Science & Technology
Science and Technology
Science and Technology
Wed, October 20, 2010
Tue, October 19, 2010
Autodesk and Granta Partner to Help Enable Sustainable Product Design
SAN RAFAEL, Calif.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--[ Autodesk, Inc ]. (NASDAQ: ADSK) and materials information technology innovators [ Granta Design Ltd. ] have announced a new strategic partnership, combining Autodesk's [ Digital Prototyping ] vision with Grantaa™s materials information and eco design technology to help enable sustainable product design.
"The market must consider sustainability for myriad reasons"
Granta and Autodesk are co-developing software that will add new sustainable design capabilities to the Autodesk solution. The companies are working closely to integrate Grantaa™s eco design methods into Autodesk software, helping designers to estimate the environmental impact of a product and make more sustainable design decisions. The new tools will access and use data from Grantaa™s world-class materials information database. As nearly 80 percent of a producta™s environmental footprint is determined during the design phase, the combination of the companiesa™ technologies stands to significantly impact manufacturers of all sizes seeking to optimize product sustainability.
aThe ability to optimize material selection based on environmental impact, in addition to cost and performance, is crucial to todaya™s manufacturers,a said [ Robert aBuzza Kross ], senior vice president, Manufacturing Industry Group at Autodesk. aWe believe that companies of all sizesa"not just large enterprisesa"deserve ready access to this information, and our partnership with Granta will help deliver that capability to Autodesk customers worldwide.a
Materials analysis and selection is increasingly important for companies to control a product designa™s environmental impact, both to respond to customer demand and to comply with regulation. For example, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is in the process of updating its aGreen Guides,a requiring manufacturers that claim their products are made with renewable materials to say how much of the product is manufactured with those materials, what those materials are, how they are sourced and why they are considered renewable. In Europe, the European Uniona™s recent Eco-design of Energy-Related Products Directive requires companies to use best practice in design for the environment to minimize the environmental impact of energy using products and energy related products.
aThe market must consider sustainability for myriad reasons,a said [ Dr. David Cebon ], Managing Director at Granta Design. aGranta is a leading innovator in data and tools for practical eco design. By partnering with Autodesk, with their breadth of industry-leading manufacturing solutions, we hope to make it easy for companies to adopt sustainable design practices into their processes.a
About Granta Design Limited
Formed in 1994 as a spinout from the University of Cambridge, Granta Design is the largest organization in the world dedicated solely to materials information technology. Grantaa™s software is used by many of the worlda™s leading engineering enterprises for: managing materials information; materials selection, substitution, and cost optimization; and design in the context of environmental objectives and regulations. For more information, visit[ www.grantadesign.com ].
About Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in [ 3D design ], engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries a" including the last 15 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects a" use Autodesk software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software for global markets. For additional information about Autodesk, visit [ www.autodesk.com ].
Autodesk and AutoCAD are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.
© 2010 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
