Software For Eco-Design and Restricted Substances Being Guided by Environmental Materials Information Technology Consortium

The Environmental Materials Information Technology (EMIT) Consortium held its first meeting at the Eurocopter site in Marseille, France in mid-October. The Consortium is guiding development of software to support eco design and to enable design in the context of restricted substances regulations. Members discussed the initial project work, which began in July, and prioritized development activities for the coming months.

Among the software developments demonstrated were:

• a Restricted Substances Database that helps organizations to identify materials or processing routes that risk non-compliance with a wide range of regulations
• prototype design tools working within PLM software environments - these will enable designers to connect to a materials information system from within their familiar design environments and apply materials data in environmental analyses - for example, to estimate the likely carbon footprint of a design at different stages in its life cycle

The Consortium software will allow engineering enterprises to embed eco design approaches into their routine engineering workflows.

An open seminar, held alongside the Consortium meeting to demonstrate and discuss these approaches with non-members, attracted considerable interest. The Consortium remains open to new members. The next meeting will be held at Rolls-Royce in April.

More information www.grantadesign.com/emit/.