Sustainable design, like quality, time to market, and cost, will soon dictate how engineers approach most every product they develop. Choosing products based on their carbon footprint will be equally as important as design validation. To stay ahead of the curve, you and your company need to understand sustainable design and how to implement it now.
Life Cycle Assessment |
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the detailed analysis that gives you the information you need to make the most environmentally friendly decisions throughout product design. The analysis looks at a product’s entire life, which encompasses raw material extraction, material production, manufacturing, product use, end-of-life disposal, and all of the transportation that occurs between these stages. |
Environmental Impact Factors |
When building machines in Germany, Is it environmentally smarter to ship castings from Taiwan or to fly them from California? Sustainable design looks at how your product’s development and use, from cradle to grave, will affect four crucial environmental factors: air acidification; carbon footprint; total energy consumed; and water eutrophication.
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Getting Started |
SolidWorks Sustainability makes designing for the environment simple. It provides you with a smart dashboard with useful information specific to your project needs. Rather than forcing you to spend a lot of time doing research and calling on others for help, SolidWorks Sustainability gives you answers…and a roadmap for making your products more environmentally friendly. |
Why SolidWorks Sustainability? |
Worldwide awareness of environmental issues has never been more acute. Every day more consumers buy products based on environmental impact, forcing manufacturers to reconsider how they develop and market products. Sustainable design is fast becoming a matter of global corporate citizenship. It means making decisions to ensure future environmental stability. Learn how designing for the environment sets you, your company, and your products apart. |
SolidWorks Sustainability Features
Like all SolidWorks products, SolidWorks Sustainability makes a complex process easy to understand and use. Life cycle assessment becomes another fast, yet critical step in product development, giving you the information you need to make environmentally friendly engineering decisions. Sustainable design is now SolidWorks simple!
Here is a list of key features for both SolidWorks Sustainability and SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress that will help you design for the environment:
- Intuitive LCA Tool – Conduct comprehensive LCA analyses of parts and assemblies quickly and easily.
- Environmental Impact Dashboard – See in real time your product’s air, carbon, energy, and water impacts.
- Baseline Measurement – Capture the environmental impact of an existing product as your baseline, and then monitor in real time how your new design compares.
- Find Similar Material – Quickly search the material database for alternative materials based on their mechanical properties.
- Customizable Reports – Create impressive reports that document the improvements you have made to the environmental impact of your products.
- Integrated SolidWorks User Interface – Work productively with a smart, familiar interface that lets you see environmental impacts and make changes directly in the product model.
SolidWorks Sustainability Feature Matrix
To find the right SolidWorks Sustainability product for you, just match our features to your sustainable design needs.
| Functionality |
SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress |
SolidWorks Sustainability |
| Integrated into SolidWorks Interface |
x |
x |
| LCA of Parts |
x |
x |
| Find Similar Material |
x |
x |
| Impact Factor Dashboard with Key Categories |
x |
x |
| Establish Baseline |
x |
x |
| Customizable Reports |
x |
x |
| Detailed Report for Parts |
x |
x |
| Baseline Comparison Report |
x |
x |
| LCA of Assemblies |
|
x |
| SolidWorks Configuration Support |
|
x |
| "Use Phase" Energy |
|
x |
| Specify Transportation Type |
|
x |
| Report Includes BOM with Best/Worst Components |
|
x |
| Assembly Visualization Support |
|
x |
Sustainability Whitepaper
Sustainable Design - Not Just for Architecture Any More
How CAE tools combine better product design with savvy business decisions for positive environmental impacts.
Sustainability Podcast
Sustainable Product Design
Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. National Technical Manager, Kishore Boyalakuntla, explains the concept of Sustainable Design and the role of SolidWorks® CAD software in engineering Sustainable Design products.
SolidWorks Sustainability FAQs
What is SolidWorks Sustainability?
SolidWorks Sustainability allows users to measure the environmental impact of the products they design in SolidWorks. The SolidWorks Sustainability products are fully integrated into SolidWorks, and provide real-time feedback on the environmental impacts of Carbon Footprint, Total Energy Consumed, Effect on Water, and Effect on Air.
Why did DS SolidWorks develop/decide to offer this product?
We see SolidWorks Sustainability as a timely product. Many countries around the world have made environmental concerns a growing priority, and both individuals and companies are making more buying decisions based on the eco-friendliness of products. As this market need grows, SolidWorks Sustainability enables our customers to build environmentally responsible products that better compete in a variety of markets.
What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?
This is a method to quantitatively assess the environmental impact of a product throughout its entire lifecycle, from the procurement of the raw materials through the production, distribution, use, disposal, and recycling of that product. To learn more, visit our LCA page.
What metrics does SolidWorks Sustainability use to report environmental impacts?
