Developing sustainable products

Sustainable product development presents businesses with a significant opportunity to innovate and strengthen their competitive advantage. By proactively integrating sustainable practices, companies not only enhance product functionality but also position themselves to meet evolving market demands. In particular, regulatory compliance plays a crucial role. Organisations which substitute hazardous materials in their products or raw materials can avoid penalties and ensure uninterrupted market access. For example, electronics manufacturers have successfully replaced lead-based components with safer alternatives to comply with the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive, thereby expanding their reach into markets with stringent environmental regulations.

Furthermore, sustainable product development offers opportunities for cost reduction, as minimizing material usage directly lowers production costs. Companies adopting additive manufacturing techniques, such as 3D printing, have reported material cost savings of up to 30 percent by optimising designs and reducing waste.

These benefits are deeply interconnected. Regulatory compliance often acts as a catalyst for innovation, prompting firms to develop new materials and processes that are not only environmentally beneficial but also more cost-effective. For instance, the drive to meet environmental standards can inspire the adoption of advanced manufacturing methods, resulting in both compliance and substantial cost savings. Collectively, innovation, compliance, and cost reduction reinforce each other, allowing organisations to create products that are not only sustainable but also commercially successful.

Capgemini offers a wide range of assets and capabilities to help clients engineer more sustainable products. Firstly, we implement design-concurrent lifecycle assessments, which means we evaluate the environmental impact at each stage of the design and engineering process. We ensure compliance and foster innovation by considering relevant regulations and directives, such as ESPR (Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation) and REACh (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals). Our engineers leverage state-of-the-art Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions from leading partners like Siemens, Dassault, PTC, and industrialized LCA solutions from partners like Makersite and iPoint, enabling data-driven design decisions based on functional, economic, and environmental KPIs. For example, by applying lifecycle assessments early in the design phase, we helped a client reduce product emissions by 20% while maintaining performance. Our end-to-end approach seamlessly integrates engineering expertise with advanced digital tools and strategic portfolio management, ensuring that sustainability is embedded from concept to delivery.

Capgemini offers its sustainable product capabilities across all industries covering material, component, and product level. Some of our success stories cover:
• Multi-disciplinary full product design for Automotive and Consumer products
• EV battery design, simulation and optimization for our Automotive and Transportation
• Sustainable material science and development for Life Science, Consumer Products and Automotive
• Product Lifecycle Intelligence for Technology and Consumer Products
• Product Compliance assessment and mitigation for Aerospace and Rail

Capgemini enables companies to develop product systems that are both environmentally sustainable and more resilient to market changes by applying circularity methods such as extending product lifespan, closing material loops, reducing waste, and optimising resource efficiency. These approaches are supported by lifecycle assessment tools—which evaluate environmental impacts throughout a product’s life cycle using a cradle-to-cradle approach, meaning products are designed for reuse or recycling at the end of their life. Additionally, Capgemini incorporates bio-based or recycled materials within circular business models, which focus on maintaining the value of resources for as long as possible, to create resilient, circular product systems.

Lifecycle optimization is used in sustainable product development to balance product quality, sustainability KPIs, financial performance, accelerate time-to-market, and reliability from early design to end-of-life scenarios. These methodologies enable organizations to shift from siloed, reactive workflows to proactive, integrated, and data-driven processes. It allows to generate transparency on the multi-KPI impact of each lifecycle of the product – even for very complex ones like aircrafts or cars. Furthermore, we support design decisions by leveraging data evaluated through rigorous scientific methods, ensuring that choices are both evidence-based and aligned with sustainability objectives.

Decarbonization of the transportation sector—including automotive, rail, aerospace, and naval—requires the development and integration of sustainable powertrain and propulsion solutions such as batteries, hydrogen, and alternative fuels. Our team leverages advanced simulation tools and deep industry expertise to deliver tailored powertrain solutions that meet stringent sustainability targets. We support clients in engineering and integrating next-generation powertrains and components into both existing and new products.

Capgemini develops scalable solutions for decarbonised energy technologies, including wind, solar, hydrogen, battery storage systems, nuclear, and carbon capture. We help organisations produce and integrate these technologies into their energy portfolios, accelerating the development of a future-ready, intelligent grid. For the industrial sector, we support clients in implementing these technologies within their production plants to efficiently reduce emissions—particularly in industries that are challenging to decarbonize, such as steel, cement, and chemistry.