This week at SXSW, we announced our new initiative: massless.
The massless mission is to reduce global energy usage by 25% by 2050. Achieving this will require restructuring our global manufacturing infrastructure, simplifying distributed digital manufacturing technologies, empowering consumers with insight into the embodied energy of their purchasing decisions, and training the next generation of engineers to leverage a massless mindset to tread lightly on our planet – all while accelerating economic opportunities.
Energy is mass. Mass is energy.
Humanity can't count on the speed of light to change anytime soon. To lower our energy footprint, we need to lower our mass. massless is a movement to leverage new innovations in digital manufacturing to dramatically lower the embodied energy of our physical world.
massless is a state of mind, centered around four principles:
- massless
- less mass
- less waste
- less movement
To achieve the massless mission, we will need every tool in the toolbox: augmented reality, design for additive manufacturing, topology optimization, education, customer co-creation, metamaterials, virtual inventories, advanced automation...the possibilities are endless.
We sincerely hope that you will join us on this mission.
We certainly can't do it alone.
Masslessly Yours,
Raymond Weitekamp
P.S. - 25% by 2050? Yes.
P.P.S. - Are you crazy? Crazy about climate. These targets are ambitious but achievable in a world of distributed digital manufacturing. Here is a link to the publication that inspired these targets: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421517306997
