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

Webcast

Building a Lifecycle Dataset of Nonwovens Brands

By Sustainable Minds on August 2, 2013

In this July 24th webcast, Sustainable Minds CEO Terry Swack and nonwoven material innovation expert Rich Chapas, Principal of Chapas, Chinai & Associates officially introduced the Sustainable Minds Branded Data Program and the special Premier Participating Brand offering to jump-start building the nonwovens lifecycle dataset by showcasing brands that are leading the way.

View the entire webcast:

Webcast: Creating Knowledge Workers for the Greener Product Marketplace, Part 5: Classroom, Campus & Cloud

By Sustainable Minds on July 16, 2013

On July 9th, we held the fifth in a series of webcasts featuring educators from leading colleges and universities demonstrating how Sustainable Minds is being used in education. From traditional to new online degree programs, educators from a broad range of disciplines are using Sustainable Minds to enrich and expand these programs, teaching lifecycle thinking through hands-on experience.

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.

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 2, 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.

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.

Webcast: Creating Knowledge Workers for the Greener Product Marketplace, Part 2: Getting Started

By Sustainable Minds on June 12, 2012

On May 24, we held the second in a series of webcasts that feature educators from leading colleges and universities demonstrating how Sustainable Minds is being used in education. This webcast showcases the creativity of two engineering and manufacturing educators discussing how they got started integrating Sustainable Minds into current projects and courses, and how they developed new ones. They reported not only a very high level of student engagement and enthusiasm, but a clear impact on students’ improved job marketability.

Webcast: Creating Knowledge Workers for the Greener Product Marketplace, Part 1

By Sustainable Minds on May 9, 2012

3 Schools / 3 Disciplines / 3 Educators
On April 24, we held the first in a series of webcasts on how Sustainable Minds is being used in education. Featuring three educators from three different disciplines at three leading institutions, each demonstrated and discussed the use of Sustainable Minds in their curriculum, expansion in their programs and the implications for the future. The range of disciplines represented by the presenters illustrates the interest and need for teaching life cycle thinking and action to all types of students – business, design and engineering – to prepare them for taking on the challenges and opportunities in the greener product economy.