The data story behind sustainability
Together, digital maturity and connected data empower organizations to embed sustainability into engineering, manufacturing and supply chains
Customer Engagement: The hidden engine behind sustainable manufacturing
Sustainability extends beyond the factory through service, sales and long-lifecycle customer interactions.
When people talk about sustainability in manufacturing, the focus almost always falls on factories, materials and carbon reduction targets. It’s a logical starting point after all. That’s where products are designed, built, and shipped. But over the past years, I’ve become convinced of something far more important: that sustainability is not created in the factory alone. It lives in the entire lifecycle of the product, and much of that lifecycle runs through Customer Engagement.
This may sound surprising. Most companies still treat Customer Engagement (CE) as the home of sales, service and marketing: a system for managing relationships rather than driving environmental progress. But if you look closely at where sustainability challenges arise, and where the data to solve them actually sits, CE becomes a key enabler. In fact, I believe that CE will soon be one of the central engines behind sustainable manufacturing.
Sybren Mooij
Business Unit Director Customer Engagement, 9altitudes
"Sustainability is not created in the factory alone. It lives in the entire lifecycle of the product, and much of that lifecycle runs through Customer Engagement."
Sybren Mooij - Business Unit Director Customer Engagement, 9altitudes
Sustainability doesn’t end at the factory gate
The biggest shift we’re seeing is that sustainability is no longer a beginning-of-life exercise. European regulations are turning it into a responsibility that stretches from design all the way to end-of-life. Manufacturers must increasingly report the environmental impact of a machine not just when it leaves the factory, but during every year it operates, every part that is replaced, every kilometre a technician travels, and every kilowatt the equipment consumes.
Managing complexity in long-lifecycle asset manufacturing
For companies that build long-lifecycle assets, such as machines that remain in operation for 15 or even 20 years, this introduces significant complexity. The responsibility for sustainability extends far beyond the initial production and delivery.
Manufacturers must account for the environmental impact throughout the entire lifespan of the product, monitoring every stage from deployment to eventual decommissioning. This means tracking every replacement part, each instance of field service, and the ongoing consumption of resources over decades. As a result, the challenge of managing and reporting on sustainability is compounded by the need to maintain precise records and ensure compliance over an extended period, making effective customer engagement systems essential in meeting evolving regulatory demands and sustainability expectations.
But it also creates tremendous opportunity. Throughout those years, machines continuously generate information: which components wear out, how often service is required, how much energy is used, and how the product behaves under real conditions. That insight doesn’t live exclusively in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or engineering; it flows naturally into CE, where service visits, work orders, customer issues and technician insights are logged.
Field service as a catalyst for sustainability
Field service has become an increasingly vital component in advancing sustainability within manufacturing. Through the implementation of more accurate planning, organisations are able to minimise unnecessary travel, thereby reducing their carbon footprint and conserving resources. Predictive maintenance also plays a crucial role, allowing companies to anticipate and prevent equipment failures, which in turn reduces waste and optimises the use of materials.
Furthermore, having robust insights into the entire lifecycle of products enables manufacturers to extend the lifespan of their equipment. This valuable information can be channelled back into the design process, ensuring that future products are not only more durable but also more sustainable. The efficient management of service activities yields tangible environmental benefits, demonstrating that operational excellence and sustainability go hand in hand.
Customer Engagement (CE) systems are central to orchestrating these improvements. By integrating field service data and processes, CE ensures that sustainability objectives are met through streamlined operations, informed decision-making, and ongoing feedback. In essence, CE transforms field service from a routine function into a strategic driver of environmental progress.
"CE ensures that sustainability objectives are met through streamlined operations, informed decision-making, and ongoing feedback."
Sybren Mooij - Business Unit Director Customer Engagement, 9altitudes
The critical role of communication in sustainability
Another crucial, yet sometimes overlooked, aspect of sustainability is the need for effective communication. In the current regulatory and market environment, transparency is no longer optional. Organisations must be prepared to respond swiftly and accurately to a variety of information requests.
Whether it is a regulator seeking specific documentation, a municipality requesting follow-up after an environmental incident, a dealer needing up-to-date product information, or a customer inquiring about the CO₂ footprint of a particular configuration, the ability to provide prompt and precise answers is essential. This demand for transparency extends across all stakeholders, requiring robust systems and processes to ensure that information is readily accessible and consistently communicated.
