Environmental Project, 960 – Environmental Assessment of Product Concept for Electronic Products

Environmental Assessment of Product Concept for Electronic Products

4 The Eco-design Guide

4.1 Background
4.2 Purpose and target group
4.3 Content
   4.3.1 Green Tutorial
   4.3.2 Implementation of Eco-Design
   4.3.3 Assessment of product concepts (present project)
   4.3.4 Eco-Design Guidelines
   4.3.5 Environmental Calculators
   4.3.6 Hazardous Chemicals

A main objective in the diffusion of the results of the project has been to integrate the method into the tool “A Designer's Guide to Eco-Conscious Design of Electrical & Electronic Equipment” (Eco-design Guide) [1]. This tool is already familiar to a large number of Danish electronic companies.

4.1 Background

The Eco-design Guide has been developed in Denmark in cooperation between:

The Institute for Product Development (IPU)
Danish Toxicology Centre (DTC)
GN-Teknik

Danish companies in the electronics industry, especially Ericsson Diax A/S, Grundfos A/S, Kamstrup A/S, H.J.Hansen Elektromiljø A/S, Tellabs Denmark A/S, Focon Electronic Systems A/S and Sauer-Danfoss A/S have been involved in both setting up the requirements and the final testing.

The guide integrates the results of several projects focusing on the environmental aspects of electrical- and electronic equipment seen in a life cycle perspective.

4.2 Purpose and target group

It has been the objective to cover all the needs in a company that has decided to make improvements with regard to the environmental aspects of its products, and to have this as an ongoing standard activity in the development process. Such an activity is normally referred to as “Design for Environment (DfE)” or "Eco-conscious Design" or just Eco-design.

This guide is aimed at all individuals involved in the design and development of electrical and electronic equipment, for example:

Personnel from management and marketing
Engineers (mechanics, electronics, software etc.)
Quality/environmental specialists

4.3 Content

4.3.1 Green Tutorial

This section is meant to be the designer's first introduction to environmental issues within electrical and electronic equipment. It provides the reader with a basic understanding of how products in general interact with the environment and why it is necessary to take environmental issues into account when developing electrical and electronic equipment.

4.3.2 Implementation of Eco-Design

The section outlines the tasks and responsibilities involved in Eco-Design, and it offers some examples of how to choose and measure environmental metrics.

4.3.3 Assessment of product concepts (present project)

The purpose of this section is to provide a tool for simple environmental assessment already at the very early stage of product development, when the product concept is being determined.

It is the ambition to outline in general those environmental issues that bear relevance to the product and to acquire a basic understanding of the environmental aspects of the product and the life the product will lead once it has left the drawing board and the manufacturing facilities.

4.3.4 Eco-Design Guidelines

The guidelines cover all the standard environmental aspects of electrical and electronic equipment (materials, production, use-phase, end-of-life), and give advice on how to minimise the environmental impacts from such equipment.

They also contain information about specific requirements in legislation and various environmental labelling schemes.

4.3.5 Environmental Calculators

A core function of the Eco-Design guide is a module of “Environmental Calculators”. These Environmental Calculators enable the designer to compare the environmental impacts from the entire life cycle of different design alternatives. This can be done already in the concept phase, where very few data are available and again before the design is finalised.

These calculations are based on a database where values represent a simplified environmental impact assessment and where no more than two selected parameters are used to describe the impacts. One of the parameters is the Energy parameter, representing the total primary energy used. The other is the Resource parameter, representing the resource depletion involved.

There are three calculators in the tool:

Calculator I is intended - with a minimum of effort - to give a very rough overview of the environmental aspects of the life cycle of a product.
Calculator II can be used to make a more detailed assessment and material declarations based on generic life cycle inventory data for electronic components.
Calculator III can predict the consequences of different end-of-life scenarios based on the design of the electronic product. Key-values for end-of-life can be calculated.

4.3.6 Hazardous Chemicals

This section gives inspiration on how metrics for reduction of dangerous chemicals / substances can be set when developing new products. It contains "Tools for identification of listed chemicals" and simple tools for prioritising your efforts regarding chemical substances.

The Danish EPA (Miljøstyrelsen) has funded the development of the Eco-design Guide, and it is available free of charge from:

http://www.ecodesignguide.dk or from http://www.elektronikpanelet.dk.