The EPD landscape has shifted. It’s no longer optional – it’s a competitive battleground where speed and verifiable proof now dictate market access and credibility. Are your EPDs truly enabling sustainable choices, or just checking a box?
Months-long verification bottlenecks, crippling costs per EPD, and—let’s be frank—a reliance on generic ‘family’ averages often chosen less for true efficiency and more to conveniently obscure performance variability across sites or products.
This ebook cuts through the noise. Your EPDs Are Holding You Back exposes the limitations of outdated EPD practices and shows how leveraging EPDs at scale with automation transforms this liability into your competitive advantage.
Download the ebook to uncover how to:
✅ Win more tenders: Instantly verified, product-specific EPDs ready on demand.
✅ Stop hiding behind product families: Differentiate with credible, granular LCA data and expose the limitations of blended data.
✅ Unlock the real power of EPDs: Go beyond marketing to use specific EPD data as an engine for genuine internal innovation, R&D, procurement optimization, and robust decarbonization planning.
✅ Slash crippling cost, time, and verification bottlenecks: Leave manual LCA modeling and never-ending verification loops behind.
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Manufacturers today are navigating an increasingly challenging compliance landscape. Global regulations are evolving faster than ever, supply chains are more complex, and regulatory expectations demand far more than just ticking boxes. Modern product compliance now requires robust data management, seamless supplier collaboration, and continuous process optimization to keep pace.
Recognizing these challenges, Makersite’s material & substance compliance experts take a deep dive in our most recent online masterclass to walk through proven strategies to help North American manufacturers not only stay compliant, but scale their compliance operations efficiently, strengthen supplier engagement, and protect product availability.
Here’s what you need to know to build a scalable, resilient product compliance approach, and turn regulatory complexity into a competitive advantage.
The Evolving Compliance Landscape
Regulatory requirements are accelerating at an unprecedented pace, creating new challenges and complexities for manufacturers across every industry. Staying compliant is no longer just about keeping up, it’s about staying ahead.
Here’s a look at the biggest hurdles North American companies are facing right now.
Key Challenges for Manufacturers
Complex and Expanding Regulations: Regulations like REACH, TSCA’s PFAS reporting rules, and RoHS exemptions are adding thousands of new substances to watch, often at an accelerating pace.
Disjointed and Isolated Data Systems: Traditional tools like spreadsheets, ERP, and PLM platforms often operate in silos, making it challenging for organizations to establish seamless communication between systems. This lack of cohesion leads to disjointed, unstructured data that is difficult to integrate, analyze, and leverage effectively for decision-making. As a result, teams may experience inefficiencies, errors, and missed opportunities for growth and innovation.
Fragmented Supplier Communication: Relying on emails and forms, without a centralized platform for managing supplier responses, approvals, and escalations, leads to confusion, delays, and errors. On top of that, suppliers are overwhelmed with requests from hundreds of different customer portals, making engagement and data collection even harder to scale.
Compliance Addressed Too Late:Reactive compliance approaches don’t just risk shipment delays, costly redesigns, and regulatory fines. They also limit strategic options. Staying ahead of evolving legislation, like monitoring the SVHC Candidate List, enables companies to substitute risky materials early. New regulations like PFAS reporting in the US require companies to trace product data backwards, in some cases as far as January 2011.
The consequences of non-compliance are becoming more severe, and increasingly business critical. Without robust processes in place, manufacturers risk facing shipment holds, financial penalties, loss of customer trust, and even market bans. In some cases, a single missing declaration or outdated material can block product access to entire regions, leading to lost revenue, disrupted supply chains, and strained customer relationships.
The Exploding Regulatory Horizon
The challenge isn’t static; it’s expanding. Manufacturers must keep pace with key regulatory deadlines such as:
California & New York PFAS Bans: Taking effect in 2025. These bans have significant implications for industries like Automotive, where PFAS are commonly used in coatings, upholstery, and other vehicle parts. Additionally, New Mexico’s HB 212, signed into law on April 8, 2025, makes it the third U.S. state, following Maine and Minnesota, to enact a broad PFAS ban.
REACH Updates: Universal PFAS restrictions are currently under review, but what makes this regulation unique is that it doesn’t target specific substances, but an entire group of chemicals. This presents a particular challenge for industries like medical devices, where certain products can’t currently be manufactured without PFAS.
Current discussions at ECHA indicate two possible directions: Industry may continue to use fluoropolymers only where no alternatives exist. Meaning if a competitor can produce a similar product without PFAS, you may be required to do the same. Secondly, consumer uses of fluoropolymers are still being considered for a complete ban.
RoHS Lead Exemption Phaseouts: Changes expected in the next 12–18 months. The EU’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive has historically allowed certain exemptions for the use of lead in specific applications, particularly in complex electronics and medical devices where no viable alternatives existed. However, many of these exemptions are now under review and expected to be phased out in the coming 12–18 months. This presents a significant challenge for manufacturers, especially in sectors like electronics, automotive, and industrial equipment, where lead has been critical for soldering and high-reliability components. Companies relying on these exemptions need to act now to identify alternative materials, redesign components, or prepare for requalification processes, all of which can be costly and time-consuming if left too late.
The overlaps in these regulations—such as varying thresholds and contradictory rules between federal and state mandates (e.g., TSCA vs. California PFAS disclosures)—add further complexity.
Pro Tip
To remain competitive and compliant, manufacturers need scalable systems that enable centralized compliance tracking, cross-functional regulatory reviews, and ongoing horizon scans.
Supplier Engagement & Data Collection
Effective compliance starts with obtaining the right input data from suppliers. Without this, meeting regulatory requirements becomes an uphill battle. Leading organizations are overcoming this challenge by leveraging a centralized supplier portal, a single source of truth that not only streamlines data collection but also provides built-in escalation paths and approval workflows.
By equipping suppliers with a central portal that offers escalation and approval functionalities, companies can ensure faster response times, better data accuracy, and improved collaboration. This approach reduces confusion, minimizes back-and-forth emails, and provides full traceability across supplier communications, a critical advantage when managing complex global supply chains.
Minimum Data Requirements
Ensure seamless and comprehensive compliance by securing access to:
Bills of Materials (BOMs): A detailed breakdown of all materials and components used in your products, essential for accurate regulatory reporting.
Supplier-Provided Files: Full Material Declarations (FMDs) and Certificates of Compliance (CoCs) to ensure traceability and adherence to standards.
SCIP and Regulatory IDs: Streamline automated submissions and maintain efficiency in meeting regulatory demands.
FMDs vs. CoCs: Understanding the Difference
FMDs provide complete transparency, offering a robust framework for long-term compliance that evolves with regulatory advancements.
CoCs, while suitable for immediate needs, require frequent updates to align with changing regulations—making them less sustainable for future-proof compliance strategies.
Pro Tip
Revolutionize your compliance approach with a focus on innovation, efficiency, and sustainability. By leveraging advanced data strategies, your business can stay ahead of regulatory demands while building a foundation for long-term success.
Simplify Supplier Collaboration
Simplifying supplier collaboration isn’t just about sending standardized forms. It requires the right technology to scale effectively. Equip your suppliers with intuitive, standardized formats like IPC 1752 to prevent fatigue and reduce friction. But to truly streamline the process, companies need a software solution that enables automated workflows for collecting, validating, and managing supplier data at scale.
