Sustainability
SOLIDWORKS Sustainability provides a practical tool for implementing corporate environmentally conscious initiatives. This is done by looking at four key indicators: carbon footprint, total energy consumed, impact on air and water. By measuring these indicators, a thorough understanding of the impact that decisions we make have on sustainability through the entire life of a product – enabling more environmentally conscious decisions to be made.
SOLIDWORKS Sustainability technology enables you to quickly and easily assess the environmental impact of your design to create more sustainable products. The software integrates powerful Life Cycle Assessment-based tools into your established design process, measuring the environmental impacts of Carbon, Energy, Air and Water. The material selection tool provides instant feedback to help you choose the most environmentally-friendly material for a particular design.
- Seamless integration within the SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD application interface
- Easy to read graphic display of a design’s carbon footprint, energy consumption, and water and air pollutants
- Easily establish an environmental profile to compare design variations
- The material selection tool provides instant feedback to help you choose the most environmentally-friendly material for a particular design
- Enable technical and non-technical staff to collaborate effectively during documentation production
- Download updates to the GaBi LCA database on the fly for new material as they become available
Sustainable Design
SOLIDWORKS Sustainability provides actionable environmental results by measuring the environmental impacts of individual designs across the product life cycle – including the effects of material, manufacturing, assembly, and transportation.
GaBi Environmental Database
The extensive GaBi® Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) database, created by PE INTERNATIONAL, a pioneering life cycle assessment (LCA) firm, is built on scientific expertise and empirical data gathered over 20-plus years. The GaBi environmental database is regularly updated inside SOLIDWORKS Sustainability to ensure information is current.
Material Optimization
Optimize material usage to lessen environmental impacts by quickly finding alternative materials that match your engineering parameters. Use the Find Similar Materials tool to specify the engineering parameters that are critical to your design and search the SOLIDWORKS material database for all materials that match those parameters. This enables you to satisfy your design requirements while choosing material with the least environmental impacts.
Screening-Level Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Perform a screening-level life cycle assessment (LCA) during design at a fraction of the time and cost of a full LCA. SOLIDWORKS Sustainability software enables you to perform a screening-level LCA during design, which streamlines the process if a full, ISO 14040-certified LCA is performed. Environmental LCA is the most comprehensive and widely accepted method for measuring the environmental impacts of product designs.
Automatic Sustainability Report Generation
SOLIDWORKS Sustainability software automatically generates a professional-quality sustainability report that details your product assumptions, the results of the Environmental Impact Dashboard, a hot-spot analysis of components in the assembly, and comparison to the baseline design. The report also includes a glossary of terms relevant to environmental life cycle assessment.
Environmental Impact Dashboard
See the environmental impacts of your design in real time as you make design changes or product decisions with the SOLIDWORKS Sustainability built-in Environmental Impact Dashboard.
Assembly Visualization
SOLIDWORKS Assembly Visualization provides full support for sustainability parameters, enabling you to rank, sort, and color your design on any of the four traditional LCA indicators and related sustainability parameters.
| SOLIDWORKS Sustainability Xpress | SOLIDWORKS Sustainability | |
| Environmental Impact Data & Results | ||
| Customizable Reports | X | X |
| Baseline Comparison Report | X | X |
| GaBi Database Updates for New Materials and Processes | X | X |
| Request New Materials and Processes | X | X |
| Environmental Impact Dashboard with Key Indicators | X | X |
| GaBi LCA Environmental Database from PE International | X | X |
| Environmental Impact Estimates of Parts | X | X |
| Report Includes BOM with Most Impactful Components | X | |
| Priority Support for Material and Process Requests | X | |
| Environmental Impact Estimates of Assemblies | X | |
| Customizable Process Inputs | ||
| View Manufacturing Process Inputs | X | X |
| View Transportation Mode and Distance Inputs | X | X |
| View Recycled Content Values | X | X |
| View End-of-Life Inputs | X | X |
| Editable Manufacturing Process Inputs | X | |
| Editable Transportation Mode and Distance Inputs | X | |
| Editable Recycled Content Values | X | |
| Editable End-of-Life Inputs | X | |
| Account for Product Longevity | X | |
| Perform Time-Dependent Environmental Assessments | X | |
| Input “Use Phase” Energy | X | |
| Sustainable Design Guidance | ||
| Find Similar Material Selection Tool | X | X |
| Establish Baseline to Compare Design Decisions | X | X |
| Seamlessly integrated with SolidWorks interface | X | X |
| Compare Raw Material Financial Impact | X | X |
| SOLIDWORKS Configuration Support | X | |
| Assembly Visualization Support | X | |