Building a Sustainable Future - Forward AM Initiatives

Source: Tom Claes

Building a Sustainable Future – Forward AM Initiatives

Additive Manufacturing holds tremendous potential to advance sustainability in comparison to traditional manufacturing – such as on-demand and on-site production, reduced waste and energy use as well as design-optimized parts resulting in lightweight components to just name a few. But while Additive Manufacturing does provide opportunities for recyclable materials, lightweighting, and reduced waste, true sustainability is much more complex — it requires companies to look at a product’s entire lifecycle. At Forward AM, we share this understanding of sustainability and are thus committed to deliver lifecycle assessments of all our materials by end of this year. While this is underway, some measures are already in place:

Production facilities powered with green energy

At Forward AM, we are aiming at making sustainability an integrated aspect of everything that we do – resulting in manifold initiatives across our activities. Focusing on our production, our printing service provider Sculpteo, based in Paris, France, switched to renewable energy for their production and office facilities. Since September 2021, most 3D printers and equipment are powered with green energy by the provider Enercoop – this allows us to assure our customers that using Sculpteo’s online printing services does not require fossil-fueled electricity and creates a minimized carbon footprint.

Source: Sculpteo

Combining forces under the umbrella of the Additive Manufacturing Green Trade Association

Already in 2021, Forward AM joined the AMGTA („Additive Manufacturing Green Trade Association“) – supporting the organization’s goal of promoting the environmental benefits of AM over traditional methods of manufacturing. Being a non-commercial organization, the membership of AMGTA is open for all Additive Manufacturers that meet certain criteria relating to sustainability of production or process. For us at Forward AM, this membership is an important pillar in confirming our commitment to drive sustainability in Additive Manufacturing together with major industry players.