Cleaner Technology Projects in Denmark 1996
Guidelines for the Development of Sustainable Electronic Products
Retningslinier for udvikling af bæredygtig elektronik
Miljørapport nr. 319, 1996, Miljøstyrelsen
In the past years environment, work environment and use of resources have been paid increasing attention. This fact has resulted in increasing demands for products that cause minimum effects on the environment throughout their life cycle and aim at a sustainable production. Therefore, it is considered relevant to give firms the possibility to chose environmentally friendly alternatives and thereby encourage them to move towards more environmentally friendly products. This report is a guide to firms to stimulate a production of electronic products, which is both economically sustainable and causes less damage to the environment.
Production will always affect the external environment and the work environment and draw on the resources to a varying extent. The effects depend on:
 | The composition of the product |
| The materials used for the product |
| The processes of the production |
| The transportation and use of the product |
| The disposal of the product |
These parameters can normally be influenced to the benefit of the environment, if the firms, when developing their products, are aware of the existing possibilities and at the same time pursue an environmentally friendly policy.
Especially regarding the electronics industry, which manufactures very complex products, it is a far-reaching assignment to describe effects on the environment. Therefore, many electronics businesses find it difficult to incorporate the environmental parameters in their product development. This guide was developed to help these businesses. The guide contains two types of information:
| A short introduction to environmental issues and environmental concepts. Concepts and terminology concern the external environment, the work environment and use of resources. |
| Environmental guidelines for materials, electronic components and processes for production of electronic products. |
One chapter in the report is dedicated to the evaluation of the environment. The chapter gives a brief presentation of the procedure to follow when evaluating the environment and offers tools to an environmental evaluation of the products. Following issues are examined:
| Awareness of the environment in the process of product development including Life Cycle Assessment. |
| Insufficient technical data and guidelines |
| The life cycle of a product |
| Evaluation of the environment |
| The Danish UMIP method, which is based on SETAC (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry) principles. |
The procedure is illustrated through two examples.
One section treats the conventional materials and processes. The section illustrates the life cycle of typical electronics products with a view to composition of materials and production processes. The guidelines are information about the environmental consequences that are typically connected to the choices regarding the manufacturing of products, materials and processes. The guidelines are based on knowledge of environmental issues and on experience drawn from earlier environmental evaluations. They give information about what is considered appropriate environmental practise. The guidelines are structured in a way that they follow the typical process of choices in the development of electronics products.
The Guidelines consists of a number of data sheets and are classified in different fields of study. They describe random electronic equipment and give information about the following three levels:
| A general description of environmental concepts and environmental consequences in connection with the production and disposal of electronic equipment. |
| A detailed description of the main components in electronic equipment. |
| A detailed description of different types of components and materials. |
The guidelines contain an extensive appendix of data sheets and a table of contents to present an overview of these.
Author/ institution
Danfoss A/S, M-Tec ApS, Instituttet for Produktudvikling
This report is subsidised by the National Council for Recycling and Cleaner Technology
ISSN no. 0105-3094
ISBN no. 87-7810-574-9