Is Green PLM the key to unlocking a greener future?
You have just lost your mobile and are looking longingly at the recently released iPhone 30 Green Max. It recharges from ambient Wi-Fi and light, is built from recycled materials, and is built to last. Hardware upgrades should keep it in service for at least 40 years. So, when 7G comes online in 2040, you will be able to harness that and all the other exciting emerging technologies.
But how were the choices behind this marvel of sustainable technology designed, manufactured, and made? Few decisions in engineering are simple drop-in replacements. New materials and fuels have knock-on effects on other elements of design, supply chains, and end-of-life disposal, all of which may have their own emissions budget.
To understand a product’s lifecycle emissions and make the best decisions, we need a lifecycle assessment (LCA) of its entire footprint, from raw material extraction, manufacture, transportation, use, and disposal. This includes everything, from packaging to parts to recycling, and is the best holistic assessment of a product’s true impact, which can be measured with various metrics. Intelligent products have particular challenges since they often involve complex hard-to-recycle components or hazardous materials (e.g., batteries) and require energy to function. But the essential process is the same for all products.
All this must be considered in the context of cost and global stability. There is no point in making a sustainable change that cannot be manufactured long-term or makes your product so expensive that you lose customers to an unsustainable alternative.
Sometimes a seemingly good decision is not as good when you’ve worked through the lifecycle, while those that didn’t seem immediately obvious can have an outsized effect. Sometimes leaders’ passions jump to the front of the queue when better ideas are out there. And sometimes, your instinct is spot on.
Without good data and models, it is impossible to know the most sustainable design decisions.
Tomorrow’s products and services will be conceived, designed, engineered, manufactured, and operated radically differently from the current linear economic model. This is a different revolutionary process that takes a holistic vision of the total lifecycle environmental footprint and is based on a circular view of the economy.
It is called Green PLM and making this revolution happen is essential. Green PLM is not a single technology or software product but a business strategy enabled by many different technologies, supporting software solutions, subject matter experts, consulting engineering, and IT services.
Today, Green PLM is in its infancy, but it is growing up quickly. Full product life cycle assessment is increasingly automated, and generative AI that can explore product design trade-offs is not far away. So do hold onto your mobile for the moment, but if you lose it, greener alternatives will arrive sooner than you think.