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

Innovation

No magic formula… but Sustainable Minds is removing the complexity and cost of LCA for the nonwovens industry

By Sustainable Minds on June 13, 2013

This month Sustainable Minds was featured in Sustainable Nonwovens, the leading publication for the twenty-eight billion dollar global nonwovens industry. Download the PDF to read the complete article. >

At this year's IDEA 2013 Conference & Expo in Miami, it was announced that nonwovens industry body INDA is joining forces with Sustainable Minds (SM) – the global leader in cloud-based life cycle assessment software. Sustainable Nonwovens editor, Adrian Wilson, caught up with SM’s CEO Terry Swack to find out how the company’s nonwovens solution is progressing and its industry sponsor relationship with INDA.

Webcast Replay: Introducing v3.0 - Part 1: What’s New

By Sustainable Minds on June 12, 2013

In this webcast, Terry Swack (Founder & CEO) and Joep Meijer (LCA Technical Expert) introduce SM v3.0. Now Sustainable Minds can partner with manufacturers to get visibility for their brand and make product data available to manufacturers, consultancies, educators & students worldwide – making it easy and cost-effective for raw material and component manufacturers to get ready to meet their customers’ reporting requirements and win business.

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.