Built to Last: AI, Circularity, and the Future of Product Design

Pari: Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Zinnov Podcast, Business Resilience series. Today, I’m thrilled to be joined by two exceptional leaders from PTC: Catherine Kniker, who also goes by CK, Chief Marketing and Sustainability Officer, and Dave Duncan, Head of Sustainability. We’re here to discuss their vision and how product sustainability can improve both our environment and business success.

Welcome, CK and Dave.

CK, your extensive experience across sustainability, corporate development, strategy, and marketing is impressive. And Dave, with your twenty years at PTC, your vision for driving sustainability is truly inspiring. Before we dive into our main topic, I’d love to hear what sparked your passion for sustainability.

Catherine: First, thank you, Pari, for hosting us. We’re delighted. Anytime we get a chance to speak on the topic of sustainability, we’re happy.

Maybe two things for me—one is personal and one is more business-related. Having grown up on a farm in Ireland, I didn’t realize how sustainably I grew up. We had chickens, milk, vegetables, and so on. Over time, I came to see how much food waste exists in the world. Food is a basic human need, yet in some parts of the world, there’s a lot of it thrown away, while in others, people are saving every bit. That always made me think—how can I do something about that?

Then moving to PTC, I realized that 54% of the world’s energy is consumed by manufacturers. These same manufacturers use more of the Earth’s materials than the planet can regenerate, and waste is at an all-time high. Looking at it from a strategy perspective for PTC, I saw an enormous opportunity to do something at scale that would be meaningful. To combine career and a passion for impact—it’s a wonderful opportunity.

Pari: That’s a luxury in life.

Catherine: A luxury and a privilege.

Dave: Yeah, my origin story is pretty much the exact opposite of CK’s. While she grew up in a sustainable, rural way without knowing it, I grew up in Hartford, Connecticut in the ’70s and ’80s. My mom’s side of the family was from Boston, and my dad’s side from New York.

I grew up in a polluted environment—cars emitted heavily, the air was full of smog, and litter was everywhere. Even as a child, I knew those things were wrong. I was always a cheerleader for solar panels, electric vehicles—things that were considered hobbies for the wealthy back then.

Professionally, as sustainability became financially viable, it was the perfect time for me to pivot into the field.

Catherine: When we decided to double down on sustainability at PTC, I had no idea that Dave had this passion. I was looking for a Head of Sustainability, and through an accidental conversation, I realized how passionate and knowledgeable he was—not just about sustainability but about our product portfolio and customer base. It was a marriage made in heaven.

Pari: Awesome. It’s great to see how it all came together.

Catherine: Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than smart!

Pari: Let’s start with customers. How have customer expectations on sustainability solutions changed over time, and how is that informing PTC’s business strategy?

Catherine: If you look at end-to-end customer sentiment, whether it’s for clothes or cars, people generally prefer the more sustainable option over the traditional, more polluting one. That used to come with a high price, but the gap is starting to close.

There’s now a far greater preference across industries for greener options, which presents a huge opportunity for manufacturers.

Dave: Completely agree.

Pari: Dave, you’ve been working on a vision for product sustainability at PTC. What’s the role of sustainability across the product lifecycle?

Dave: Simply put, for discrete manufacturing—which includes anything from a toaster oven to a battleship—it’s about material use and reducing fossil energy in the value chain.

The main impacts from discrete products are: hazardous material leakage into air, water, or land; carbon pollution; and the depletion of finite materials.

To illustrate, let’s take Cummins Engines. They manufacture diesel and alternative fuel engines. Reducing weight in their designs improves energy efficiency. With generative design tools like CAD, they can remove 20–30% of weight without sacrificing performance. A director at Cummins said new grads could create more elegant designs with generative tools than he could with 30 years of experience. That’s the power of digital engineering.

Pari: You also mentioned circularity. Most people think of recycling, but you have a broader view.

Dave: Yes. In our industry, we use the term REX, which prioritizes actions as follows: Reduce, Repair, Refurbish/Remanufacture, and lastly, Recycle.

Many products are durable and repairable. At end of life, refurbishing or remanufacturing is far better than shredding or melting them. Modular design makes this possible, and we support that with both software and hardware tools.

