IBM Seeds Environmental Consulting Services Around PLM

What company isn’t trying to figure out a way to make their products more eco-friendly and drive sustainability best practices throughout their product development efforts? Recognizing the growing demand, IBM  is putting its consulting muscle behind the trend, launching a new Environmental Product Lifecycle Management offering aimed at companies looking for an assist in sustainable design.

The new consulting offering targets manufacturers of all types and keys in on all phases of the design cycle, from development and manufacturing, through delivery and use all the way through end-of-life reclamation and recycling. While IBM has been doing sustainable design consulting for years, officials said customers’ increasing requirements in this area prompted the company to package the services into a more formal offering. “There is tremendous pressure on companies to reduce the environmental impact of their products during the entire product lifecycle,” said Jeff Hittner, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) leader for IBM Global Business Services. “On the other end of the spectrum, consumers are truly demanding greener and greener products.”

The Environmental PLM services, designed to work in conjunction with IBM’s PLM offering, will focus on the following processes:

Design for compliance: Ensuring that products meet new regulatory requirements for energy usage, material safety, etc.

Design for end-of-life-management: Designing a product so it’s easy to refurbish and reuse or disassemble and recycle.

Lifecycle assessment and carbon footprint reduction: Helps to reduce the environmental impact of producing and shipping the product along with how it’s used by the consumer and how it is recycled by evaluating carbon trade-offs throughout the manufacturing, distribution and transportation processes.

Materials selection: Helping identify and choose renewable, recyclable and non-toxic materials

Packaging design: Designing packaging to minimize waste and make it easier to recycle.

Project delivery acceleration: Helping companies reduce the time it takes to get eco-friendly products out the door.

IBM currently employs 1,000 consultants as part of its PLM consulting practice.