Stratasys Made Sustainability an Executive Role. Other AM Makers Should Follow.

The Job Hardly Existed Five Years Ago

When Yoav Zeif joined Stratasys as CEO just before the pandemic, one of his first conversations with Rosa Coblens turned into something more significant than most early CEO chats. The additive manufacturing industry was focused on speed, customisation, and material capability. No one was seriously talking about sustainability as a competitive advantage.

Coblens saw the gap and, with Zeif's backing, turned it into a role. She became one of the first Vice Presidents of Sustainability at a major 3D printing company. Today she leads ESG strategy, climate risk management, sustainable product development, and customer-facing programmes that help manufacturers measure how AM supports their own decarbonisation goals.

Why AM Is Uniquely Positioned

The argument for AM as a sustainability technology is not marketing fluff. Additive manufacturing produces material close to the final shape, which means less waste than subtractive methods. It enables on-demand local production, which cuts shipping emissions. It supports circular economy models because parts can be redesigned and reprinted rather than retooled. And it extends the life of legacy equipment by printing replacement parts on demand instead of warehousing spares that may never be needed.

The problem was that these benefits were rarely quantified or communicated. Coblens' role exists to fix that: turning qualitative advantages into data that procurement teams and sustainability officers can actually use.

The Customer Conversation

The most practical part of Coblens' work is helping customers understand their own AM-related emissions. Most manufacturers have no idea how much CO2 their supply chains generate per part. AM changes that calculation by shortening the chain and reducing transport, but only if you measure it properly.

Stratasys has been building tools and frameworks that let customers track the carbon footprint of printed parts against traditionally manufactured equivalents. That kind of transparency is still unusual in the 3D printing industry, which has historically relied on performance claims rather than environmental data.

Where the Industry Goes Next

The Stratasys model is notable because it made sustainability an executive function, not a CSR footnote. Other AM manufacturers will face pressure to follow that structure as industrial buyers add environmental criteria to procurement requirements. The EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism and similar policies in other markets will make part-level emissions data a compliance requirement, not a marketing extra.

Coblens' career arc, from a conversation with the CEO to running one of the most influential sustainability roles in AM, shows that the industry is finally starting to treat environmental performance as a first-class design constraint rather than an afterthought.