Granta Design today announced that the company is joining the Circular Economy 100 (CE100) programme.
This group of leading companies, universities, and emerging innovators, coordinated by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, is developing new approaches and tools that can lead the transition to a ‘circular economy’. A circular economy is one that is restorative by intention; aims to rely on renewable energy; minimises the use of toxic chemicals; and eradicates waste through careful design.
Decisions about materials will be central to realising this vision. Granta are natural CE100 partners, as the leaders in software and information resources to aid materials decisions during product design and development. Joining the CE100 is part of Granta’s on-going commitment to help engineering enterprises design for environmental objectives and regulations.
Granta has already pioneered approaches that enable rapid assessment of environmental impacts to guide decisions when designing products, e.g., offering integrated reporting on environmental or regulatory impacts within CAD and PLM systems. The Cambridge University spin-out also helps engineering enterprises to assess and manage restricted substance and critical materials risk for materials, coatings, product designs, and production parts, improving their responses to regulations such as REACH, ErP, and WEEE.
This new collaboration builds on Granta’s existing involvement with the circular economy movement through the LIFE+ Circular Economy Metrics project, which aims to deliver the first methodology for measuring the circularity of a product or business.
Responding to this announcement, Andrew Morlet, Business Programme Lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, said, “we are delighted to welcome Granta into the CE100, and to work with them to define best practices and tools that can embed circular economy thinking into product design and development.”
“Granta works with many organizations that are seeking to mitigate environmental and restricted substance risk and to bring new perspectives to their product design process.” commented Dr James Goddin, Collaborative Programme Manager at Granta Design. “We look forward to collaborating with other CE100 members, and continuing to develop solutions that provide a clear business case for environmentally and economically sound decision making about materials and processes.”
ABOUT GRANTA DESIGN LTD
Granta are the materials information technology experts. The company develops market leading software for managing materials and process information in engineering enterprises, and a series of tools for applying that data to key materials and product design decisions. Granta serves sectors as diverse as aerospace, defense, energy, medical devices, automotive, motorsports, manufacture of consumer and industrial equipment, materials production, and publishing. Customers realize multi-million dollar benefits in reduced cost, enhanced product performance, improved quality, and faster design turnaround.
Granta was founded in 1994 as a spinout from the University of Cambridge and the work of Professors Mike Ashby and David Cebon.