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Eco Design and Eco Regulations

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• Improve response to regulations such as REACH, EuP, WEEE...
  
  
• Enable design for low carbon footprint, energy efficiency, reduced wastes and emissions, and avoidance of restricted substances
  
  
• Provide engineers, designers, and others with the eco property data that they need, when they need it, in the format they need
  
  
• Improve the quality and traceability of key materials and process information and provide specialist analysis tools to apply this information in eco designs

The problem

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 challenges may become a pre-requisite for business survival in many sectors.

Regulations such as the European Union’s REACH will have a profound effect on manufacturing organizations. Materials or processes may become obsolete or prohibitively expensive, problems with compliance will introduce delays and cost, and end-of-life disposal will become more complex for many products. Other environmental objectives, such as low carbon footprint, are becoming more important due to consumer demand and government action, such as carbon trading schemes.

By far the best response is to build consideration of these factors into the design process – where modifications to products cost least and have the greatest impact. Choices of material and of manufacturing process are of central importance, since these determine the use of restricted substances and can have a major influence on energy usage and emissions over a product’s lifetime. Requirements for such choices include:

• Accurate information on restricted substances and on ‘eco properties’ such as the carbon dioxide generated in producing a raw material
  
  
• Specialist analysis capabilities – for example, to estimate the carbon dioxide that a potential product will generate at each stage in its lifecycle based on the materials and processes it uses
  
  
• Well-managed corporate materials information integrated with the organization’s wider business and engineering systems – for example, to enable all materials in a company’s products to be identified and the impact of materials substitutions to be assessed

Today, most manufacturing enterprises have none of these elements in place. Excellence in eco design demands integrated and easy access to all of them. As organizations respond to this challenge, it will be important that they do not simply develop ‘point solutions’, but use a framework that enables an integrated approach to environmental issues across the product lifecycle, in concert with other enterprise engineering tools.

Granta's solution

The first requirement for effective materials decision-making is to get the right information in the right place. Granta helps with:

• Materials reference data - notably, our Eco MaterialUniverse data module that provide extensive property and process data needed to design for low carbon footprint and energy efficiency
  
  
• The GRANTA MI materials information system, which enables all relevant materials data - from internal sources such as testing and QA or external references - to be captured in a single, integrated system, analyzed, and deployed enterprise-wide. GRANTA MI also integrates with third-party software systems. This means that materials property data can, for example, be easily accessed within computer-aided engineering systems or combined with the 'bill of materials' data stored in ERP or PLM systems

Next, we need to use this information to meet eco-objectives. Eco design has long been a focus for Granta, particularly through the pioneering work of our Chairman, Professor Mike Ashby, at Cambridge University. Professor Ashby's approach is embodied in two software applications:

• CES Eco Selector is a PC application enabling rational selection of materials or processes based on in-depth analysis of combinations of their engineering, environmental, and eco properties. Ideal for guiding materials choices and for identifying substitutions to respond to regulation or minimize environmental impact
  
  
• GRANTA MI:EMO, the Enterprise Materials Optimizer, applies this materials selection technology via a simple-to-use browser-based interface. It can be configured to provide designers with guidance based on corporate strategies or business rules.

Two new capabilities build on this unique and powerful technology platform. These are a particular focus for the Environmental Materials Information Technology (EMIT) Consortium, an industry collaboration that is driving their application and further development:

• Restricted substances - a database that allows you to track regulations such as REACH and to apply the resulting information to make better design decisions.
  
  
• Eco Audit - a practical method to assess the eco impact of a product at different phases in its lifecycle, helping to guide eco design

Related example solutions

• Manaing mission-critical materials data
  
  
• Materials decision support for enterprise
  
  
• Support for engineering design and analysis (CAD, CAE/FEA...)
  
  
• Expert materials selection (particularly for plastics and steels)
  

Further information

The Environmental Materials Information Technology (EMIT) Consortium

Product information on the Eco MaterialUniverse data

GRANTA MI for comprehensive, integrated materials information management

CES Eco Selector for rational materials and process selection

GRANTA MI:EMO for enterprise deployment of rational materials selection