The digital twin and digital thread concepts are now mainstream best practices for product lifecycle management (PLM) practitioners and innovation-minded organizations. The interconnectivity of product data models provides superior agility for manufacturers as the digital thread breaks through to once-siloed stakeholders with real-time, accurate information from R&D to commercialization to the customer and back.

Enter sustainability. With regulatory, consumer, and investor pressures on the rise, many manufacturers are running into stakeholders in new silos in the rush to deliver products to market—all the while, leadership wrestles with scattered data, multiple reporting frameworks, and aspirations of a more proactive green R&D posture.

In this white paper, the author posits the creation of a digital thread for sustainability data, simply stated herein as the sustainability thread. The paper explains how integrating sustainability requirements in an organization’s digital thread strategy can transform both sustainability performance and product development. It also explores through real-world use cases how the digitalization of sustainability-related processes can greatly improve operational efficiency and reporting accuracy.