Pari: Let’s talk about AI. Leaders like Jensen Huang and Eric Schmidt say AI will be a major energy consumer, but it also reduces mechanical components and can help sustainability. What’s your take?

Catherine: Jensen talks a lot about physical AI—transforming how companies view products as services instead of one-time capital outlays. Take cars: most of the time, they’re idle. If autonomous driving becomes mainstream, we’ll need fewer vehicles, with better utilization. That means a lower footprint.

Similarly, in factories, machine utilization is often limited by human interaction. AI can optimize that. Sure, energy demand may go up, but carbon footprint goes down.

Pari: Plus, we’ll likely see innovations in renewable energy and more efficient chip designs.

Catherine: Exactly. Technology evolves rapidly, and we’ll see more efficient AI architectures.

Pari: A common concern is that building sustainable products is expensive. Is that a myth or reality?

Dave: In the right context, it’s a myth. Sure, a net-zero, fully circular product might cost more today. But you can achieve 50% of your net-zero goals profitably with today’s approaches.

For example, reducing material use cuts both carbon and cost. Every time you emit carbon, you’re spending—be it through inefficient manufacturing, expedited shipping, or unnecessary part replacements.

That’s the core idea of our book, Product Sustainability for Dummies. It’s about what companies can do profitably now, and what to plan for longer-term.

Catherine: To make sustainability stick, early initiatives must be both profitable and sustainable.

Pari: What other trends are you seeing in product sustainability?

Catherine: Decarbonization is urgent and visible, but we believe circularity should be the focus. It uses fewer materials and reduces the need for raw resource extraction, which helps with decarbonization and cost.

It also supports supply chain resilience—you’re reusing materials already in your system. And regulation is accelerating this shift. For instance, digital product passports will likely force circularity faster than market forces alone.

Pari: Tariffs and local regulations will probably amplify this as well.

Catherine: Absolutely. And while sustainability might not feel as “hot” in the U.S. right now, our global customers are still very focused on it.

Pari: For someone new to sustainability—say a Head of Engineering—how should they get started?

Dave: We go into detail in the book, but two key areas are modular design and understanding emissions across the lifecycle.

Only 1–10% of emissions come from the factory. Over 80% come from upstream components. Circularity helps avoid repeating that energy-intensive cycle.

Modular design is intuitive—think of Lego. Kids reassemble them for generations. Products can be built the same way.

This applies to software too. A modern EV’s “skateboard” platform is reusable, but only if both hardware and software are modular.

Pari: That makes sense. Start where impact is highest—modularity and circularity.

Dave: Exactly. That approach scales into field servicing, disassembly, and reuse.

Catherine: And PTC’s tools help enable this—PLM, ALM—defining requirements with sustainability in mind yields long-term benefits.

Pari: So sustainability can also drive revenue growth?

Catherine: Absolutely. For initiatives to last, they must be good for business and the world.

Pari: I’ve known you, CK, for a decade. You constantly step out of your comfort zone. What leadership traits help with that?

Catherine: I’m a builder. Once a problem is solved, I move on to the next. My guiding principle is to leave things better than I found them—projects, teams, organizations.

This role in sustainability is especially fulfilling because it’s about leaving the world better. The scale of impact we can have through our customers is enormous. I could never achieve that alone—it’s deeply motivating.

Pari: This podcast is about business resilience. Can you share examples where sustainability strengthens resilience?

Dave: Absolutely. One example is a mining equipment customer in Europe. Mining is critical to the energy transition—we need metals for batteries, grids, and more.

This company remanufactures drills with 80% lower footprint, lower costs, and better margins. Customers prefer these over new ones.

They also realized that returning equipment to Europe for remanufacture was inefficient. So they now do distributed remanufacturing locally—in Alaska, Australia, etc.—making them more resilient to tariffs, export restrictions, and supply chain shocks.

Catherine: And once again, it all ties back to circularity.

Pari: Thank you, CK and Dave. Sustainability isn’t just about protecting future generations—it’s profitable, drives revenue, and builds resilience.

Catherine: Absolutely.

Pari: So why not go for it? A big thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this episode of Business Resilience. I’m your host, Pari Natarajan. See you in the next episode.