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The Environmental Materials Information Technology (EMIT) Consortium

Controlling the environmental impact of products and meeting environmental and other regulations are becoming critical success factors for engineering enterprises. This trend is set to continue. Indeed, an effective response to these issues may become a pre-requisite for business survival in many sectors. Materials information is central to this effective response, which demands:

• Accurate data on materials and processes – specifically, on their ‘eco properties’
  
  
• Materials decision support tools to apply this information in ‘eco design’ – i.e., in reducing environmental impact during the design phase, where such decisions are most effective and least costly
  
  
• ‘Product stewardship’ methodologies – i.e., approaches that model and minimize environmental impact throughout the lifecycle, from a product’s inception to its disposal

Few engineering enterprises have begun to develop such a portfolio. We invite companies and government agencies to participate in a collaborative project to accelerate this process. We aim to deliver competitive advantage by not only developing valuable ‘point solutions’, but doing so within a framework that enables an integrated approach to environmental issues across the product lifecycle and in concert with other enterprise engineering tools.

Members

Current members are:

• Emerson Electric
• Eurocopter
• NASA
• Rolls-Royce
• National Physical Laboratory (NPL)
• Granta Design

The EMIT Consortium – objectives

The format of the Environmental Materials Information Technology (EMIT) Consortium is based on the successful Material Data Management Consortium (MDMC - www.mdmc.net), which pioneered materials data management for aerospace, defense, and energy. EMIT is developing, implementing, and applying software, database systems, and data. Its overall objective is to enable materials and process decisions that minimize the environmental impact of engineered products. To this end it is:

• Developing materials software and systems to implement and integrate the best available eco design and product stewardship methodologies in engineering enterprises and supply chains
  
  
• Developing eco materials datasets to enable decisions on environmental impact throughout the lifecycle
  
  
• Combining the expertise and resources of member organizations to share the costs, effort, and benefits of developing best-practice environmental compliance and decision support tools

Consortium structure

The three-year project is managed by the UK’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL), with a Steering Committee chaired by a corporate member. It is expected to grow to 10-15 members from materials-using sectors including aerospace, automotive, and consumer goods. Granta Design is the software contractor. Each member organization is represented on the Steering Committee, which sets general directions for the project, defines software requirements, prioritizes development activities, and sets software delivery milestones.

Joining & benefits

EMIT is a unique opportunity to participate in setting the standards in eco materials information technology for the coming decade.  Organizations become eligible for membership by purchasing a qualifying package of software. Members receive new software and data as it is developed and share the benefits of a program budgeted at 2.4m€. This model delivers lower cost and lower risk than alternative approaches, particularly in-house development.

Members use the Consortium to generate solutions to their own problems. At the same time, they benefit from the ideas and expertise of other members in solving common issues.  The project delivers competitive advantage by:

• Providing organizations with early access to a comprehensive suite of tools to manage all environmental aspects of the materials lifecycle
  
  
• Increasing the quality, integrity, and traceability of the materials and process information required to make critical decisions on environmental impact
  
  
• Enabling data mining and providing engineers, designers, and other staff with the eco data that they need, when they need it, in the format they need

This Consortium membership offers multi-million dollar ROI – for example, by increasing efficiency in responding to regulation, reducing risk in the market, and lowering emissions covered by carbon trading schemes.

To receive more information register here: