#12: How Can We Create an Economy That’s Sustainable and Profitable?
In this episode, we explore the key question: How can we bring to life a circular economy that’s both scalable and especially profitable? The answer lies in technology. Discover how the right technology can help companies retain the value of materials and products throughout the value chain.
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Narrator: This is Disruptors Unleashed, a series by Dassault Systèmes that highlights the disruptive technologies shaping our world, and the trailblazers igniting transformative change across industries. Previously, Pascal Daloz and Philippine de T’Serclaes looked at the radical systems and practices needed to have a more sustainable future. But that's only one part of the big picture.
Philippine joins us again this week to speak with Philippe Laufer, executive vice president of global brands at Dassault Systèmes, on the next step of creating a more sustainable future — turning ideas into reality through ground-breaking technologies that help companies retain the value of materials and products throughout the value chain.
Philippine: Hello, Philippe.
Pascal: Hello, Philippine.
Philippine: So today, in a world moving to an acceleration to a sustainable economy, we are moving away from the linear economy to a more circular economy – in which raw materials and products need to be designed for multiple uses – and we at Dassault Systèmes believe that we can help tremendously in this acceleration. What are your reasons to believe, Philippe?
Philippe: Well, at Dassault Systèmes, we combine art, science and technology with knowledge and know-how to address industry challenges. We have been doing that for more than 40 years. In the case of a circular economy, our clients can get faster at deploying our virtual twin experience technology as well as the 3DEXPERIENCE® integrated platform as the collaborative environment for innovation. So that's how we can move forward with technology that can design out value leakage.
Philippine: And by value leakage, do you mean the practice of discarding products and materials after use? Which is quite common in the linear economy indeed.
Philippe: Indeed, with the right technology, you're right; we can reduce or even stop the leakage. The technology I mentioned gives us the power to keep the value of products, services and materials through time and throughout the value chain.
Philippine: Exactly. And then, we can focus on value creation and bring to life a truly circular economy.
Philippe: Exactly. With virtual twin experiences, anything can be created as models to represent the real world — materials, products, services, factories, value networks and even a system of systems. In a virtual environment, we're able to explore and accomplish so much more.
Philippine: That's right, Philippe. Today, we know that there's a huge amount of materials and products that are going to waste — materials that are very hard to extract once they are in products. And to offset this cost to the economy, we need to transform the way in which we approach materials and product design.
Philippe: Yes, indeed. At Dassault Systèmes, we see that, Philippine, through our clients' eyes. And we have the right technology, knowledge and know-how to support this transformation. Imagine being able to quickly come up with new materials that are eco-friendly — materials that are biodegradable and easy to recycle, or designing new breakthrough chemical processes that are far more efficient and less polluting. The renaissance of material sciences is happening now.
Philippine: And that's certainly very exciting because materials are a huge part of the equation. But we can also help with the product itself, right?
Philippe: Yes. With the virtual twin experience and the collaborative platform, companies can experiment and then apply circular design principles to the product at every step, from the start – the imagination – to usage by clients, consumers, citizens and patients. This is a new area of product lifecycle management. Our clients rely now on virtual prototypes instead of physical ones. We validate new circular concepts with speed and cost efficiency. Many more use cases can be virtually tested before production starts.
The results? Well, you cut down on waste and reduce the environmental impact of the product as it moves along the supply chain and the whole value network.
Philippine: Indeed, and this means a shift away from the linear supply chain to a circular value network. This involves a whole new concept of circular business models and models that allow us to close the loop in design, testing, manufacturing, logistics, assembly, reverse logistics and disassembly — all of it.
Philippe: Yes, and our technology brings it all together. Virtual twin experience technology harnesses enterprise data and elevates it with semantics to your knowledge and know-how, which makes it a highly powerful and precious asset in the company. The platform also provides you with a single source of truth. This allows everyone to work together to translate the information into insights and immediate decisions.
Philippine: Exactly. It provides you with actionable insights and helps the customer identify new sources of value to prevent value leakage, enabling them to increase efficiency and reduce cost and waste at the same time.
Philippe: Definitely, we understand the role that technology plays here. And when we work with industry leaders – I will name some of them – we make sure to provide, as an outcome, meaningful results. This is how we're measured.
Philippine: One great example is Amcor Rigid Packaging. Since 2006, Amcor has relied on our virtual twin experiences to engineer strong, protective plastic bottles with less plastic. This can account for 400 metric tons of resin savings a year. That's enormous. The virtual twins of new designs are subject to various conditions and various performance tests in the computer — proving and perfecting the performance without testing a single physical bottle. With that, it has helped Amcor to reduce the weight of its bottles by 35 to 50%. This, in turn, reduces the energy that Amcor requires to transport its containers, and this is going on and on for the entire value network.
This is a great example, and indeed, sustainable packaging is definitely one of the main challenges ahead.
Philippe: Absolutely. Another example in the paperboard packaging sector: A producer has been using virtual twin experiences to improve the functionality and also the recyclability of its customers' packaging solutions. They have been maximizing product performance while minimizing their environmental footprint and costs. That's a good equation.
Philippine: So, indeed, this is great. This means less energy to process raw materials, but also the manufactured products. So, all in all, less environmental impact. Do you have other examples in other industries?
Philippe: Yes, we do. In the fashion segment, and more precisely, fashion manufacturing, we support AMF to ensure that all materials used are in line with the company's environmental and sustainability objectives and policies. With our technology, AMF can make their surface treatment as sustainable as possible. The outcome is that the company is able to produce fashion goods that are high quality and long-lasting.
Philippine: Indeed, and we've also helped a major producer of cement and concrete to operate in a more sustainable way. Cementos Argos wanted to reduce its environmental impact, but it also wanted to create a positive benefit: Of the people, for the people and the communities around them.
Philippe: Touching people and community. That's a great idea, a great concept. Dassault Systèmes' mission is to harmonize product, nature and life. So, Philippine, how did it turn out?
Philippine: Well, through the virtual experiences, it was able to optimize and influence the extraction and planning processes. As such, by partnering with us, Cementos Argos paved the way to show that sustainability and profitability could go hand in hand.
Philippe: Let's now move to a different sector, the life sciences and healthcare sector, and a biopharma company that had the ambition to develop more sustainable practices with their laboratory operations. And we helped make this happen. Thanks to our solution, the company was able to reduce their raw material quantity in some key processes by a factor of six. It could integrate the green chemistry materials repository within an electronic lab notebook, allowing its scientists to select more environmentally friendly chemical processes. Standards were developed to measure "greenness" — measuring is a key topic as well. And this was true for individual reactions toward entire processes.
Philippine: These are very inspiring stories indeed, Philippe, and what I love about them is that they cover all the sectors in which Dassault Systèmes is active, and they give us many reasons to believe. What we can say is that although the circular economy is indeed a challenge, through the power of technology, we can make it a reality. Thank you so much, Philippe.
Philippe: Thank you, Philippine. We make it happen.
Philippine: Exactly.
Narrator: Disruptors Unleashed is produced by Dassault Systèmes. For more episodes, follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, or your nearest streaming platforms. To learn more about Dassault Systèmes, visit us at 3ds.com.