Automation not only saves time for everyone involved but also reduces error rates and ensures data consistency, something manual processes simply can’t deliver when dealing with complex supply chains and evolving regulatory demands.
Compliance demands transparency at every level. Here’s how automation transforms reporting processes.
Drill into the details: Analyze BOMs at a granular level to pinpoint components and assess compliance risks with precision.
Big-picture monitoring: Gain complete visibility across your portfolio with real-time dashboards tracking product status, supplier responsiveness, and key compliance metrics.
External Stakeholder Reporting
Streamline compliance management with automation that eliminates manual processes, delivering:
Ready-to-submit regulatory documents (e.g., SCIP or ECHA submissions).
Customizable dossiers tailored to meet customer and market-specific requirements.
Manufacturing enterprises need a centralized platform seamlessly integrates with ERP and PLM systems, ensuring stakeholders always have access to accurate, up-to-date compliance data.
Scaling Compliance Efforts-Why it Matters
With growing product lines and expanding global markets, manual compliance efforts no longer cut it. They fail to keep up with evolving regulations, hamper market readiness, and increase operational costs.
Next-Generation Solutions for Scalable Compliance
Leverage Automation: Automate workflows and data flows to reduce manual errors and accelerate compliance efforts.
Adopt Standardization: Use globally accepted data formats (e.g., IPC), enabling smoother communication across teams.
Adapt to Change: Implement systems that not only flex with new regulatory requirements but also enable companies to proactively identify and substitute substances or materials, even before new regulations come into force. This future-proofing approach helps avoid costly redesigns, reduce risk, and accelerate market entry.
By investing in digital tools, companies can significantly reduce time-to-market while managing the growing complexity of product compliance. You can accelerate data processing, automate regulatory checks, and helps identify potential product compliance risks early, even across large, fragmented supply chains. This not only speeds up supplier data validation but also enables smarter decision-making when it comes to material substitutions, regulatory reporting, and risk mitigation.
Looking Beyond Compliance
Compliance isn’t just a legal mandate; it’s a strategic advantage and an untapped opportunity to drive sustainability and innovation.
Product Compliance Managers sit on a gold mine of product and material data, often without realizing its full potential. The detailed supplier, material, and substance information collected for compliance purposes forms the perfect foundation for conducting Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs) and Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) at scale.
This creates a unique opportunity to break down organizational silos between product compliance and product sustainability teams. By leveraging compliance data more strategically, companies can accelerate sustainability initiatives, reduce Scope 3 emissions, and design greener products — all without starting data collection from scratch.
Driving Sustainability Through Innovation
Enhancing BOM data with material insights empowers manufacturers to:
Conduct precise Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and calculate accurate Product Carbon Footprints (PCF).
Monitor and report Scope 3 emissions for comprehensive corporate sustainability strategies.
Implement Eco-design Scenarios to replace non-compliant materials with greener, cost-efficient alternatives.
Strategic Recommendations
Adopt a proactive, scalable compliance strategy designed to drive efficiency and ensure sustainability.
Leverage Supplier Data: Analyze existing data to map compliance gaps and address deficiencies with targeted outreach.
Minimize Supplier Fatigue: Implement long-term data solutions like FMDs to reduce repetitive requests and build stronger, collaborative supplier relationships.
Bring Compliance In-House: Enhance transparency, reduce reliance on external consultants, and stay agile in adapting to regulatory changes.
Automate Reporting Processes: Deliver precise, real-time reports that integrate seamlessly with external systems, ensuring compliance with ease.
Future-Proof Your Strategy: Build scalable systems that adapt to evolving regulations, emerging markets, and sustainability requirements, keeping your business ahead of the curve.
With these steps, you can transform compliance from a challenge into a strategic advantage, driving innovation and fostering sustainable growth.
What to Do Tomorrow — Whether You Have a System in Place or Not
Have:
Grade your existing BOMs for compliance gaps and missing data points. This helps prioritize where action is needed most.
Set up dashboards to provide live updates to stakeholders on product compliance status, supplier responsiveness, and upcoming regulatory risks.
Evaluate supplier alternatives early to avoid costly, last-minute substitutions, especially for materials flagged by upcoming regulations like PFAS or RoHS.
Have Not:
Start by mapping what data you have today, often in spreadsheets, ERP, or PLM tools, and identify gaps.
Engage with suppliers to begin collecting material declarations in standardized formats like IPC 1752.
Explore solutions like Makersite to centralize your compliance data and automate reporting, laying the foundation for scalable, future-ready compliance processes.
Compliance doesn’t have to be a burden. With the right tools and approach, it becomes a competitive advantage, helping you enter new markets faster, reduce operational risk, and design more sustainable, innovative products.
Writing an effective RFP can be a challenge. Your company will have specific goals and objectives, and you’ll need to be able to put together a logical yet thorough question set that enables you to identify the best vendor for the project. With that in mind, we’ve worked to build out what we consider to be the ideal RFP template – and, given that we’ve seen a fair few, we like to think we know what we’re talking about.
Our rationale was as follows:
The RFP template should be simple in format and execution, but adequately thorough
It should help your company to ask qualified questions that unlock the right answers, rather than relying on generic question sets that more often than not produce inadequate answers
The question set should always consider the fact that the customer has a specific goal in mind
Wherever possible, questions should be open rather than closed, allowing for more detail. If closed questions are deemed necessary, they should be at the bottom of the list
We’ll use our expertise as a company to accurately reflect what top tier manufacturers are asking. The RFP template is designed to replicate the RFP processes of leaders in their respective fields
To create a template that negates the need for external consultants, who don’t necessarily know what the company needs or how to articulate those needs
There are 123 questions across 13 separate sections that represent an ideal baseline. The template does not have to be set in stone. Certain manufacturers or users will have other questions they may wish to add, or will find questions in this template that they don’t consider necessary. However, its purpose is to help anyone struggling with putting together an RFP to ask the necessary questions rather than relying on a generic question set that any supplier can fulfil.
This is what the best in their fields seek to create when it comes to building an RFP. In creating this template, our aim was straightforward: make it simple, and help users to design their solution based on what leaders are doing.
You can view the template for reference in the embed at the bottom of this page, or you can download the Excel version to use and edit for yourself at the link at the top.
What makes a ‘best in class’ RFP?
What does the ideal RFP (Request for Prospoal) look like? It’s a common question, but one without a definitive answer. No two are the same and many manufacturers remain unsure of what they need, relying on basic templates to communicate often complex needs and requirements. Often, unfortunately, those templates are not up to scratch. But that’s not to say that the perfect example doesn’t exist.
RFPs, without doubt, remain an important part of the manufacturing process – an essential tool when it comes to completing a project that you need outside help with. An RFP done correctly not only enables your organization to find the best solution to the task (given that different companies might have different ideas or ways to tackle it), but also helps you to compare the costs of different providers and find the right option for your budget.
RFPs also help to negate an element of risk early on in the manufacturing process, allowing you to be sure that the company you choose to do the work knows what they’re doing and can deliver what you need.
For many, the process of putting together an RFP can be a challenge – a drain on both time and resources. From a lack of initial clarity (meaning that proposals may come back incomplete or unaligned with company needs) to scope creep (where the scope of the project changes during the RFP process due to a lack of forward thinking and due diligence), initial hurdles can make the desired outcome significantly harder to achieve for all concerned.
