Perspectives on greener product development and manufacturing from Sustainable Minds, our partners, customers and contributors.

Life cycle assessment

Announcing SM v3.0 – New data, your data, Branded Data

By Sustainable Minds on May 14, 2013

Thank you for making Sustainable Minds the #1 Cloud LCA software for greener product innovation – now used in 600 locations in 60 countries. We are excited to bring you SM v3.0.

Sustainable Minds’ easy-to-use, standardized Life Cycle Assessment solution makes it possible for manufacturers across the value chain – large and small – to dynamically evaluate, compare and improve their products' environmental performance by integrating life cycle thinking and LCA into their product development processes. The company has been recognized by Gartner® in its 2013 Cool Vendor Report, in Product Design and Life Cycle Management, as 'innovative, impactful and intriguing.'

Now with SM v3.0, Sustainable Minds can partner with manufacturers to get visibility for your brand and make your product data available to manufacturers, consultancies, educators & students worldwide.

Sustainable Minds Named ‘Cool Vendor’ in Product Design and Life Cycle Management by Gartner

By Sustainable Minds on May 6, 2013

CAMBRIDGE, MA – MAY 7, 2013 – Sustainable Minds, a provider of life cycle assessment software solutions, was named one of Gartner’s 2013 Cool Vendors in Product Design and Life Cycle Management for. The list of Cool Vendors is designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services. The company was recognized as a distinguished source of software tools and knowledge regarding product design and environmental life cycle assessment.

Gartner suggests managers responsible for developing positive brand image and ensuring best environmental design practices across all manufacturing industries, should prioritize the use of Sustainable Minds.

INDA joins Sustainable Minds Industry Sponsor Program to deliver the first industry-defined lifecycle dataset for nonwovens

By Sustainable Minds on April 18, 2013

SM teams up with nonwovens industry experts Chapas & Chinai Associates to provide product innovation services

Cary, NC April 19, 2013. INDA, Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, announced today it has become a member of the Sustainable Minds Industry Sponsor Program. Sustainable Minds is the global leader in cloud-based Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) software that enables companies in a wide range of industries to design greener products. The goal of this relationship is to enable manufacturers across the nonwovens value chain to credibly, efficiently and cost-effectively evaluate the environmental performance of nonwovens to design innovative greener products. The Sustainable Minds nonwovens solution will include a continually expanding dataset, example products, knowledge sharing, training and a platform for showcasing greener materials and products, their uses and applications.

Webcast replay: How TOTO Incorporates Eco-Design and LCA into Product Evolution

By Sustainable Minds on March 26, 2013

On March 19, the PDMA's Sustainable Innovation Webinar Series featured Bill Strang, President TOTO Americas and Sustainable Minds advocate, where he wowed attendees by showing how the world’s largest manufacturer of bath products, uses life cycle thinking to its advantage in the marketplace.

Engineers for a Sustainable World and Sustainable Minds Unveil Projects in the First LCA+U Challenge

By Sustainable Minds on March 26, 2013

On February 25th, Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) announced the selection of projects for the inaugural lifecycle assessment plus universities (LCA+U) challenge, a joint project between ESW and Sustainable Minds. The LCA+U challenge encourages student members of ESW to work with campus staff and sustainability lifecycle assessment software to identify solutions or improvements to campus operations that have quantifiably lower environmental impacts.

The six participating universities are Georgia Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of British Columbia and the University of Pittsburgh. “These projects give our students a chance to explore alternatives that will really make an impact on their universities. We are tackling problems ranging from take-out food containers to building energy use and transport of organic material to compost locations, and are excited to use our partnership with Sustainable Minds to show campus leaders how they can truly have a positive impact through their decisions,” said Rob Best, Projects Director for ESW.

Webcast Replay: Implementing Greener Product Innovation – SM Getting Started Programs

By Sustainable Minds on February 26, 2013

Our weekly webcasts are designed to provide an overview of Sustainable Minds’ cloud software and services to product manufacturers and educators who are new to Sustainable Minds, as well as those interested in introducing Sustainable Minds to colleagues. If you are unable to attend the live webcast, you and your colleagues can watch now, or at your convenience.

Global manufacturers agree: The biggest sustainability driver in 2013 is innovation.
The combination of consumer demand, potential financial savings, constrained resources, regulatory requirements, long term business viability and company values have already moved efforts towards make greener products from informal investigation to corporate initiative.

Webcast: Creating Knowledge Workers for the Greener Product Marketplace, Part 4: Sustainable Engineering & Design Programs

By Sustainable Minds on January 15, 2013

On December 4th, we held the fourth in a series of webcasts that feature educators from leading colleges and universities demonstrating how Sustainable Minds is being used in education. From new sustainability degree programs to traditional engineering programs, educators from a broad range of disciplines are using Sustainable Minds to teach lifecycle thinking through hands-on experience.

Part 2 – Tufts Masters Practicum Project: Chieco (Chic + Eco) = A design philosophy that makes products sell like crazy!

By Sustainable Minds on October 1, 2012

Jon Keng, Mercyanne Andes, Millali Marcano, and Sunyoung Bang are students in the Tufts Gordon Institute Masters in Engineering Management program. As a part of the program, students are engaged in short-term consulting projects to allow them to experience real-world challenges. They chose Sustainable Minds as their sponsor company for their summer practicum project.

Vers founder, David Laituri, clearly knows what it means to create a more sustainable product. One of his philosophies is the concept of ‘Chi-eco’ (pronounced chee-co). A customer buys a Vers product because of design and performance first (chic), and environmental performance second (eco). This philosophy truly helped Vers’ recent Kickstarter campaign achieve a 1946% funding goal and raise almost $200,000. David certainly knows how use ‘greener’ to drive product innovation that leads to new revenues.

When the team first met David, we were impressed by his extensive experience with product manufacturing and deep interest in sustainability. Every Vers component and process was already developed with sustainability in mind. It was a challenge: how can we improve on an already lean, sustainable design? Working with the team at Sustainable Minds has expanded our applicability of sustainability in product design and development. The key is to look at all of the phases of a product’s life cycle.

Part 1 – Tufts Masters Practicum Project: Professional engineers get real world, hands-on product sustainability experience

By Sustainable Minds on October 1, 2012

Jon Keng, Mercyanne Andes, Millali Marcano, and Sunyoung Bang are students in the Tufts Gordon Institute Masters in Engineering Management program (shown here with Professor Sam Liggero). As a part of the program, students are engaged in short-term consulting projects to allow them to experience real-world challenges. With experience in technical companies such as Momenta, General Electric, and BD Biosciences, they chose Sustainable Minds as their sponsor company for their summer practicum project.

After finishing our first year in the Masters in Engineering Management program at Tufts Gordon Institute, we’d learned that design for the environment has become a key part of many companies’ business strategy. As professionals in the fields of Research and Development and Manufacturing, we can now visualize starting new product development or redesign projects using the full capabilities of Sustainable Minds. Sustainable Minds’ powerful software can be used to evaluate the environmental impacts in any stage of a product’s life cycle, and when applied to all can have tremendous impact.

Webcast: Creating Knowledge Workers for the Greener Product Marketplace, Part 3: Integrating Ecodesign & LCA

By Sustainable Minds on September 24, 2012

On August 28th, we held the third in a series of webcasts that feature educators from leading colleges and universities demonstrating how Sustainable Minds is being used in education. Sustainable Minds merges practice and science, ecodesign and LCA. This webcast showcases three educators and practitioners – teaching materials, industrial design and geography – demonstrating their success stories. Educators with different expertise can use Sustainable Minds to teach lifecycle thinking through hands-on experience.