The role of customer engagement in sustainability communication
Customer Engagement (CE) stands out as a core driver of effective communication in the realm of sustainability. It functions as a robust communication engine, systematically mapping stakeholders, documenting obligations, and tracking interactions. CE ensures that the correct information reaches the relevant parties efficiently, which is particularly invaluable when issues arise or when manufacturers must coordinate responses with inspectors, authorities, partners, and end customers. In the absence of well-structured CE systems, organisations often falter. Not due to a lack of commitment, but because they lack the necessary orchestration to manage complex communication flows.
Empowering dealers and distributors
Dealers and distributors are increasingly instrumental in conveying sustainability claims to the market. For manufacturers aiming for their sustainable product features to be presented clearly and consistently, CE serves as the essential platform for training, certification, and the precise dissemination of information. As sustainability becomes a fundamental aspect of a company’s narrative, CE provides the stage, the microphone, and the script, enabling organisations to communicate their environmental commitments with clarity and confidence.
"CE ensures that sustainability objectives are met through streamlined operations, informed decision-making, and ongoing feedback."
Sybren Mooij - Business Unit Director Customer Engagement, 9altitudes
Customer feedback as a driver of sustainable design
One of the most interesting developments is how sustainability shows up in customer feedback. Tenders increasingly include environmental requirements: maximum footprints, recyclable materials, repairability expectations. These conditions directly influence whether manufacturers win or lose business. But very few companies actively analyse this feedback.
With CE and AI, this becomes not only possible but incredibly powerful. AI can read tender documents, identify sustainability criteria and reveal patterns across opportunities. If you repeatedly lose deals because your footprint is too high, that’s not just lost revenue: it’s a direct signal to engineering about what needs to change. Sustainability becomes customer-driven, not just regulation-driven.
Too often, organisations look at lost deals and conclude that the price was wrong or the competition was stronger. But increasingly, the real story lies in environmental requirements they couldn’t meet. This is where CE can play a major role in guiding the next iteration of product design.
CE as the organiser of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) progress
Companies often assume that ESG belongs in ERP because that’s where the transactional data lives. And while ERP is indeed essential for reporting what happened, it doesn’t handle something equally important: planning what needs to happen next.
Every organisation will soon be dealing with long-term sustainability goals. Reducing emissions, switching to cleaner suppliers, making products more repairable, or improving energy efficiency. These goals need to be broken down into smaller objectives, translated into projects, assigned to people, and linked to real-world activities. CE is incredibly well-suited to manage that operational layer of sustainability strategy. It gives structure, accountability and oversight to the initiatives that support an organisation’s environmental commitments.
ERP records the emissions. CE organises the journey toward reducing them.
AI will push this all forward
AI significantly streamlines many of the processes I’ve mentioned. Microsoft has introduced more AI agents for CE than any other field, with clear, noticeable results. For example, questions like “What is the footprint of this product?” that used to mean searching through dozens of PDF files can now be answered almost instantly. AI is capable of reading documents, pulling out environmental data, grasping component hierarchies, and putting together straightforward answers.
This power to summarize, clarify, and link information will transform the way manufacturers discuss sustainability. It will also reshape how technicians get instructions, how service schedules are made, and how lifecycle data gets analyzed. Rather than replacing CE, AI enhances it.
Digital Product Passports: the coming reality check
If there is one topic that keeps resurfacing with customers today, it’s the Digital Product Passport (DPP). Yet most organisations are far from ready. Many don’t know which data they need to capture, how to maintain the passport over a decade-long lifecycle, or what happens when a machine is repaired and the passport needs updating.
Just as with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), most businesses delay action until regulations become urgent. Companies that start collecting sustainability data now will be ready when DPP enforcement increases; those who wait will scramble under pressure.
Waiting is not an option, you have to build the foundations now
If there is one message I want to leave manufacturers with, it’s this: start now. Don’t wait for regulations to become overwhelming. If you don’t capture the data today, you simply won’t be able to report it tomorrow. And reconstructing years of missing information is nearly impossible.
Capturing sustainability data doesn’t have to be complicated. Often it comes down to adding a few fields, structuring processes slightly differently, and making sure service and customer teams understand the importance of accurate records. Once the foundations are in place, CE, ERP and BI can do the heavy lifting.
Sustainability is becoming a lifecycle responsibility and CE is the platform that connects that lifecycle. If we embrace that broader view, CE can transform from a relationship tool into one of the most powerful sustainability engines manufacturers have.
Sustainability insights survey
The survey provided insights into the pressures organizations face to supply sustainability data. The results indicate that more than 75% either feel this pressure or anticipate experiencing it in the future. Comparing this with the level of preparation and support from digital business applications, the data suggests that many companies are not yet prepared or do not collect data in a structured manner using such tools. Given these findings, organizations may need to begin focusing on developing data capturing, collection, and reporting practices related to sustainability.