_Sustainability across the Engineering Digital Thread

At Transition Technologies PSC, we are passionate about helping companies navigate their digital transformation journeys. Our focus extends beyond efficiency and productivity – we empower organizations to innovate responsibly, embedding sustainability into the very foundation of product engineering. By leveraging product lifecycle management (PLM) systems, digital twins, and integrated design tools, we support companies in making informed, data-driven decisions that align with both business goals and environmental commitments.

Recently, together with our long-term strategic partner PTC, we hosted a webinar where Steve Shaw, Product Management Senior Director, PTC and Rafał Witkowski, Practice Director, TT PSC discussed how sustainability is shaping engineering practices across the digital thread. Their exchange brought forward key insights into how organizations can strengthen sustainability initiatives through data-driven design and product lifecycle management. Below, we summarize the most important takeaways for companies looking to embed sustainability into their engineering processes.

Why sustainability remains a strategic priority

Despite regulatory changes such as the EU’s Omnibus simplification package that slightly reduced reporting obligations for smaller companies, sustainability remains high on the agenda for most enterprises. Large organizations continue to prioritize environmental footprint automation, science-based targets initiative (SBTi) commitments, and net-zero strategies. Far from being just a compliance issue, sustainability has become central to investor confidence, long-term risk management, and future-proofing business operations.

For readers interested in building more sustainable product, you can download a free guide from PTC – Product Sustainability for Dummies by Dave Duncan, which outlines practical ways to embed sustainability into every stage of the product lifecycle.

The role of PLM in enabling sustainable design

One of the strongest themes in our joint discussion was the importance of addressing sustainability as early as possible in the product lifecycle. Traditional lifecycle assessments (LCA) were often carried out late in the process, once products had already been released for manufacturing – making changes costly and limited. Today, the integration of PLM systems like Windchill with advanced LCA tools such as Makersite allows companies to perform early-stage simulations.

This integration offers several benefits:

· Automated BOM mapping using AI, removing the burden of manual data entry

· Visualizations such as Sankey diagrams to highlight hotspots in product footprints

· Supplier and geo-specific insights that extend beyond the engineering bill of materials

The result: engineers gain real-time visibility into the environmental impacts of their design decisions, enabling proactive optimization before physical production begins.

Building a richer, more accurate digital thread

As we highlighted together, sustainability outcomes improve with richer, more precise data. By expanding PLM capabilities, companies can:

· Define and manage engineering materials and link them with CAD tools to measure the footprint of chosen materials (for example, recycled vs. virgin aluminum)

· Incorporate supplier-provided environmental data, which is increasingly becoming a differentiator in sourcing decisions

· Extend PLM beyond design to capture manufacturing process details, including plant-specific data and energy consumption

This comprehensive view allows organizations to identify whether material choices, supplier strategies, or manufacturing methods have the largest environmental impacts – and to act accordingly.

Unlocking advanced use cases

Our joint session also explored emerging use cases that extend eco-design beyond traditional LCA:

· Scenario and what-if analysis to compare design alternatives and identify the most sustainable options

· Variant footprint simulation, enabling early elimination of environmentally heavy product variants

· Integration with material databases such as Ansys Granta MI to enrich PLM with thousands of material footprints

· Transport impact calculations, leveraging supplier and plant data to account for logistics-related emissions

These capabilities allow organizations not only to reduce their environmental impact but also to create new opportunities – for instance, marketing eco-friendly product variants that command premium value among sustainability-conscious customers.

TT PSC and PTC: a long-term partnership for sustainability

Much of what we shared comes from years of cooperation between TT PSC and PTC, working together to bring sustainability into the core of digital engineering practices. TT PSC has been instrumental in extending and integrating PTC’s Windchill PLM platform with external sustainability solutions such as Makersite. Together, we have demonstrated how early lifecycle simulations, flexible data modeling, and supplier-linked environmental data can be orchestrated into a comprehensive digital backbone. This integration allows customers not only to comply with regulations but to innovate faster, design smarter, and achieve sustainability targets more efficiently.

Laying the foundation for the future

The overarching message is clear: PLM acts as a digital backbone for sustainable product development. By embedding sustainability data and analysis directly into the engineering process, organizations empower their teams to make smarter, faster, and greener decisions. This approach not only helps meet current sustainability goals but also prepares businesses for the future wave of environmental regulations, particularly in regions like the EU.

We would like to thank PTC, especially Steve Shaw, for joining us in this exchange of ideas and for their continued collaboration. It has been an inspiring journey together so far, and we look forward to continuing our partnership to help companies achieve their sustainability ambitions.