Comatec strengthens expertise in life cycle management and sustainable design
At Comatec, sustainability and life cycle thinking are becoming an increasingly visible part of practical design work, material choices and customer solutions.
This spring, Comatec explored life cycle management and sustainable design in greater depth through a series of internal training sessions. The sessions covered topics including the impact of design choices, the use of data and the role of life cycle thinking in customer solutions. We also continue to train our own designers to better understand how their decisions can help reduce environmental load.
Comatec’s internal training sessions, held in April and May, focused on life cycle thinking, the role of environmental responsibility within it, and how both influence design work and the solutions offered to customers.
The training was tailored both for designers and for colleagues working in customer projects and customer-facing roles. In the sessions aimed at designers, participants were given practical examples of the effects of different design choices, along with current, hands-on guidance on making better use of different systems. We also reviewed example projects where we have delivered solutions related to sustainability and life cycle management. The exchange of ideas continued actively after the sessions.
“Our designers already have broad expertise in this area, but it is important to refresh knowledge from time to time. Sustainability brings many new considerations into day-to-day design work. It was also great to see so many new Comatec colleagues taking part in the training,” says Aleksi Surakka, who led the training.
“We clearly recognise that life cycle management and sustainability are not separate additions to design work, but important and in some cases critical aspects that must be taken into account. Collecting data is an essential part of responsible operations, and calculation-based information is continuously generated as part of design work. What matters is making proper use of that data,” adds Leena Heikinmaa, who also contributed to the training.
Comatec’s expert services support customers in managing environmental issues and improving the level of environmental protection through environmental management and circular economy practices. We carry out life cycle analyses and life cycle plans for products, product systems and production facilities across their full life cycle.
“We help our customers identify and reduce the environmental impacts of their products throughout the life cycle. Using calculation-based methods, we can show how structural optimisation or switching from one material to another affects, for example, carbon footprint, production costs and service life,” Surakka says.
As part of his work, Surakka also leads a wide range of customer training sessions and workshops, either at a general level or as part of a specific assignment. In these cases, the customer’s own situation, product and data are used as practical examples.
At Comatec, sustainability and life cycle thinking are seen as part of practical design work, not as a separate add-on. That is why continuous competence development is also an important part of our experts’ everyday work.
