Tag Archives: PLM Green Alliance

Talking With Sustaira About Sustainability

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Just before the summer holidays the PLM Green Global Alliance was pleased to resume our interview series on PLM and Sustainability where we talk with PLM-related software vendors to discuss their sustainability missions and offerings.

Following recent discussions in the PLM ecosystem, including PSC Transition Technologies (EcoPLM), CIMPA PLM services (LCA), and the Design for Sustainability working group (with multiple vendors & service partners), we now have the opportunity to catch up with Sustaira after almost three years.

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Sustainability Trends Within PLM from CIMdata

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PLM Green Global Alliance contributor Mark Reisig recently led a CIMdata webinar on “Sustainability Trends Within PLM” on April 10, 2025.

Key topics of the agenda that Mark covered include:

  • Status of Sustainability
  • Sustainability Trends
  • Embedding Sustainability into PLM Strategies
    • Circular Economy and the Digital Product Passport (DPP)
    • Reducing Product Carbon Footprint (PCF)
    • Enhancing Supply Chain Visibility
    • Design for Sustainability (DfS)
    • Lifecycle Assessments (LCA)
    • Digital Threads and Digital Twins
  • Why Companies Should Care
  • Concluding Remarks

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Climate Change Chronicles January 2025

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There is no denying that January 2025 was a sobering month for news about climate change. The month started with the devastating fires in Southern California, made worse by a warming climate, and ended with deconstruction of U.S. federal government agencies, funding, staff, websites, data, policies, and agreements related to climate change.

Yet, there was also encouraging news from around the world in that the momentum toward a more sustainable low-carbon greener global economy appears unstoppable by any one country, for which many Americans like myself can be ever so thankful. You can follow this progress in other posts, newsletters, and panel discussions from the PLM Green Global Alliance.

To see what climate news you might have missed in your own news feeds last month, read on in the latest Climate Change Chronicles which is presented below in approximate chronological order.

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Talking with CIMPA about PLM & Sustainability

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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.

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Leaders in PLM and Sustainability – December 2024

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This is the third in a new series of posts from the PLM Green Global Alliance (PGGA) on “Leaders in PLM & Sustainability” where we profile and interview professionals from around the world who are working at the intersection of PLM and Sustainability.

Our goal for these profiles is to both recognize and encourage PLM professionals who are contributing to the greening of Product Lifecycle Management in their own work and industry. This is core to PGGA’s mission of growing a mutually supportive global network between professionals who use, develop, research, market, consult, teach, or support PLM business strategies, technologies and software solutions that have value in transitioning to a more sustainable global economy and environmental ecosystems. We execute this mission by focusing on 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, and then our second one recognizing Jos Voskuil, there are numerous technical challenges and career opportunities in leveling then lowering greenhouse gas emissions by the end of this decade as climate scientists warn us is so critical. It’s an exciting time to participate in what may prove to become the most important application of PLM many of us will experience in our careers.

We are now excited to announce that our next recognized “Leader in PLM & Sustainability” is Dave Duncan, who is Vice President of Sustainability at PTC, a well-known provider of PLM-enabling solutions including Windchill and Arena.

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Leaders in PLM and Sustainability – October 2024

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It’s motivating to witness so many Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) professionals, educators, consultants, and solution providers become active in creating a more sustainable, low-carbon, circular economy. Only a few years ago when one googled the terms “PLM and Sustainability” or “PLM and Sustainable Product Design” there were very few results. Now there are so many resources that vendors are paying for sponsored rankings; one of the reasons the PLM Green LinkedIn Group has become popular as an alternative non-commercial community platform.

This is the second in a new series of posts on “Leaders in PLM and Sustainability” from the PLM Green Global Alliance where we profile professionals from around the world who are working at the intersection of PLM and Sustainability. As referenced in our first profile featuring Mark Reisig at CIMdata, there are many challenging opportunities in R&D and NPD for our profession as time is running out to lower greenhouse gas emissions by the end of this decade as climate scientists warn us is crucial.

Our next recognized “Leader in PLM and Sustainability” is Jos Voskuil who is one of the original co-founders of the PLM Green Global Alliance, started back in 2020 when we were all locked down due to COVID with more time and freedom to think about big issues.

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Addressing the Global Plastics Problem in Electrotechnical Product Design

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Our latest PLM Green Global Alliance post is a guest author contribution from Roger Franz who is a recognized authority on supply chain reporting for compliance with worldwide regulations, leveraging his decades of experience with engineering software tools and enterprise IT systems.

Previously, Roger shared his professional passion and special expertise for sustainable product design in “PLM Tools to Design for Sustainability.” His new article on plastics pollution is especially timely, given all the recent scientific papers about the widespread presence of plastics in our natural ecosystems, food sources, and no longer surprising, human bodies.

Introduction 

More than just unsightly “plastics pollution,” the volume of consumer plastics and lack of closed-loop recovery has created a significant micro-and nano-plastics problem.  These invisible plastic particles are found around the world including within animal and human tissues.  For several reasons, including a much smaller volume of plastic used in electrotechnical products compared to consumer plastics, and the generally longer life of hardware compared to the rapid turnover of consumer goods and packaging, the microplastics problem is not generally tagged as a major electronics problem – or at least not yet. Now is the time to be proactive.

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Climate Change Chronicles July 2024

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One of the attributes I have always admired of engineers, scientists, and consultants is that they are not intimidated by big urgent problems, but instead are inspired by confronting them head on. They often run towards the challenges made visible by bad news, not turning away or becoming depressed by it all. Many appear most excited and hopeful when analyzing the sources of problems and innovating new solutions to address them. I see this often in my fellow PLM Green collaborators.

That said, we know that the public at large and political leaders often ignore the biggest problems in front of them – or become too easily distracted by topics that are less important – until they are forced to do so. Unfortunately, history reminds us that this reckoning often happens too late when many of the less painful options are already off the table.

