#27: How Are Virtual Twins Driving a More Sustainable Tomorrow?

Philippine de T'Serclaes: Yes, thank you, Morgan, for this question. I think one of the key trends we are seeing today in the sustainability world is all the regulations that are ramping up all over the world, affecting all sectors of the economy — and, of course, our customers.

Along with these regulations, there is also rising awareness and scrutiny of citizens all over the world. The simple facts like the recent flooding in Dubai, winters in the month of May and drastic changes from one day to the other. Clearly, climate disruption is becoming a reality and pushing a new normal for everyone. So, what this means for our customers is that we are seeing an increasing call for more circularity: Recycling, refurbishing, reusing. That's becoming the new normal and the new foundation for our customers.

What we are doing at Dassault Systèmes is more than merely adapting to these new trends. We really want to anticipate the needs of our customers. In this context, this year, we are focusing on three main trends: Biodiversity, circularity and critical materials. These priorities guide our strategies and our innovations, and they allow us to help our customers accelerate their sustainable transformation.

Morgan Zimmermann: Philippine, with those challenges in mind, can you tell us more about virtual twin experience? Can you explain what the virtual twin experience stands for and how it helps companies tackle the challenges that you just positioned?

Philippine de T'Serclaes: Well, Morgan, as you know, the virtual twin experience is unique on the market. It allows a holistic approach to simulating and optimizing operations, products and processes within a completely virtual environment. This capability, of course, is crucial for identifying inefficiencies, reducing waste and integrating sustainability at a holistic level.

In the end, it's about having data and insights to make more informed decisions that lead to more sustainable outcomes. Speaking of more informed decisions, you have a great example with the Eco2Bill Project. Do you want to tell us more about it?

Morgan Zimmermann: Yeah, absolutely. It's about delivering the right insight at the right place. But let me tell you more. If you think about designers, what matters is if we can provide contextual data points when they're doing their design so they understand the impact of their decision on the sustainability of their product. By itself, that's already a major breakthrough because it means that you are empowering the users with the understanding of the impact of their decision at the scale of sustainability.

But if you think about it, we can go much further. What’s complex is the trade-offs between cost and sustainability. How do you ask a designer to make a trade-off between cost and sustainability?

What we are working on with Eco2Bill is the ability to create new indexes that factor in multiple criteria (e.g. weight, cost, sustainability) so that we can guide the designer in these built-in trade-offs at the time of decision. I started talking about a designer because I'm picturing someone working in CATIA. But if this is a requirement engineer, a quality engineer or a product manager, that's the same topic with a different elevation in terms of scale. So, this strategy provides the right data points with more sophisticated indexes that factor in multiple criteria to automate the trade-off process at any stage within the construction of the product.

Philippine de T'Serclaes: Well, that's really a game changer, Morgan.

Morgan Zimmermann: Yeah. But you know, that's a game changer because it's a very critical enabler that we are delivering through the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform. But the question is about people because, at the end of the day, how we empower them and how we change their mindset to make things happen is what matters. Can you tell us more about that?

Philippine de T'Serclaes: Yes, you are right. Sustainability, for it to be able to scale, you need to transform the company. And our customers are looking for a real tool to help transform their whole organization. And, thanks to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, we allow to democratize access to powerful knowledge. What you were referring to is data and knowledge through the 3DEXPERIENCE platform; everyone has access to that data and knowledge, and that enables individuals at all levels to participate in sustainability initiatives. Through this, we're enabling our customers to harness collective intelligence and creativity to overcome all the sustainability challenges.

Morgan Zimmermann: What I'm hearing, globally, is about transcending the silos of the organization. Many organizations were built before sustainability became so critical. So, when I'm listening to you, I actually understand that sustainability goes beyond decisions that have to be made in engineering, product management or finance. What you described is how the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is enabling us to transcend the limitations of the organizational silos to make things happen at the scale of the company. This is really great.

Philippine de T'Serclaes: Of course. As you know, transport and mobility still represent 28% of worldwide GHG emissions. We've had a very good example from TransPod, a company working for the next generation of sustainable mobility. They came to us to achieve design precision, ensure passenger comfort and safety, and make highly informed decisions in a collaborative manner. They had engineers working on this very complex project in Asia, North America and Europe. And thanks to the platform, they were able to collaborate, break down silos and bring the solution to market much faster than without the platform.

We also have success stories in other sectors that we are working on. For instance, we have Sanofi, which we've been able to put forward through the 3DEXPERIENCE platform by connecting the manufacturing and the R&D. Sanofi has been able to reduce the time to market for its new vaccines from one month to just seven days. Can you imagine? 

Philippine de T'Serclaes: Yes, of course. As you know, providing clean energy and decarbonized energy to the world is a key challenge. In this context, we have Naarea, a company working on decarbonized energy, who came to us and created a virtual twin for an extra small modular reactor. It's a very complex multisystem, including fluids and physical challenges, and they were able to do this virtual twin in less than 18 months, providing a huge breakthrough and a huge advancement for decarbonized energy.

Morgan Zimmermann: So, if we can affect the most important industries, such as transportation and mobility for sustainability, infrastructure and life science, I think we can definitely have a great impact on the world. 

Philippine de T'Serclaes: Indeed, our solutions affect all sectors of the economy.

Morgan Zimmermann: I've seen an interesting example as well — in transportation and mobility. I've seen a company that was actually affected by the evolution of the cost of energy. It was very interesting to start working with them on quantifying the impact of the volatility of the cost of energy on the product they manufacture. But what was even more interesting is that this volatility, in terms of the cost of energy, has been driving many other questions.

And indeed, for the very first time, they were starting to trigger how they wanted to handle the cost of energy along with the sustainability impact. I had not seen that before, and it has become very profound in the way companies are starting to think.

Philippine de T'Serclaes: Yes, that was the first of its kind, but I'm sure there will be others looking for the same kind of solutions. 

Morgan Zimmermann: Absolutely. Thank you very much, Philippine. Your insight today has highlighted the critical role of technology in sustainability.

Philippine de T'Serclaes: Well, I think what we've seen in our conversation today – and what’s really important to keep in mind – is that we already have many solutions that are able to help accelerate the sustainable transformation in all sectors of the economy for our customers. Looking ahead, what we want is to keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible with technology. For example, exploring the application of AI and machine learning in sustainability, and how it can enhance the already existing capabilities of the virtual twin experience.

But let's not forget that what we've highlighted today: We already have solutions readily available for our customers to accelerate their transformation. Actually, Morgan, I don't know if you know, but we have more than 400 solutions certified under the EU taxonomy that help contribute to the transformation of our customers on their sustainability roadmap.

So, I think our main message today is clear — it's time for action.

Morgan Zimmermann: Thank you very much. You know, listening to you makes me feel proud — not just proud of working for a sustainable company, but proud to be part of a company that is capable of making aerospace, transportation and mobility, infrastructure and cities, industrial equipment, and all of the industries we serve more sustainable.

Philippine de T'Serclaes: I agree, Morgan. 

Morgan Zimmermann: Thank you again very much, Philippine. 

Philippine de T'Serclaes: Well, thank you, Morgan, for having me. It was a great pleasure.

Morgan Zimmermann: See you soon, along with our customers in every industry, every sector.

Philippine de T'Serclaes: Thank you.

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.