Panasonic has spent $150 million over the last several years designing DfE products, according to David Thompson, director of Panasonic’s corporate environmental department.
One of the most recent examples of Panasonic’s DfE philosophy is its Lumix DMC-FX9 digital camera. It weighs only 4.4 oz, preserving material resources. (Fig. 2 )
Panasonic’s parent, Matsushita Electric, set criteria for accrediting Green Products (GPs) in 2002 to accelerate the development of environment-conscious products. The company says it will apply stricter criteria to accredit GPs after fiscal 2006. The Matsushita Group expects to increase its GP development rate (that is, total sales of the GPs developed during the fiscal year) to 90% of its products in fiscal 2011.
Philips Electronics has focused on five environmentally sensitive areas in its product designs: weight, hazardous substances, energy consumption, recycling and disposal, and packaging. Reiner Jens, president of Philips Consumer Electronics, North America, says Philips’ EcoDesign approach requires designers to analyze every stage of product life cycle and integrate environmental considerations in their design goals.
Sony, meanwhile, has developed a wide range of environmental processes--starting with design and running through manufacturing and recycling in an environmental management system process cycle it calls Plan, Do, Check, and Act.
Sharp Electronics’ 45-in. flat-screen Aquos LC-TV uses five different power modes to control energy consumption. It also uses lead-free solder and weighs 58% less than most conventional 36-in. CRT TV models. Also, 20% of the plastic in the cabinet of the Aquos is recycled material.
Intel has been working the DfE issue for some time, mainly in the area of power efficiency. According to its 2004 Global Citizenship Report, Intel is exploring new process technologies. These include transistor materials and structures, innovative circuit and microarchitecture designs, novel packaging materials, and software optimization techniques that provide comprehensive power-efficient solutions.
Intel says that in the next decade, it expects to see a number of architectural changes at every level—from transistor structure to the integration of entire systems—driving a key goal: to maximize power efficiency at every phase of design.
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