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Sustainability & PLM: An Industrial Perspective

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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 here at your leisure.

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CIMdata Webinar on Sustainability and PLM

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The global-leading PLM consultancy CIMdata has announced an educational webinar on “Sustainability and PLM: The Industrial Perspective” to be held on July 11, 2024, at 11 am EDT US.

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Who is the PLM Green Global Alliance?

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

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PLM Green Interview with Makersite

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We are happy to start the year with the next round of the PLM Global Green Alliances (PGGA) interview series on PLM and Sustainability. This year, we will speak with some new companies, and we will also revisit some of our previous guests to learn about their progress in developing or applying sustainability solutions as part of a PLM strategy.

While we have now spoken with Aras, Autodesk, CIMdata, Dassault Systèmes, PTC, SAP, Sustaira, and Transition Technologies PSC there are still many software companies rapidly developing product portfolios in sustainability. You can find these recorded discussions HERE.

This time, I and fellow PLM Green contributor Mark Reisig, were happy to meet virtually with Makersite, a company whose AI-powered Product Lifecycle Intelligence (PLI) software can bring together cost, environmental, compliance, and risk data in one place as a data foundation to make smarter, greener decisions with the deepest understanding of your supply chain.

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PLM Green Celebrates 1,000 Group Members

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The PLM Green Global Alliance LinkedIn Group recently added our 1,000th member: Nelson Pinto who is a Product Development Engineering Manager at Simoldes Plastics, an automotive industry supplier based in Portugal with plants across Europe.

Nelson represents the ideal profile of a member that PLM Green seeks to serve as a non-commercial source of information and inspiration on the role of PLM in Sustainability. Welcome Nelson!

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CIMdata Thought Leadership on PLM and Sustainability

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PLM Green Global Alliance participant Mark Reisig from CIMdata has authored a comprehensive thought leadership paper on PLM and Sustainability.

In his signature paper, Mark details the defining challenge of our time for technologists, engineers, and innovators to decarbonize the global economy to minimize greenhouse gas emissions that are quickly warming the planet. And to do so while we still have time – this decade – before the worse effects of climate change are experienced or planetary tipping points breached.

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The Grid is the Green Energy Transition’s Weakest Link

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By PLM Green Global Alliance contributor and green energy moderator Mark Reisig, Executive Consultant and Sustainability Practice Director from CIMdata.

Decarbonization, the use of renewable energy, electric mobility, heating solutions, and the energy transition will only occur if a smart, secure, distributed grid is completed in time. A simple analogy would be building a house without a foundation. Now, let’s project out to 2030. Suppose you recharge your electric vehicle (EV) with electricity from the existing grid. In that case, the energy could still originate from fossil fuels because an intended renewable energy project was not completed or could not connect to the existing grid. In this scenario, the EV helps our decarbonization efforts, but the energy used to make the electricity doesn’t. Ideally, we would recharge EVs with electricity over a smart grid from renewable sources with zero emissions.

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PLM Green Announces Participation of CIMdata and Mark Reisig

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The PLM Green Global Alliance (PGGA) enthusiastically announces that CIMdata Executive Consultant Mark Reisig will be participating in our PLM Green initiative with the support of CIMdata, the leading global Product Lifecycle Management strategy consulting and research firm.

PLM Green’s nonprofit-like mission is to educate, advocate, and collaborate across the boundaries of technical disciplines, different industries, and international borders to advance the use of PLM in the transition to a sustainable decarbonized circular economy. As a result, the PGGA’s five core research themes include examining the intersection of PLM with: Sustainability, Green Energy, Circular Economy, Climate Change, and Life Cycle Assessment.

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Climate Change Chronicles October 2023

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The latest Climate Change Chronicles from the PLM Green Global Alliance provides a quick-to-scan summary of news during October 2023 from around the world about the changing climate and its impact on people and the planet.

I am often asked if the distressing news about climate change does not depress me. Not at all. As someone who was educated as an engineer (like many of our PLM Green followers and contributors) I am energized by analyzing problems, confronting challenges, and collaborating on solutions. I hope our readers working in PLM are equally motivated as achieving sustainability will require all of our professional  contributions.

Our good news quiz question of the month: what European capital announced a ban on all gasoline powered vehicles in their city center by 2025? Read on to find out and learn what else might have been missed in your own news feeds.

(For more good news and uplifting discussions about the use of PLM-enabling technologies in creating a sustainable low-carbon circular economy, join the PLM Green LinkedIn Group.)

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PLM Green Talking About Green PLM

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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.

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PLM Green Expands Circular Economy Coverage

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The PLM Green Global Alliance (PGGA) is excited to announce that Patrice Quencez, Director Consultant and Deputy Director of CIMPA PLM Services, has volunteered to lead our coverage of the role of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) strategies, technologies, and solutions in creating a new global Circular Economy.

The concept of the Circular Economy (CE) is straight forward enough: to keep products and their component materials in use for a longer time before they are discarded with the value lost forever. However, the process of creating an inherently more sustainable decarbonized circular economy from the current carbon-intensive linear economy is not as simple.

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PLM Tools to Design for Sustainability

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This month we are pleased to feature a guest blog submitted by PLM Green Global Alliance follower Roger L. Franz. who shares a few things he has learned as a Principal in Engineering Information Technology when beginning to explore the state of PLM tools to Design for Sustainability.

Design for Sustainability is now a mainstream requirement from governments, regulators, and customers. In this brief we summarize some current trends in the area of PLM tools to support rapid engineering assessment of environmental footprint among the many engineering choices. Engineering and science-based tools to quickly guide hardware engineers toward material selection and product configuration choices with reduced environmental footprint are critical to our future.

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