Companies also struggle to find the right balance of information. Too much detail can overwhelm potential bidders, while too little may leave vendors guessing. From writing the requirements to reviewing proposals, building out an RFP is a time-consuming process, one often further hindered by vendor management issues (where keeping track of questions, updates, and proposal submissions requires careful organization), budgetary concerns (where companies may have a hard time estimating the right budget for the project, and sometimes don’t include budget information in the RFP) and a lack of defined evaluation criteria (where companies may not have a structured approach for comparing different aspects like price, experience, and quality.)
When these challenges are made clear and are proactively addressed, companies can begin to streamline the RFP process and increase the chances of selecting the best partner for their project.
“An RFP done correctly not only enables your organization to find the best solution to the task (given that different companies might have different ideas or ways to tackle it), but also helps you to compare the costs of different providers and find the right option for your budget.”
Why getting it right matters
A good RFP template helps to tick a number of boxes. It saves time, facilitating a faster turnaround in creating and distributing RFPs, reducing delays in project timelines. It ensures consistency, making it easier for vendors to understand what’s required, regardless of the project. Done correctly, it reduces the risk of missing critical information, ensuring vendors have all the details needed to create a thorough proposal. It helps to avoid miscommunication or confusion, leading to proposals that better align with the company’s needs, whilst also simplifying the evaluation process, as the company can quickly compare key factors like costs, timelines, and experience side by side.
Furthermore, it helps to prevent scope changes and misunderstandings that could arise during the project and has the added benefit of making sure that vendors know exactly what to address in their proposals, reducing back-and-forth and ensuring more complete responses.
Ultimately, the organization issuing the RFP is seeking help because they need expertise or resources they don’t have internally. The RFP process allows them to gather multiple solutions, ensure fairness, manage costs, and reduce risks, thereby helping them choose the best provider to achieve their project goals.
What does the ‘Age of the Engineer’ – the term I use to describe our need to empower better product design and manufacturing – look like in reality, and how do we make it possible? I see three first steps:
Getting engineers back into the boardroom
I’ve talked before about entrepreneurs as the ‘villain’ of this narrative because it simplifies the framing. However, it might be better in this instance to specify that I’m talking about a non-founding CEO. As a company grows the need for a generalist – a safe pair of hands – arises. There are many benefits to that approach, of course, but too often the spark is lost – the company stops building great things, and the focus shifts to managing what it does well. We’re in need of something else now – we need to rebuild our products and the infrastructure we use to make and utilize them. We need builders. The founders and early engineers of some of our greatest companies were – and still are – engineers by trade and I think it’s time we put them back in the boardroom. For those starting out, my recommendation is to give their technology leader a seat at the board.
Why? My contention is that businesses who want to succeed in a future likely to be defined by seismic change need to spend more time on innovation-led growth than most large enterprises do now. This requires a different mindset towards risk and reward and one can only achieve that through a voice being present at the highest levels of decision making. A overarching vision of what is possible and the technical understanding of how to achieve it results in speed of execution and that combination is often found with engineering leaders. In business, speed is everything and businesses that do this will innovate out of their current situation faster and more successfully.
Adding sustainability as a core metric to product design
A company is its products. If we want to build more successful companies of the future, we’ll need them to have great products that are sustainable. That is not possible unless we embed sustainability into design, just as we do performance, risk and cost.
Every company is different and even within a company, different product lines may cater to different market segments with different preferences. There are no perfect products because there are no perfect customers or infrastructure to build or use these products, so there will always be trade-offs. I do believe, however, that unless these trade-offs are made consciously, products will continue to diverge from sustainability. This will create a widening gap to market requirements.
I’m already seeing advanced organizations who are most of the way there. They’re what we might call ‘mature’ in their approach, set apart from the ‘novices’ because they have made sustainability a design parameter. For them it is another metric, defined by a series of non-negotiable targets that must be hit in order to unlock the rewards – from growth in new markets to better productivity and efficiency to how people are compensated.
Integrating data and enriching operational systems with it
When it comes to engineering, we don’t need to be doing the same things faster. We need to be doing them better. And to do things better, we don’t need more data – we need smarter data.
Our observations show that up to 90% of the data required to understand how to make and sell products doesn’t sit within a company’s systems. The reason for that is that most products are increasingly becoming “assemblies” with large portions being built in complex upstream supply chains. An average car for example has 70% of its components built in this way. Use and End-of-Life data also typically do not sit in company systems. How could one understand the cost, risk or sustainability impacts from these stages? The solution is to collect and combine this “value chain” information from external sources with company data about the product and operations to allow for full-life-cycle view of the implications of design across all the key design criteria. I call this product lifecycle intelligence.
But it doesn’t stop there. This enriched information needs to be available not in data lakes, expert systems and BI tools, but in operational systems like CAD, PLM and ERP so that engineers can use this information in trade-off analysis, within their existing workflows. This “shifting left” of data and insight, to have it available early on and at every stage of the development process, has long been known to reduce development time and avoid costly mistakes. Technology now allows for this.
Conclusion
The ‘Age of the Engineer’ signifies a pivotal transformation in how we approach innovation and sustainability in business. By reinstating engineers into the boardroom, we leverage their unique expertise to drive not just technological advancements but strategic decisions that prioritize long-term value over short-term gains. By integrating comprehensive data into operational systems to enhance decision-making and efficiency, we will empower businesses to build smarter, more sustainable products that meet the demands of a rapidly changing world.
The ‘Age of the Engineer’ is not just an ideal; it is an imperative, charting a course towards a future where technological prowess and sustainability go hand in hand. By giving engineers the spotlight, and by doubling down on sustainable practices, we’re no longer dreaming about a better tomorrow – we’re actively creating it.
In today’s business landscape, sustainability is no longer a buzzword — it’s a necessity. Companies are increasingly under pressure from consumers, investors, and regulatory bodies to adopt more sustainable practices. One critical solution to this is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) software, a tool that transforms complex data into actionable insights, driving sustainable growth and operational efficiency. Let’s explore how LCA software addresses common pain points and empowers businesses to make informed, sustainable decisions.
Automating Life Cycle Assessments
One of the primary challenges companies face is the labor-intensive nature of conducting life cycle assessments. Manual LCA processes involve collecting data from various sources, analyzing it, and then interpreting the results — a time-consuming and often error-prone undertaking. LCA software (as seen in Makersite’s work with Microsoft), however, automates these processes, significantly reducing the workload, accelerating the data assessment process and enhancing accuracy by minimizing human error. This allows businesses to conduct LCAs more frequently and efficiently, ensuring that sustainability is able to remain a continuous, integrated part of their operations.
Example:
A consumer goods manufacturer can use LCA software to automate the assessment of thousands of products across different regions. This not only speeds up the process but also provides more reliable data for making strategic decisions on product design and material sourcing.
Enhancing Sustainability Reporting
Sustainability reporting is critical for transparency and compliance with an ever-growing slate of regulations. However, compiling comprehensive and accurate reports manually can be daunting. LCA software simplifies sustainability reporting by providing a centralized platform for data collection and analysis. The software can automatically generate reports that comply with various standards and frameworks, not only saving time but also ensuring that reports are accurate and consistent, bolstering both the company’s credibility and compliance.
