Tech Briefs Magazine - December 2023 - 17

flation Reduction Act (IRA) is tackling
clean energy by encouraging companies
to decarbonize and instead adopt clean
energy solutions. This symbiotic arrangement
yields a win for all: governments,
companies, and the environment. Furthermore,
companies are finding that
sustainability initiatives make sense for
the bottom line as reductions in energy
and material usage help lower operational
costs throughout the organization
(Figure 2).
Increasing Social Awareness: Education
surrounding sustainability has improved
immensely and people are now
prioritizing the health of our planet.
Customers, suppliers, investors, and
shareholders have a much deeper understanding
of environmental issues
now than they did in the past. Consumers
are willing to pay a premium
for products if they're sustainably produced,
and investors want to be associated
with companies that prioritize
and actively engage in green business
practices. This social awareness is compelling
companies to quickly adapt
to the current climate by investing in
sustainability strategies that resonate
with their clientele. Moreover, there is
a growing realization that perhaps the
only thing costlier than developing a
sustainability strategy is not having one
at all.
Clearing the Hurdles
These new rules, standards, and incentives
paint a clear picture: sustainability
can no longer be treated as an afterthought.
Companies will need to find
ways to achieve a new standard of efficient
and ecological operations while
also ensuring a sound competitive position.
Threading this needle involves a
number of challenges that companies
will need to overcome on the path to a
greener future.
While the government regulations
mentioned above are a major motivator
for companies to go green, they can also
present significant challenges. The details
of new legislation and regulations
are often in flux, especially when managing
various new laws and rules around
the globe. This can make navigating the
maze of regulatory requirements seemingly
insurmountable.
In addition to managing varied regulations,
companies must also develop a
complete understanding of their product
and production lifecycle. This process
is crucial to sustainability initiatives
Tech Briefs, December 2023
Figure 2: Environmental programs also help reduce operational costs as companies find ways to
optimize energy consumption and material usage. (Image: Siemens)
as it both forms the datum for later measurement
and provides the information
needed to create a roadmap towards the
goal of sustainable business.
To achieve this, companies must have
a holistic view of their lifecycles through
collaboration and cross communication
(Figure 3). From designing and manufacturing,
to the supply chain and consumers,
companies must learn to communicate
with teams in ways they haven't
before. By doing so, they can generate
collective intelligence to understand the
total impact of an existing product or
process, or to develop the sustainability
requirements for a new one. Establishing
channels of communication between
teams is certainly a challenge, however
the success of sustainable designs is dependent
on those relationships.
Finally, data acts as both an aid and an
obstacle when it comes to eco-minded
decision making. The challenge of data
is both in its acquisition and determining
how to use it to drive decisions. Sorting
through piles of data can be both tedious
and time consuming, yet it's the
key to informed decision making. Engineers,
planners, and business managers
will need to develop processes to leverage
these immense volumes of data to
drive sustainable decisions.
Figure 3: Collaboration and communication must extend into the supply ecosystem to enable a
complete understanding of the product and production lifecycle. (Image: Siemens)
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Tech Briefs Magazine - December 2023

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