- Air Acidification – Burning fuels creates sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, and other acidic air emissions. This causes an increase in the acidity of rainwater, which in turn acidifies lakes and soil. These acids can make the land and water toxic for plants and aquatic life. Acid rain can also slowly dissolve manmade building materials such as concrete. This impact is typically measured in units of kg sulfur dioxide equivalent (SO2).
- Carbon Footprint – Carbon dioxide and other gasses resulting from burning fossil fuels accumulate in the atmosphere, which in turn increases the earth’s average temperature. Also known as Global Warming Potential (GWP), carbon footprint is measured in units of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Scientists, politicians, and others blame global warming for problems like loss of glaciers, extinction of species, and more extreme weather, among others.
- Total Energy Consumed – This is a measure of the non-renewable energy sources associated with the part’s lifecycle in units of megajoules (MJ). This impact includes not only the electricity or fuels used during the product’s lifecycle, but also the upstream energy required to obtain and process these fuels, and the embodied energy of materials that would be released if burned. Total energy consumed represents the net calorific value of primary energy demand from non-renewable resources (e.g. petroleum, natural gas, etc.). Efficiencies in energy conversion (e.g. power, heat, steam, etc.) are also factors.
- Water Eutrophication - Eutrophication occurs when an overabundance of nutrients are added to a water ecosystem. Nitrogen and phosphorous from wastewater and agricultural fertilizers causes an overabundance of algae to bloom, which then depletes the water of oxygen and results in the death of both plant and animal life. This impact is typically measured in either kg phosphate equivalent (PO4) or kg nitrogen (N) equivalent.
Where does the data for the product come from?
The data used by SolidWorks Sustainability is provided by PE International of Stuttgart, Germany. They have provided software and consulting services in sustainable design and LCA for almost 20 years. PE International’s database and its GaBi software are used within SolidWorks Sustainability. To learn more about PE International, visit their website.
How accurate are the results from this product?
The values in SolidWorks Sustainability are useful to within +/- 20% and should be used as an estimate. The more accurate way of using the product is to track the relative changes from one version of a design to the next. It is this relative change between versions that provides an accurate indicator of environmental improvement.
Is the accuracy of SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress and the full version of the SolidWorks Sustainability product the same?
Yes.
Who should use this product?
Almost any SolidWorks user can use this product, but customers who are interested in sustainable design will benefit most. All SolidWorks users can benefit from the Find Similar Material tool.
How can I get SolidWorks Sustainability?
SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress will be included in every seat of SolidWorks at no additional charge or is available to SolidWorks 2009 users through the SolidWorks Labs website.
How will the SolidWorks Sustainability products be supported?
Like all SolidWorks products, we will provide direct support to customers.
How does SolidWorks Sustainability compare to SustainabilityXpress?
Each product's key offerings are below. A full product feature matrix can be found here.
SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress
SolidWorks Sustainability
-
Same capabilities as SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress plus…
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LCA of assemblies
-
Support for Configurations
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Expanded reporting capabilities for assemblies
-
User inputs for energy consumption and transportation methods
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Support for the new Assembly Visualization functionality
Will SolidWorks Sustainability products be included with SolidWorks?
SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress will be included in every seat of SolidWorks 2010 at no additional charge. The full version of SolidWorks Sustainability will not be included with SolidWorks; it is available for purchase.
When will SolidWorks Sustainability products be available?
SolidWorks Sustainability
- will be available for sale as a Beta product when SolidWorks 2010 SP0 is released. Users will be able to use the Beta once they purchase and will automatically get the final released product when it is available.
- will be formally released with SP1 in November.
SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress
- is currently available as a free add-on product to SolidWorks 2009 and SolidWorks Education Edition 2009-2010 through the SolidWorks Labs website.
- will be included with every version of SolidWorks 2010 at SP0.
Why is the full SolidWorks Sustainability product being sold as a Beta at SolidWorks SP0?
Due to the added complexity of having an Xpress (and Labs) version of the product, we increased our normal development time. We want to use the additional time to ensure we deliver a quality product. Customers who buy the product as Beta will receive full support and automatically get the full production product at SP1.
How much does it cost?
SolidWorks SustainabilityXpress is a free product. For pricing on the full SolidWorks Sustainability product, please contact your local reseller.
Is network licensing available?
Yes.
Which languages will be available?
SolidWorks Sustainability will be available in 14 languages: English, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, Czech, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.
Learn about SolidWorks
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SolidWorks Product Comparison Matrix |
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SolidWorks Scheduled Training Dates |
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SolidWorks Case Studies |
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Swap-Out Stories |
Further Information on SolidWorks:
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SolidWorks Premium 2012 Datasheet |
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What's New in SolidWorks 2011 |
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Watch SolidWorks Demos |
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SolidWorks Virtual Tour |
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SolidWorks White Papers |
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