Example:
A large retailer can use LCA software to streamline its annual sustainability report, ensuring that data from all departments is consistent and compliant with international standards. This has the added benefit of enhancing the retailer’s reputation among environmentally conscious consumers and investors.
Scaling Sustainable Business Practices
For businesses looking to scale their sustainability efforts, LCA software is indispensable. As companies grow, so do the complexities of their supply chains and operations. Manual approaches to LCA are almost impossible to scale accurately, often leading to fragmented and inconsistent sustainability practices. LCA software, on the other hand, provides a scalable solution that can handle large volumes of data across multiple sites and products. This scalability ensures that sustainability efforts are uniform across the organization, facilitating broader and more impactful environmental initiatives.
Example:
An automotive company can use LCA software to evaluate the environmental impact of its product lineup across multiple markets. This allows the company to implement standardized sustainability practices globally, ensuring that all operations contribute to the company’s overall environmental goals.
Making Sustainable Manufacturing More Efficient
Manufacturing is a resource-intensive process (research shows that approximately 80% of a product’s environmental impact is determined during the design phase), and making it sustainable is a significant challenge.
LCA software helps manufacturers identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement by providing detailed insights into the environmental impacts of their processes. By analyzing data on energy use, waste generation, and emissions, companies can implement targeted strategies to reduce their environmental footprint. This not only helps in achieving sustainability goals but also often results in cost savings through improved efficiency and resource management.
Example:
A packaging company can use LCA software to analyze the lifecycle of its products, identifying opportunities to reduce material waste and energy consumption in production. This leads to both cost savings and a reduced environmental footprint.
Overcoming the Limitations of Manual LCA
Manual life cycle assessments are fraught with limitations. They are time-consuming, prone to errors, and often lack the granularity needed for precise decision-making. Furthermore, different business units operating in siloes can lead to inconsistent data and fragmented sustainability efforts. LCA software addresses these issues by providing a unified platform for data integration and analysis. This ensures that all business units are aligned and working with the same accurate, up-to-date information. The result is a more cohesive and effective approach to sustainability.
Example:
A multinational corporation can use LCA software to integrate data from various departments, ensuring that sustainability metrics are consistent across all regions and product lines. This unified approach facilitates better strategic planning and resource allocation.
Assisting with Scope 3 Calculations
Scope 3 emissions, which include all indirect emissions that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, are notoriously difficult to measure and manage. Traditional methods of calculating these emissions are complex and often inaccurate due to the vast amount of data required. LCA software simplifies scope 3 calculations by automating data collection from suppliers and other value chain partners. This leads to more accurate and comprehensive assessments of a company’s total carbon footprint, enabling more effective strategies to reduce emissions.
Example:
A food and beverage company can use LCA software to track emissions across its supply chain, including agricultural practices, transportation, and packaging. This comprehensive view helps the company identify and target high-emission areas for improvement.
Addressing Issues with Manual Data Processing
Manually processing the vast amounts of data required for LCA is not only tedious but also increases the likelihood of errors. Data discrepancies, incomplete information, and the sheer volume of data can overwhelm sustainability teams. LCA software mitigates these issues by automating data processing, ensuring that data is accurate, complete, and consistent. This automation allows sustainability teams to focus on interpreting the data and making strategic decisions rather than getting sidelined by data entry and verification.
Example:
A technology company can use LCA software to automate the processing of data from its global supply chain, ensuring that all environmental impacts are accurately recorded and analyzed. This allows the company to quickly respond to sustainability challenges and opportunities.
Scaling Accurate and Granular Data
Accurate and granular data is crucial for effective sustainability initiatives. Without precise data, companies cannot accurately measure their environmental impacts or the effectiveness of their sustainability strategies. LCA software provides the tools needed to collect, process, and analyze detailed data on a large scale. This granularity enables companies to pinpoint specific areas for improvement and track the progress of their sustainability efforts with a high degree of accuracy.
Example:
A chemical company can use LCA software to gather detailed data on the environmental impacts of each stage of its product lifecycle, from raw material extraction to disposal. This level of detail enables the company to implement more precise and effective sustainability measures.
Common Problems Faced Without the Right LCA Software
Businesses that do not use the right LCA software often face a myriad of challenges. As discussed above, these include inefficient and error-prone manual processes, inconsistent data across different business units, difficulty in scaling sustainability efforts, and challenges in meeting regulatory compliance. Without LCA software, companies struggle to conduct comprehensive and accurate life cycle assessments, leading to missed opportunities for improvement and potential reputational damage.
Let’s recap the most common problems:
Inefficient Manual Processes
Manual LCA processes are labor-intensive and slow, often resulting in delays and increased costs. The time and resources required to collect and analyze data manually can be prohibitive, especially for large companies with complex supply chains.
Inconsistent Data
Different business units operating in siloes often lead to inconsistent data collection and reporting. This fragmentation hampers the ability to get a clear, unified view of the company’s overall environmental impact, making it difficult to implement cohesive sustainability strategies.
Difficulty in Scaling
As businesses grow, so do the complexities of their operations. Without the right LCA software, scaling sustainability efforts becomes challenging. Manual processes simply cannot keep up with the increased data volume and complexity, leading to inefficiencies and gaps in sustainability initiatives that will only increase and become harder to tackle effectively with time.
Regulatory Compliance Challenges
Meeting regulatory requirements for sustainability reporting is critical but can be difficult without the right tools. Manual processes increase the risk of errors and non-compliance, potentially resulting in fines and reputational damage. LCA software ensures that all data is accurately collected and reported, helping companies stay compliant with environmental regulations.
Missed Opportunities for Improvement
Without accurate and comprehensive data, companies may miss opportunities to improve their sustainability practices. LCA software provides the detailed insights needed to identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement, enabling more effective and impactful sustainability strategies.
Driving Growth Through Sustainable Practices
LCA software is not just a tool for compliance; it’s a strategic asset that drives growth through sustainable practices. By providing detailed insights into every aspect of the product lifecycle, LCA software helps businesses innovate and improve their products and processes. This leads to the development of more sustainable products that meet consumer demand and regulatory standards, opening new market opportunities and enhancing brand reputation.
Innovation and Product Development
LCA software enables companies to explore different materials and production methods, assessing their environmental impacts before implementation. This fosters innovation in product development, leading to more sustainable products that can attract eco-conscious consumers and differentiate the company in the market.
Market Differentiation
Companies that can demonstrate their commitment to sustainability through rigorous LCA practices can differentiate themselves in the marketplace. This not only attracts environmentally conscious consumers but also appeals to investors looking for responsible and future-oriented businesses.
Cost Savings and Efficiency
Sustainable practices often lead to cost savings through improved resource efficiency and waste reduction. LCA software helps identify these opportunities, ensuring that sustainability initiatives are also financially beneficial.
Regulatory and Compliance Benefits
Proactively managing sustainability through LCA software helps companies stay ahead of regulatory changes and avoid potential fines or sanctions. It also enhances the company’s reputation with regulators and stakeholders.
Conclusion
LCA software is a powerful tool that transforms data into actionable insights, driving sustainable growth and enhancing operational efficiency. By automating life cycle assessments, better facilitating sustainability reporting, and enabling the scaling of sustainable business practices, LCA software addresses many of the common pain points faced by companies today.
