Case Study
Sustainable Design with CAD and PLM | How Nexpirit enabled sustainable product development for Phoenix Contact
Lucas Dann and Lennart Gorholt in conversation on the Siemens Next Generation Design Podcast
Senior Director Sustainability at Phoenix Contact
Phoenix Contact, headquartered in Blomberg, Germany, manufactures products and components for electrification, networking, and automation.
Managing Director and Co-Founder of Nexpirit GmbH
Siemens Expert Partner for the implementation of Teamcenter PLM.
Nexpirit specializes in consulting and implementing efficient materials data management, achieving material compliance, and integrating sustainability requirements early in the product development process.
Lucas Dann:
It all started during the COVID pandemic, when Phoenix Contact approached us to create a sustainability solution for their products. Their aim was to contribute to climate neutrality wherever their products or components are used. This meant we needed to find a way to systematically capture the environmental footprint of around 10,000 materials and 100,000 products.
Lennart Gorholt:
As the person responsible for sustainability at Phoenix Contact, I focus on how we define and implement sustainability across the company. Our ultimate goal is to make a contribution to a more sustainable world — and we’ve set this goal for all of our 60 international subsidiaries.
Lennart Gorholt:
In the past, we focused on lead times and costs. Now, a new dimension has been added: we need to discuss the environmental impact of our products. For example, customers want to know the CO₂ footprint of a specific product in our portfolio before using it — for instance, to calculate the total carbon footprint of a building.
Now, we have a vast number of individual products, and it’s not feasible to evaluate each one manually. On top of that, data is constantly changing — for example, when a supplier changes the composition of a material.
„The earlier you start, the more freedom you have to make the right choices.”
Lennart Gorholt:
First, it was about how data is stored and made transparently available across the organization so informed decisions can be made. The second point is timing: decisions need to be made as early in the product lifecycle as possible to keep effort and cost low. And third, we aimed to eliminate any kind of manual input for the calculations.
Lucas Dann:
For us, the solution was to provide all necessary data within Teamcenter PLM. Teamcenter and NX are highly flexible and modular, allowing us to perfectly integrate our solutions. We enabled Teamcenter and NX to initiate CO₂ analyses early in the product development process based on a pre-assigned generic material. For example, if you select a specific type of steel, we already know the typical CO₂ value for that steel — allowing employees to begin improving and optimizing right away.
We can now calculate 18 sustainability factors — not just CO₂, but also water and energy consumption.
Lennart Gorholt:
We’ve set up automations in the system that perform calculations for products still in early development, for finalized market-ready products, and even for retired products — to update their data based on what has happened to them since.
“The biggest advantages lie in scalability and automation.”
Lennart Gorholt:
Previously, it took us months to generate a single footprint. Today, we’re at the point where I can get the result at the push of a button.
We no longer need to focus on performing the calculation itself — instead, we can dedicate our time and energy to our real objective: where can we make changes that will truly contribute to sustainability?
“The smarter the digital twin becomes, the better our environmental analysis gets.e intelligenter der digitale Zwilling also wird, desto besser ist natürlich auch unsere Umweltanalyse.“
Lucas Dann:
Another big advantage is that the product model is becoming increasingly intelligent. On the NX side, we’re not only working with the design geometry, but also with information on how the product is to be manufactured.
We integrate data from additional systems, such as CAM (computer-aided manufacturing), enabling us to perform even more accurate CO₂ calculations.
This also applies to SCOPE 3 emissions — those generated through the supply chain, transport, or disposal. Thanks to our supply chain data, we can incorporate these emissions too. This is where digitalization — and the ability to bring everything together in one place — makes a huge, game-changing difference.
„In the Digital Product Passport, sustainability, environmental data, and material information will play a key role.”
Lucas Dann:
In the future, companies will need to provide not just price and technical information for a product, but also its environmental impact. In Europe, this will take the form of the Digital Product Passport, which will become mandatory in the coming years.
Another factor is the integration of AI, artificial intelligence, to automatically incorporate additional data points. For instance, AI could estimate missing supplier data based on existing information — filling in the gaps. Of course, this needs to be transparent and reliable, so we still have work ahead of us.
“It’s about taking the first steps.”
Lennart Gorholt:
If you wait for everything to be perfect, you’ll be waiting forever. So: take the first steps — and learn as you go.
“Sustainability must become a core part of your company’s DNA.”
Lucas Dann:
Sustainability shouldn’t be seen as a burden. See it instead as a door opener to new markets. It can also set you apart from the competition. More and more industries — whether automotive or construction — now require CO₂ values and other KPIs as a prerequisite for even selling a product. And this trend will only grow stronger.
So you need to start now: structure your BOMs, collect your material data,
run your first calculations, and begin optimizing.
Listen to the full conversation between Lucas and Lennart in the video here:
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