark Reisig from CIMdata, Patrice Quencez from CIMPA PLM Services, and Richard McFall from PLM Alliances. The PGGA also acknowledges theme contributions from Ilan Madjar of XLM Solutions, Hannes Lindfred from TrusTrace, Bjorn Fidjeland from PLM Partners, and Lionel Grealou from XlifeCycle.
The goal of the PLM Green discussion forum and working group on Product Life Cycle Assessment (PLCA), led by Klaus Brettschneider, is to investigate, validate, and promote the use of PLM-enabling business strategies and software technologies that can reduce the impact of products on the environment, most notably greenhouse gas emissions.
Product Life Cycle Assessments are pivotal in environmental protection, surpassing the singular focus on carbon impact and climate change. While carbon emissions are undeniably significant contributors to environmental degradation, PLCAs comprehensively evaluate a product’s environmental footprint throughout its entire life cycle. This holistic approach considers greenhouse gas emissions and factors like resource extraction, manufacturing processes, transportation, product use, and end-of-life disposal.
By scrutinizing each stage, PLCAs provide a nuanced understanding of a product’s overall impact, enabling businesses and consumers to make informed decisions. This broader perspective allows for identifying additional environmental stressors beyond carbon emissions, fostering more sustainable practices, and contributing to a well-rounded environmental conservation strategy.
We within the PLM Green Global Alliance will explore and document the role, potential, and value of PLM in addressing the challenge of limiting the impact of products on the sustainability of our planet’s environment.
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) strategies are crucial in facilitating and enhancing Product Life Cycle Assessments (PLCAs). PLM involves systematically managing a product’s entire lifecycle, from conception and design to manufacturing, use, and disposal. PLM provides a structured framework for organizing product-related data, streamlining communication across different stages, and ensuring process consistency.
When integrated with PLCAs, PLM strategies enable a more efficient and accurate assessment of environmental impacts. PLM systems help capture and centralize relevant data at each stage of a product’s lifecycle, making evaluating factors such as materials used, energy consumption, and waste generation easier. This integration promotes sustainability by facilitating informed decision-making, allowing businesses to optimize processes, reduce environmental footprints, and design products with a more comprehensive understanding of their lifecycle impacts.
PLM strategies, software, processes, and data act as the foundation for performing effective Product Life Cycle Assessments, enabling businesses to align environmental considerations with product development and management best practices.
To participate in our PLM Green theme study group on PLCA we invite you to first join the PLM Green LinkedIn Group then contact our moderator Klaus Brettschneider.
Here below we have started maintaining a curated list of featured white papers, blog posts, presentations, case studies, webinars, and interviews on the role of PLM-enabling technologies in performing product lifecycle assessments. We invite you to send us examples you have come across in your own work, company, industry, or country to info@plmgreenalliance.com.
The topic of sustainability was high on the agenda of the SAP Product Lifecycle Management Info Days event held this past September in Hershey, PA, just west of SAP America’s HQ outside of Philadelphia.
Most SAP customer presentations at the annual event referenced the growing need to provide product data to support their company’s sustainability programs and business goals. Likewise, many informal conversations over breaks and meals also touched upon green topics.
Since our start in earnest in 2020, the PLM Green Global Alliance has participated in discussion panels with solution providers Aras, Autodesk, Dassault Systems, PTC, SAP, and Sustaira. In these interviews our focus was to learn about their thought leadership, products, and experience implementing Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) to support Sustainability initiatives.
Our last interview earlier this year was with a PLM consultancy representative, Mark Reisig, who is a Sustainability and Green Energy Practice Director & Executive Consultant at CIMdata. You can find that interview here with a recording we encourage you to also watch.
The following post was first written by PLM Green co-founder Jos Voskuil where it appeared in his European PLM Weblog in December 2022.
We are excited to close the year with the first round of the PLM Global Green Alliance (PGGA) series of interviews and panel discussions about PLM and Sustainability.
The PLM Green Global Alliance recently hosted its third panel discussion to explore how PLM-enabling technologies are supporting the sustainability imperative. These interviews expand upon our earlier article on the Intersection of PLM and Sustainability by examining the progress in sustainability being made by PLM solution providers, their partners and customers.