It makes sustainable manufacturing more efficient, assists with scope 3 calculations, and ensures accurate and granular data processing. In an era where sustainability is paramount, investing in the right LCA software is essential for businesses looking to thrive while minimizing their environmental impact.
The right LCA software not only simplifies and streamlines sustainability efforts but also provides a competitive edge by enabling companies to operate more efficiently and transparently. As the demand for sustainable practices continues to grow, leveraging LCA software will be crucial in helping businesses make informed decisions that benefit both the planet and their bottom line.
In recent years, legislators have passed down a glut of regulations that organizations have had to figure out how to deal with. While all have their merits, it’s almost a given that some get a little lost in the noise. However, every now and then a regulatory development occurs that has the power to change the design and manufacturing landscape as we know it, and for good.
That happened on 23rd April 2024. The European Parliament approved a new Ecodesign Regulation to make products sold in the EU more reusable, repairable, upgradeable, and recyclable.
Let’s take a look at what it means, who it will impact, and the actions you need to take.
What is the new Ecodesign Regulation?
After a somewhat tumultuous journey through the legislative corridors of the European Parliament, the version of the Ecodesign Regulation for Sustainable Products (ESPR) that passed on 23rd April was both final and unanimously agreed upon. It is a framework that will significantly alter how goods are introduced and sold in the EU.
The intention behind it is clear. As Italian lawmaker Alessandra Moretti said, it is “time to put an end to the ‘take, make, throw away’ model that is so harmful to our planet, our health and our economy”.
The new rules will update the current 2009 directive, which exclusively concerned energy-related products, in terms of efficiency and circularity. They call on the Commission to give priority to resource-intensive sectors such as iron, steel, aluminium, textiles, furniture, tyres, detergents, paints, lubricants, and chemicals. It’ll also enforce a Digital Product Passport to aid informed consumer choices.
A key element of the Green Deal, ESPR is part of the broader circular economy package, which aims for the EU to use and reuse materials far more efficiently. The package also contributes towards the EU’s goal of having net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and should reduce harm to the environment.
As Moretti summarized: “Sustainable products will become the norm, allowing consumers to save energy, repair and make smart environmental choices when they are shopping.”
The text now needs the final approval from national governments to enter into EU law.
Monique Goyens, director general of BEUC, the European consumer organisation, concluded that “the framework needs to be implemented quickly. It is essential that the European Commission and member state market surveillance authorities allocate resources to the development and application of the new rules.”
What happens next?
ESPR is due to be published in the Official Journal of the EU and enter into force by July 2024. The first delegated acts spelling out specific ecodesign requirements may not come into force until the second half of 2025. The first ecodesign requirements are expected to apply to textiles and steel, and are likely to enter into force by mid-2027.
In addition, the EU is expected to publish a three-year working plan prioritising ecodesign requirements per product in March 2025, providing further guidance as to when products will come under increased scrutiny.
However, given design and production cycles, manufacturers of products, especially those on the European Commission’s priority list, should begin to familiarise themselves with the ESPR’s requirements now and assess what needs to be done to ensure their products are compliant. If they don’t, they could risk losing access to the EU market as well as losing significant ground to better prepared competitors.
Without doubt, these requirements represent a pivotal moment for the manufacturing industry, challenging stakeholders across businesses to rethink their production methods. Those companies who are able to adopt a proactive approach to ecodesign will be ahead of the curve. Companies who leave it leave to the last minute – those who lack urgency until the regulation is live – will find it hard to catch up.
Indeed, at Makersite, we’re already seeing mature companies like Microsoft taking the necessary steps. For the last two years they’ve worked to rebuild and refine their Surface Pro 10, using Makersite’s automated LCA models to identify and evaluate hotspots in their supply chain. In doing so, they reduced its carbon footprints by up to 28% within a 24-month timespan.
This is the gold standard. It is what all businesses should be aiming for. It takes a long time to get to where you need to be. If we look back at similar regulatory developments that went on to facilitate a sea change in manufacturing approaches and consumer awareness (like nutrition labels in the early 1970s, for example), it’s obvious that it won’t take long for something like ESPR to reach critical mass.
Within a decade, it’s extremely likely that it will have reached mass adoption in Europe. It’s a plan as ambitious as it is comprehensive. And it’s one where a forward-thinking approach – utilizing a solution where environmental impacts can be determined in just minutes – will make all the difference.
What actions should you take – and when?
Now is not the time to hold back. Those organizations who wait for final approval will find themselves firmly on the back foot. Businesses who seek to get their houses in order immediately will reap the rewards further down the line.
The impact of ESPR on companies’ core operations will be significant. Beyond specific traceability elements, the requirements will directly affect products at all stages in the value chain, including recyclability, the use of recycled contents, and durability.
ESPR will require that companies look at products and their value chains, create transparency and evaluate impacts at that level, and report on that – all on a regular basis. It’s not something that can be done one product at a time. It needs a different approach.
Today, most organizations are not set up to deal with reporting on that scale. But in order to succeed, they need to equip their engineers and designers with tools that offer instantaneous feedback on the environmental impact of design alterations in order for them to ensure that sustainable products not only adhere to the new regulations but become the norm.
In order to comply with the regulation, businesses now need to take the proper steps to collect realistic data and create the necessary infrastructure to drive innovation, all while obtaining real-time insights into the impact of changes on the environmental impact of products.
In order align with ESPR and reduce a product’s environmental impact quickly, organizations need to be able to immediately see how material, manufacturing processes or supplier changes impact a product’s sustainability. Outdated methods – like manually conducted LCAs – will invariably fall short of providing those essential real-time insights which are critical when it comes to making efficient and significant progress in product sustainability.
As we stated earlier, ESPR aims to improve products by emphasising durability, energy efficiency, recyclability, and more. With access to immediate insights, design teams can align their efforts with ESPR objectives, in turn enabling them to test and discover a significantly higher number of possible solutions to improve their products. Those who do so are likely to dramatically outpace peers yet to embrace a new approach, with those lagging behind likely to find themselves waiting weeks or even months to find out if their new ideas positively affect their products’ environmental impact.
The journey to sustainable product design is paved with challenges, but each obstacle is an opportunity to innovate. Whilst new regulations might seem daunting, time consuming and even frustrating they also represent a chance to make meaningful change and to take alead over competitors not ready or aware enough to act quickly.
Don’t let poor data, slow LCA execution speeds and external dependencies stop you from discovering the most sustainable version of your product.
In “Transform Product Sustainability into Performance Initiatives with Product Lifecycle Intelligence”, our collaborative white paper with Forrester, we took insights from 493 product design and sourcing decision-makers in manufacturing. Our aim in commissioning the study? To redefine how businesses approach sustainability, and to map a path forward for those who are beginning to take on the challenge.
We’re diving into a series of key takeaways from the report across a number of blogs. You can already read parts 1, 2, 3 and 4, and below we’ll take a deep dive into our next takeaway: why it’s imperative that a business creates a dedicated sustainability function within the organization.
