Drachten Innovation Cluster Begins Using the Environmental Impact Tool

Which choice really makes a difference?

Companies that manufacture high-quality technical products are increasingly being asked the same questions: by clients, by customers, and soon also under legislation related to the CSRD and the digital product passport. What is the environmental impact of your product? Where do the materials come from? This need for insight brought seven companies from the Drachten Innovation Cluster together for a workshop on Circonnect’s Environmental Impact Tool (MIT), a tool that enables you to make quick and well-founded decisions in your sustainable innovation process.

The ICD is a partnership of 23 high-tech companies in the northern Netherlands that share knowledge, facilities, and research. They do not compete with one another. In the Green Mechatronics project, seven of them joined forces to address the need for environmental insights: Exosens, Waters, Demcon, Astron, Ventura Systems, YP Your Partner, and Variass. Each company selected one product as a starting point and worked on it for a year, focusing on three key areas: life cycle analysis (LCA), product sustainability, and re-manufacturing. CIRCO trainer David van Nunen led a workshop on the MIT for the first key area. Six of the seven companies participated.

Not all buttons are the same size

A full life-cycle analysis is time-consuming and requires a lot of data from the supply chain. The MIT approach is different: in just a few hours, you can conduct an initial assessment of a product’s environmental impact—enough to identify which areas are most worth addressing. The workshop began with an explanation of what the results actually mean and how reliable they are.

Its user-friendliness really stood out. As Vincent Ligtenberg, project manager of the ICD Green Mechatronics project, puts it: “Even someone with little prior knowledge can get started and use it right away. … It’s so user-friendly. I’ve worked with other form-filling tools before, but with those, you need a lot more guidance and information to fill them out step by step.”

One concrete takeaway from the workshop was the Data & Innovation Discussion Guide: a summary form that you fill out together with stakeholders to document what you want to investigate, what your goal is, and how you plan to achieve it. It can be used immediately as a starting point for discussions with suppliers and other (supply chain) partners.

Where the profit lies

In addition to his role at ICD, Ligtenberg works as an R&D Project Engineer at Exosens and is therefore also participating in the workshop. Exosens develops sensors and detection systems for applications in defense, science, and (medical) research. For his project, he chose the plastic housing with the molded rubber from one of these detection systems: a specific component for which no sustainability analysis was yet available. The remaining part of the product is too complex for the one-year timeframe.

After the workshop, Ligtenberg set to work at Exosens on the areas identified by the initial assessments: reducing plastic use and taking a closer look at the production process, where choices between casting and milling, for example, affect material waste and energy consumption. The MIT workshop also revealed that energy procurement is a key variable that can significantly influence the overall picture.

For its current production, Exosens is already working to make its energy consumption and procurement more sustainable. The insights gained regarding materials and production processes are being incorporated into the development of future products. Ligtenberg added a third aspect to this: higher product yield means fewer rejected products, and thus less wasted energy and materials.

And then into the chain

The experiences of other companies in the cluster underscore just how versatile the MIT is. Companies with a well-defined product were able to get up and running quickly, and the results proved to be highly comparable to those from other databases. For companies with complex machines—systems comprising thousands of parts sourced from multiple countries—the MIT provides clear guidance on where discussions with supply chain partners yield the greatest benefits. Suppliers who provide insight into the origin of their materials, customers who make usage data available: these are steps that take time, but they yield the greatest returns.

Ligtenberg puts it succinctly: “Some changes result in very small differences. And there are also small changes that make a significant difference. You should tackle that low-hanging fruit first, because it takes the least time and yields the best results.”

The next step: recalling products

The participants in Green Mechatronics have now begun addressing the following challenge: remanufacturing, reduction, and reuse. Several companies within the cluster are already actively focusing on these areas and share their practical experiences and insights during project meetings. At the same time, other participants are also showing a growing need to further explore these themes. That is why Circonnect and the ICD are currently working on a follow-up activity related to this topic.