This time PLM Green co-founders Jos Voskuil and Klaus Brettschneider met virtually with executives from Dassault Systèmes (3DS), considered by many to be the market leader in enterprise PLM. Their discussion was with Florence Verzelen, Executive Vice President of Industry Marketing and Sustainability and Xavier Adam, Senior Manager of Worldwide Sustainability.
The PLM Green Global Alliance recently hosted its second panel discussion exploring sustainability topics with PLM-enabling technology and solution software providers. These forums expand upon our recent article on the Intersection of PLM and Sustainability by examining the progress in sustainability being made by solution providers, their partners, and customers.
This time, PLM Green co-founders Jos Voskuil and Klaus Brettschneider spoke with representatives from Autodesk, a well known leader of software solutions for the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Manufacturing industries. Their interview was with Zoé Bezpalko, Autodesk’s Sustainability Strategy Manager for Design & Manufacturing Industries, and Jon den Hartog, Product Manager for Autodesk’s PDM and PLM solutions.
The PLM Green Global Alliance recently hosted its first in a series of panel discussions and interviews that will explore sustainability topics with enterprise PLM solution providers. These forums will extend our recent article on the Intersection of PLM and Sustainability where we next hope to learn about examples of progress in sustainability being made by solution providers, their partners and customers.
Our inaugural interview was with Darren West, Product Manager Lead for SAP’s Circular Economy Solutions, who is based in the United Kingdom. We were excited to speak with SAP after reading their numerous recent announcements about the importance of sustainability and hear how they “walk the talk.”
In this Digital Engineering commentary, PLM Green Global Alliance contributor and climate change theme moderator Klaus Brettschneider examines the role of PLM in tracking the carbon footprint of products and processes.
Download and read the full article HERE.
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.
The goal of the PLM Green discussion forum and working group on Climate Change, led by Klaus Brettschneider, is to investigate and validate the use of PLM-enabling business strategies and software technologies that can reduce human-generated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We hope to clearly answer the question of what is the role, potential, and value of PLM in addressing the most important challenge facing humankind this century, climate change.
Product Lifecycle Management strategies and systems allow organizations to manage a product’s lifecycle in all its aspects including structures, components, materials, suppliers, and ingredients. Managing the lifecycle from inception to disposal allows organizations today to optimize manufacturing processes, to document its material or ingrediencies composition and to make sure that products comply with local or international regulations.
We firmly believe that PLM can help organizations to understand and analyze the effect of its product design, methods of production, and supply chain choices on their carbon footprint. Accordingly, we seek to educate, collaborate, and advocate for the role of PLM business strategies, enabling technologies, software solutions, and professionals in addressing climate change due to human-generated greenhouse gas emissions.
This includes how the application of PLM tools, processes, and best practices can help assess, reduce, mitigate, and adapt our industries, communities, and economies to the rapidly-intensifying effects of climate change. As example, candidate topics from which we hope to research and document the use of PLM-enabling technologies include:
We will be pursuing the objectives by an agenda composed of a number of elements including discussion groups, virtual roundtables, published articles, interviews, industry surveys, and cooperative events with other organizations. Follow our progress, or better yet join us, with an email to info@plmgreenalliance.com.
International members of the PLM Green Global Alliance (PGGA) met recently to discuss the timely new book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need.” The panel discussion was moderated by PGGA co-founder Jos Voskuil with participants Klaus Brettschneider, Lionel Grealou, Patrick Hillberg, Ilan Madjar, and Richard McFall. Listen to the discussion HERE.
To participate in our PLM Green theme sub-group we invite you to first join the PLM Green Global Alliance LinkedIn Group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12304531/ then contact one of our moderators.
Here we have started creating a curated list of featured white papers, blog posts, presentations, case studies, webinars, and recorded interviews on the role of PLM-enabling technologies in addressing climate change. We invite you to send us examples you have come across in your own work, company, industry, or country to info@plmgreenalliance.com.