The gains that stand to be made from a more sustainable approach to product design – whether financially, reputationally or from a regulatory perspective – are already clear to more ‘Advanced’ manufacturing businesses. Whether driven by changing customer expectations, an increased emphasis on supporting a circular economy, a need for greater transparency in supply chains or a variety of other factors, the reasons for implementing a more sustainable approach to product design are numerous.
But there is a world of difference between ideas and action. Sustainability must move beyond being a mere concept or being seen as a reporting burden in order for its benefits to be fully realized. In order to do this, there is a strong need for advocates within a business. An organization with a fully functioning and proactive sustainability function is likely to reap many benefits, not least from a cost efficiency perspective.
Managing bottom lines in a tightening business environment is critical when it comes to ensuring continued growth. A dedicated sustainability function, accordingly, encourages not only collaboration but a sharing of resources – both of which save money. Businesses hampered by a more siloed approach to sustainable practices are likely to incur more costs not only through lost time and productivity, but also through a continued reliance on outdated manual processes and expensive, unnecessary equipment and resources.
Ultimately, cross-functional collaboration – combined with a single source of truth – is critical in enhancing product design, sourcing, and gaining a competitive edge. The adoption of product lifecycle intelligence drives sustainability improvements, faster time-to-market, higher profits, and operational enhancements for manufacturers.
Data quality and accessibility forms the foundation of efficient product design and sourcing and product and operations improve with the adoption of a material, component, and supplier intelligence solution.
What are organizations doing – and how can they do it better?
Our study makes this point abundantly clear. The need for such a dedicated sustainability function is obvious and well understood. As the study shows, 27% of respondents placed ‘create a dedicated sustainability function within the organization’ as their top initiative to prioritize over the next 12 months.
From design, production, to maintenance, and end of life, sustainability across the product lifecycle is becoming business-critical and time-critical for manufacturers seeking to maintain a competitive cadence of successful new product launches. Stakeholders across functions must have access to granular, product-level data to rapidly and accurately make trade-offs as they design products and source materials and components from suppliers
With a dedicated sustainability function within an organization, procurement and supply chain leaders can utilize environmental sustainability procurement technology to address the challenge of measuring the environmental impact of the supply chain. Organizations deploying procurement technology are making significant organizational changes to enable them to understand their supply chains to measure, reduce, and report their Scope 3 emissions and to honor their sustainability commitments.
However, obstacles remain. 18% of respondents to the study saw breaking down data siloes to enable cross-functional collaboration as among their biggest headaches. There is work still be done. These data siloes are the hallmark of organizations not yet ‘mature’ enough to fully realize the benefits of embracing such an approach.
The study indicates that immature enterprise manufacturers have a steep hill to climb. A typical Novice manufacturer (those with the lowest maturity on the PLM maturity model that Forrester created) find themselves hamstrung by manual processes, data and decision-making silos, a lack of collaboration, and they struggle to track and verify the sustainability credentials of their suppliers.
Regulatory compliance and sustainability are secondary considerations for Novices, with cost reductions and product improvements being of primary importance for them. Whilst understandable in the short term, this lack of forward-thinking could come back to sting them – and prevent them from growing as a business.
In contrast, Mature companies are collaborative, take sustainability seriously, and understand the importance of systematic and automated processes. Novices remain inhibited by silos and manual processes and are yet to fully grasp the strategic and competitive importance of integrating sustainability across the product lifecycle.
Stakeholders across product development, procurement, compliance, and sustainability need to collaborate closely to shorten product development cycles, reduce cost and risks in production, and lower environmental impact throughout the supply chain.
Ultimately, maturity drives agility.
How can Makersite help?
The benefits of giving sustainability a platform within an organization are particularly clear when it comes to two of our customers – Barco and Microsoft. By embracing a collaborative, ecodesign-led approach to manufacturing, both have reaped significant rewards.
At Microsoft, the team were able to efficiently scale up their LCAs so their engineers could focus on designing the best and most sustainable products instead of only focusing on disclosures. While their LCA experts are still involved in the process, they can now focus on completing the model with suppliers’ primary data, performing the quality analysis, and ensuring the model is representative.
With Makersite’s help, the benefits of their new methodology were huge. They included improved quality and representativeness of the modeling of the product’s composition, better identification of environmental impact hotspots in the supply chain, and increased accuracy by reducing the inconsistencies associated with the LCA practitioners’ decisions.
Empowered by Makersite’s AI-powered Product Lifecyle Intelligence software, lca software Microsoft were able improve the efficiency of collecting and modelling both product and supplier data, ultimately saving time and money and eliminating data siloes in a more collaborative, sustainability-led environment.
Similarly, Barco faced challenges in efficiently reporting SKU-level environmental data due to data being siloed and scattered across the supply chain, resulting in slow and costly manual efforts.
Makersite provided Barco with automated Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and Product Environmental Footprints (PEFs) at the SKU level, allowing them to accurately offset their emissions, comply with EU taxonomy reporting requirements, and implement more targeted eco-design principles across their product portfolio.
They were able to consolidate and enrich their data, perform comprehensive environmental reporting, and make data-driven decisions to minimize their environmental impact. Automating their LCAs allows Barco to accurately offset their emissions and further promote their climate-neutral ambitions, as well as strengthen communication on sustainability with external stakeholders – all based on data.
By leveraging Makersite’s automated Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs), Barco gained insights into the environmental impact of different design choices, enabling them to perform scenario analysis and evaluate the impact of various design changes on their products. The implementation of Makersite’s software allowed Barco to bring together the various elements of their product data in one place, enabling them to identify opportunities for sustainable design changes across their product line and make data-driven decisions to minimize their environmental impact.
Makersite’s one model, multi-output approach enables users to integrate multiple data sources and easily deliver reporting and analytics to multiple teams including compliance reports, EPDs, PCFs, Scope 1,2 & 3, forecasts and should costs.
With our digital twin technology, we’re able to put the burden of data siloes to rest. We connect best-in-class data for costs, markets, risks, materials, regulations, environment, health, suppliers and more to create a “digital twin” of a product design or formulation. Tools are built-in to create reports, apps, and maps to clearly visualize the data that matter, making it easier – and significantly quicker – for all involved.
Similarly, with Makersite’s ecodesign dashboard, customers can use product data models to make smarter design, material and sourcing decisions throughout their product development process, allowing them to make better decisions based on multiple criteria whilst supporting decision-making with clear and actionable insights considering multiple criteria like carbon and cost simultaneously.
Less than 1% of new products consider sustainability in their design, but there’s no longer any need for it to be an afterthought. That’s why we make it easy for you to make better decision choices with the data you need, fostering collarboration and enabling the building of a dedicated sustainability function in your organization with ease.
So how can change be enacted? By empowering and enabling the right people. Product engineers want to create great, well-functioning products that have a low environmental impact. But they have historically lacked the required tools and support from the organisations they work for.
To achieve the sustainability goals businesses, consumers and regulators have put before us, the focus should be on making it better rather than making it faster. But to do that, the negative environmental impacts from the design and production process have to be removed.
The solution? New machinery. A tool that enables engineers to see the impact of material choices during the design phase of a product – a phase where, currently, some 80 per cent of the ecological impact of a product happens. A tool that enables speed, experience, performance and costs to be optimised and environmental impact to be removed. A tool that enables faster, smarter, greener decisions powered by the deepest understanding of your supply chain. A tool 50 times faster than traditional methods. That tool is a new piece of software – Product Lifecycle Intelligence, or PLI for short.
