Sustainability is no longer just a moral imperative or a regulatory requirement—it’s a strategic advantage. By integrating sustainable practices into operations, companies can enhance efficiency, drive innovation, and unlock unique competitive capabilities. For instance, supply chain data can support sustainability compliance while serving as a foundation for mitigating quality issues. Scope 3 data chains, originally developed for CO₂ emission tracking, can be expanded to include additional variables for quality control. This enables targeted traceability of faulty components, leading to precise, cost-effective recalls. Moreover, this enriched supply chain data facilitates the creation of accurate digital twins. These digital twins allow time-saving simulations, significantly accelerating product development cycles and achieving product launch cadences with"China-speed" efficiency.
Figure 1: Venue and keynote talks on sustainability with data ecosystems
AWS workshop: Automotive experts and digital practitioners
This event brought together green experts, scalability specialists (AWS revolutionized cloud computing), digital twin innovators (Bosch), and data ecosystem pioneers to share their best practices with a management audience on leveraging sustainability investments for strategic advantage. Hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) at its innovation center in the Bavarian capital Munich, Germany, the event welcomed guests from the automotive industry, which contributes significantly to global CO₂ emissions, and has become a leader in sustainability efforts. Our guests include executives from: Bosch, the world’s No 1 automotive supplier; Flex, a leading automotive tier 1 supplier based in Silicon Valley; WITTE Automotive, a global leader in vehicle access systems; and the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA), a pioneer in dataspaces.
Figure 2: Case study, expert panel, and after party
Dataspace as enabler, open-source software, ‘small worlds’ networks
Our workshop featured keynotes, case study presentations, and a panel session, followed by a closing reception. Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the setting and format, showcasing expert keynotes, case study presentations, and a panel discussion, all with active participation from a management executive audience.
- Figure 1 depicts scenery near AWS innovation center in Munich, keynote by Thomas Blood (AWS Sustainability Lead EMEA), and case study by ‘Shaan’ Shanawaz Sheik (Flex Automotive Director Sustainability) and Chris Langdon (Telekom Biz Dev Exec & Catena-X Product Manager; Professor & Director Peter Drucker Customer Lab Drucker School of Management).
- Figure 2 shows first Q&A sessions with Jonas Bürkel (AWS Sustainability Architect – and our ‘master of ceremony’), Chris Langdon and Shaan Sheik, our panel with Dr. Birgit Boss (Bosch’s digital twin (DT) guru), Michael Tworek (Head of Digital Innovations WITTE Automotive), Christoph Mertens (Head of Adoption International Data Spaces Association, IDSA), moderated by Chris Langdon; and after party participants.
Our keynote speaker, presenters, panel shared a few TRICKS from practice:
- Thomas Blood, AWS Sustainability Lead EMEA: Organize to be data-driven—be smart, don't reinvent, reuse 'small worlds' organizational science, think ecosystems as a network of networks.
- Shanawaz Sheik, Flex Automotive Director Sustainability: Start now—CO2 data chains and Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) tracking are possible thanks to interoperability with Catena-X across various applications, such as from SAP, Siemens, SupplyOn, and T-Systems International.
- Dr. Birgit Boss, Bosch’s digital twin (DT) guru: Use DT to (a) save coordination costs across supply chain tiers and (b) profit from reuse across use cases.
- Michael Tworek, Head of Digital Innovations WITTE Automotive: Launch quickly with Software-as-a-Service solutions (SaaS) that preserve capital and iterate rapidly.
- Christoph Mertens, Head of Adoption IDSA: Benefit from IDSA standards, such as the IDS Dataspace Protocol to ensure interoperability and global expandability.
Our workshop uncovered key INSIGHTS on how to turn sustainability into strategic advantage:
- Dataspace technology’s USP—cross-organization data sharing—is enabling new business networks, driving shared investments in challenges like sustainability and supply chain resilience, with unmatched scalability.
- Early success stories show sustainability as a surprising driver of digital transformation—for example, enabling automotive OEMs to identify 3rd- and 4th-tier suppliers through Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) tracking.
- Start focused and expand iteratively just as demonstrated in our PCF pilot by Ford-Flex launched at CES 2024 (IBM’s 2min video, TSI LinkedIn post 3 of 3), expanded by Flex to include its tier-2 supplier, Murata, at Hannover Fair (Flex LinkedIn post, TSI insights story)
Important links
- Our data chain products: Connect & Integrate
- Our Dataspace-as-a-service products: Build & Operate
- Ford-Flex-TSI success story in detail: CES24
- More about our partnership with AWS
- Winning with digital twins and partnership with Bosch Connected Industry
References
Schlueter Langdon, C., and K. Schweichhart. 2022. Dataspaces: First Applications in Mobility and Industry. In: Otto, B. et al. (eds.). Dataspaces – Part IV Solutions & Applications. Springer Nature, Switzerland: 493 - 511, link
Uzzi, B., and J. Spiro. 2005. Collaboration and creativity: The small world problem. American Journal of Sociology 111(2): 447-504, https://doi.org/10.1086/4
