Supply Chain Sustainability: You Can’t Manage What You Can’t Measure
Makersite
September 3, 2025
Unlocking a strategic advantage
The biggest opportunity is to move sustainability out of the reporting silo and into the design room. If you’re a manufacturer, and you can see how cost, compliance, and carbon interact at the earliest stage of product development, you’ve just unlocked a strategic advantage. You can launch faster, reduce risk, and even lower your footprint. All before you’ve made a single part. That’s not hypothetical; with digital twins and product lifecycle intelligence, companies are doing this today. It’s a shift from hindsight to foresight.
The real driver isn’t regulation
Yes, regulation is a big stick. But what's interesting is the pull we're seeing inside companies. Procurement is waking up to supply risk, engineering wants to make better design calls, and sustainability teams are under pressure to show tangible impact. Not in next year’s report, but in today’s product pipeline. Meanwhile, investors are scrutinizing Scope 3 and customers are calling out greenwashing. The real driver? It's a growing expectation for real-time, data-driven insight. Not just after-the-fact reporting.
The importance of infrastructure
Let’s be honest: the data is a mess. Most companies are stitching together spreadsheets, siloed systems, and supplier emails. You end up with a Frankenstein version of the product that doesn’t reflect reality. On top of that, sustainability still sits on the outside of core decision-making in many organizations. So, even when goals exist, they don’t translate into design or sourcing choices. The result? Ambitious targets, but no execution muscle. It’s not about lacking commitment. It’s about lacking the infrastructure to act.
How to get started
Start small, but start now. Map your data. Understand where your product and supply chain information lives, and where the blind spots are. Bring procurement, engineering, and sustainability together. Not just in meetings, but in shared tools that support collaborative decisions. Choose one product line or region and run a pilot. See what insights you can get and how fast. And remember: you don’t need perfect data to get going. Transparency and progress aren’t mutually exclusive. They grow together.
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About the Author
Makersite
Makersite is a Product Lifecycle Intelligence software tailored for the global manufacturing industry. Harnessing groundbreaking AI technology, Makersite empowers product teams to efficiently manage sustainability, cost, and compliance, turning complex multi-level criteria analysis and decisions at scale from months to minutes. Founded in 2018 by industry veterans, the Stuttgart-based company boasts team members across Europe, Asia, and North America supporting a customer portfolio of industry trailblazers such as Microsoft, Schaeffler, Cummins, and Vestas.
Makersite simplifies intricate product and supply chain data tasks by creating digital twins of product models. Enriched with global supply chain data, these models offer a comprehensive view of a product's environmental, cost, and compliance impact throughout its lifecycle. Makersite accelerates the product development process, allowing teams to effectively identify cost-saving and eco-friendly strategies in real-time. The result is a faster and more collaborative approach to product development. Visit makersite.io to learn more about Makersite's innovative solutions.
Makersite simplifies intricate product and supply chain data tasks by creating digital twins of product models. Enriched with global supply chain data, these models offer a comprehensive view of a product's environmental, cost, and compliance impact throughout its lifecycle. Makersite accelerates the product development process, allowing teams to effectively identify cost-saving and eco-friendly strategies in real-time. The result is a faster and more collaborative approach to product development. Visit makersite.io to learn more about Makersite's innovative solutions.