Product design led by an informed consideration of materials and the environmental footprint of our choices is a logical progression. This places the engineer in the spotlight. They not only understand the intricacies of design and manufacturing but also the broader ecological and socio-economic context in which they operate. However, there are challenges to overcome.
With projections indicating that the sustainability market could be worth $2 billion by 2030, there’s an evident rush among companies to gather necessary ESG and sustainability data and to meet regulatory benchmarks. But this often leads to a short-sightedness, with a disproportionate focus on reporting and little tangible improvement in actual practices.
We find ourselves at a moment where sustainability has crossed the chasm from afterthought to imperative. But in five years’ time, reporting will mean very little if no actual action is taken. Product development teams will be measured and held accountable for the changes they are able to systematically implement to drive the transition to a sustainable economy. To succeed, there needs to be a way to power this transformation at scale.
As it stands, the current machinery for product design is inherently rigid and not fit for purpose. Siloed data systems, an array of disconnected experts, a reliance on legacy systems, slow information exchange and a lack of proper strategy or understanding at board and executive level all result in poor product choices where the negative cost and supply chain impacts are not understood until it’s too late.
Far from facilitating rapid innovation, this situation inhibits inter-departmental collaboration and access to critical, real-time data – ultimately hindering informed decision-making.
However, we are standing on the edge of something new. Companies that embrace this new approach to product development will have a significant advantage over others. Adaptability is essential. The future belongs to an ecosystem of integrated systems that allow a seamless flow of data and an outcome where all relevant information is gathered in one place, informing decisions and enabling rapid course corrections.
If we present engineers with the data they need, they will use it – and use it well. No one wants to make a “bad” product, but “good” products can only be made with the right decisions informed by the right data. That is what will make the difference.
By placing engineers and product developers at the core of a data-centric approach, organisations can ensure that the products they design not only meet market demands but are also firmly anchored in sustainability. Combined with AI, a harmonised approach to data will provide full visibility into the manufacturing process, materials and supply chain during the design phase, enabling speed, experience, performance and costs to be optimised and negative environmental impacts to be limited.
But the product engineer cannot operate in isolation. Their perspective must be comprehensive, encompassing environmental, socio-economic and commercial considerations. To succeed in this mission, teams – from procurement and sustainability to supply chain management – must align.
Emerging platforms will play a pivotal role here. New solutions like PLI act as bridges that span knowledge gaps, fostering a culture of collaborative innovation and allowing easy access for all. PLI is a tool that not only helps the business to adhere to its core principles, but ensures visibility and transparency at every step, leading to better design choices and the creation of products that will stand the test of time.
Organisations need to rally their diverse teams – be they procurement, sustainability, engineering, or IT – under a shared, compelling vision, bringing about a dynamic ecosystem that is agile, adaptable and geared toward ethical, criteria-driven innovation.
The market is ready and waiting for a better approach. Some may argue that this is wishful thinking or is not worth the effort. However, a Bain & Company study found that, while only 40 per cent of businesses are on track to meet their sustainability goals, companies have an increasingly conscious and proactive base of consumers willing to pay 11 per cent more for sustainable products and employees that will help.
It’s not just blue-sky thinking for a greener future either. The most significant driver for companies to do anything has always been growing revenue. A 2022 report, the Sustainable Market Share Index by NYU Stern’s Center for Sustainable Business, examined what actually happened in the past decade. It found that the share of CPG products marketed as sustainable grew twice as fast as conventional products and accounted for one-third of the total revenue growth in the industry. Customers paid 27 per cent more for those products.
With a massive demographic shift bringing more environmentally conscious buyers into the market already well underway, the time never has been better to build better products.
Every hero needs a villain. It’s a narrative as old as time. And our story is no different.
In my previous article, I outlined our “take, make, waste” culture and the figureheads—our villains—who fuel it. I also spoke about how our future will be defined by collaboration, not individualism, where it’s still possible to be profitable, but success is not just measured by money or the value of shares.
We have irrevocably damaged our planet; however, there’s still time to reclaim our world and retool it for a better future. History has repeatedly shown us that by working together, we can achieve more than we ever could by working alone.
Lessons from the moon landing
July 1969 was a big month—as in “one giant leap” big. It was the month we went to the moon. Walter Cronkite described it as the “greatest adventure in which man has ever embarked.” It might have been more than half a century ago, but there’s still a lot we can learn from the Apollo 11 lunar landing.
While it exhibits the miracles of science and engineering and the drive and commitment of NASA, it also teaches us about teamwork, leadership and the importance of new ideas. About the importance of working together for a greater goal, of giving our engineers and innovators the support to succeed in their aims.
It takes a village. We’ve all heard that before. But in the case of the Apollo 11 landings, it was a very big village. Spanning government, private industry, astronauts and the American public—estimates have put the entire Apollo team at around 300,000 people. From planning to building to launch, millions of components were involved. Success was only possible because there was a collective realization and understanding that everyone involved had a duty to solve the problems and challenges they faced—and they knew they could only do that by working together.
Today—when it comes to fixing our planet and ending our culture of waste—the same thinking must apply.
Grand achievements aren’t built on the shoulders of a single person or by an unrelenting drive for profit. They’re built on encouragement of ingenuity and creativity, outstanding levels of commitment and an understanding that mistakes aren’t problems but lessons to learn from. After all, the great success of Apollo 11 was made possible in large part by the tragic failure of Apollo 1.
What engineers need today
So, how do we prevent our own “tragic failure” from happening? This is where our hero comes into the story. Research shows that approximately 80% of a product’s environmental impact is determined during the design phase. Empowered with the right tools and best practices to make better products faster, engineers can provide the solutions needed to collaborate and take the actions that will make a difference. Products can be more sustainable, more efficient and more cost-effective while still making money and ensuring a profitable, healthy business. However, we must give engineers a foundation to work from first.
“Build it and they will come.” Shoeless Joe Jackson might have been talking about a baseball field rather than product engineers, but the message resonates here. If we present engineers with the data they need, they will use it – and use it well. No one wants to make a ‘bad’ product, but ‘good’ products can only be made with the the right decisions informed by the right data. That is what will make the difference. Not so much “build it and they will come”, but rather “give them what they need and let them build it.”
With data and a goal, the engineer can fly. But the benefits don’t stop there. The market is ready and waiting for a better approach. Some may argue that this is wishful thinking or is not worth the effort. However, a Bain & Company study found that while only 40% of businesses are on track to meet their sustainability goals, companies have an increasingly conscious and proactive base of consumers willing to pay 11% more for sustainable products and employees that will help.
A recent IBM report also noted that organizations that embed sustainability in their product design processes experience a 16% higher rate of revenue growth. They’re 52% more likely to outperform their peers on profitability. And they’re two times more likely to attribute great improvement in operating costs to sustainability efforts.
It’s not just blue-sky thinking for a greener future either. The most significant driver for companies to do anything has always been growing revenue. A 2022 report – the Sustainable Market Share Index – by NYU Stern’s Center for Sustainable Business examined what actually happened in the last decade and found that the share of CPG products marketed as being sustainable grew twice as fast as conventional products and accounted for one-third of the total revenue growth in the industry. Customers paid 27% more for those products.
With a massive demographic shift bringing more environmentally conscious buyers into the market already well underway, the time never has been better to build better products.
Accordingly, there must be a stronger push for change. We are not there yet, but there are green shoots rising from the soil. Early adopters and innovators striving to make a difference. Schneider. Siemens. Estée Lauder. IKEA. Companies like these understand what’s at stake. They might remain the early majority, but they show us we are not hopeless.
The old tools and processes were defined by siloed data systems and slow information exchange. Now, we find ourselves in a new era defined by real-time data that facilitates inter-departmental visibility and collaboration, in turn leading to more informed—and more sustainable—decision-making.
We are shifting from “make it faster” to “make it better”, where product design is led by an informed consideration of materials and the environmental footprint of our choices. Now, more than ever, the spotlight turns to the engineer who not only understands the intricacies of design and manufacturing but also the broader ecological and socioeconomic context.
As the American engineer and educator James Kip Finch is credited with saying: “The engineer has been, and is, a maker of history.” With the right support and technology, and in a world where the balance between money and purpose is equal, the future is theirs to define.
A version of this article appeared on Forbes.com. You can also read the first part in the series here.
The American automotive industry stands at a crucial junction where sustainability isn’t just a buzzword; it’s fundamental to continued profitability and regulatory compliance. With the clamor for eco-friendly vehicles rising in pitch, it’s imperative that manufacturers align themselves with the latest in sustainable practices. By zeroing in on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) priorities, companies can not only enhance their environmental credentials but also ensure greater efficiency and accuracy too.
Analyzing missteps in automotive Life Cycle Assessment practices
Despite notable strides made by the automotive industry toward sustainability, significant areas of oversight within the realm of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) practices remain. The industry’s focus has predominantly been myopic, concentrating narrowly on tailpipe emissions while overlooking the comprehensive environmental impact generated throughout a vehicle’s life cycle.
This shortsightedness results in neglecting critical stages like raw material extraction, manufacturing processes, and end-of-life disposal or recycling procedures. Moreover, a prevalent undervaluation of the environmental footprint associated with electric vehicle batteries is evident, as it fails to consider the emissions and resource depletion linked to their production and ultimate disposal.
Through the incomplete integration of LCA practices into decision-making processes, manufacturers unintentionally bypass opportunities for innovation in sustainable materials and practices. This shortfall hampers their ability to effectively mitigate the overall environmental impact. Recognizing and rectifying these deficiencies is not just advantageous; it is crucial for those aiming to take the lead in the forthcoming era of automotive manufacturing.
This list dives into five pivotal LCA priorities that are essential to the modern American automotive manufacturer. From production phases to the hands of consumers, these strategies can redefine the industry’s standard for responsible vehicle manufacturing.
1. Embrace LCA beyond tailpipe emissions
With a growing emphasis on eco-friendliness, many automotive manufacturers have solely focused on reducing tailpipe emissions to comply with regulations and consumer demands. However, this narrow outlook neglects the bigger picture of a vehicle’s environmental impact throughout its entire life cycle. By expanding their LCA analysis to include all stages – from raw material extraction to end-of-life disposal or recycling – manufacturers can make more informed decisions and develop more sustainable vehicles.
An LCA-driven approach that encompasses the entire production process can identify areas for improvement and innovation, allowing manufacturers to reduce their overall environmental impact and gain a competitive edge.
2. Integrate LCA into design processes
Innovation is at the heart of automotive manufacturing, and LCA needs to be integrated into this process from the very beginning. By implementing LCA principles during the design phase – such as using more sustainable materials, optimizing production processes, and considering end-of-life options – manufacturers can reduce the environmental impact of their vehicles without compromising performance. This approach also allows for the identification of potential trade-offs between sustainability and other key factors, enabling more comprehensive evaluation and informed decision-making.
Advancements in technology have opened new opportunities for sustainable practices in automotive manufacturing. By embracing digital tools like simulation software and machine learning, manufacturers can optimize production processes and reduce waste and emissions. Additionally, innovation in electric and autonomous vehicle technologies presents opportunities for greater sustainability throughout a vehicle’s entire life cycle. By incorporating these advancements into LCA analysis, manufacturers can identify areas where AI can be leveraged to enhance sustainability and make informed decisions that align with their environmental goals and meet global regulatory compliance requirements.
3. Consider battery environmental impact
With electric vehicles rapidly gaining ground in the market, manufacturers must consider the environmental impact of their batteries. From raw material extraction to end-of-life disposal, these essential components can have a significant impact on a vehicle’s overall environmental footprint. By integrating LCA into battery production processes and exploring more sustainable battery materials, manufacturers can reduce emissions and resource depletion associated with this critical component.
The shift towards electric vehicles introduces new environmental considerations, particularly regarding the production, use, and disposal of batteries. A thorough LCA of EV batteries is crucial to ensure that the environmental benefits of driving electric cars outweigh the impacts associated with battery manufacturing and end-of-life management. By focusing on sustainably sourced battery materials, optimizing battery life, and advancing recycling technologies, manufacturers can mitigate the environmental footprint of their EV offerings.
This measure not only aligns with global sustainability targets but also addresses consumer concerns about the true eco-friendliness of electric vehicles. Manufacturers who lead in this area will not only contribute to a more sustainable future but will also gain a competitive advantage in a market that increasingly values environmental responsibility.
LEARN MORE – Automated Lifecycle Analysis of 18650 Battery
4. Investing in sustainable supply chain management
The automotive industry’s supply chain involves multiple stages, from material sourcing to vehicle assembly. By prioritizing sustainable practices and materials throughout the entire supply chain, manufacturers can significantly reduce their environmental impact. This includes seeking out suppliers that prioritize sustainability, implementing green logistics processes, and utilizing more sustainable materials in production. By working collaboratively with their supply chain partners, automotive manufacturers can establish a more sustainable ecosystem that benefits both the environment and their business.
Prioritizing LCA in all aspects of vehicle production is crucial for automotive manufacturers to thrive in today’s sustainability-driven market. By expanding their focus beyond tailpipe emissions, utilizing sustainable materials and design processes, adopting circular economy principles, and considering battery environmental impact and supply chain sustainability, manufacturers can lead the way towards a greener and more sustainable automotive industry.
Embracing automated LCA platforms, such as Makersite, and the provision of essential tools for developing innovative, eco-friendly vehicles will help American auto manufactures to secure a competitive edge.
5. Invest in end-of-life options
As vehicles reach the end of their life cycle, proper disposal or recycling is essential when it comes to reducing environmental impact. By investing in sustainable end-of-life options, such as recycling programs for batteries and other vehicle components, manufacturers can minimize waste and resource depletion while also showcasing a commitment to sustainability.
By embracing these five LCA priorities, automotive manufacturers can position themselves as leaders in sustainability and innovation. It’s time for the industry to shift its focus from solely reducing emissions to considering the entire life cycle of a vehicle and making more informed decisions that benefit both the environment and their bottom line.
It is imperative for all automotive manufacturers to prioritize LCA and integrate it into their supply chain and design processes to not only meet regulatory standards but also to stay ahead of the competition and establish themselves as responsible leaders in the industry. The time for change is now, and by working together, we can create a more sustainable future for the automotive manufacturing sector.
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