Now that the dust is beginning to settle on the European Union’s Restrictions
on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive, what’s next? What new environmental
legislation will change the way the indus- try designs its products? It pretty
much comes down to two key words: energy efficiency.
The EU will phase in its Energy-Using Products (EuP) directive beginning in
August 2007. Like RoHS when it was first introduced, the EU is still tweaking
the language of EuP, which calls for the development of more energy-efficient
products. Its impact will be significant, with much of the industry already
working on EuP-compliant designs.
“The whole idea of managed power is definitely gaining traction in the
industry,” says Martin Mason, director of silicon product marketing at
Actel Corp. “When chip companies are playing the environmental angle,
you know there’s some kind of megatrend going on here.”
The United States—which has lagged well behind the curve until recently
in developing, promoting, and procuring environmentally sound products—is
beginning to pick up the slack. Curiously, both the federal government and major
corporations are leading the way.
In January, President George W. Bush signed an executive order requiring federal
agencies to consider environmental issues when purchasing information technology
(IT) equipment. Executive Order 13423—Strengthening Federal Environmental,
Energy, and Transportation Management— directs federal agencies to include
eco-friendly design, energy efficiency, materials choices, acquisition, specifications,
distribution, and recycling of electronics in its procurement planning.
With a federal IT budget that exceeds $65 billion, the industry is paying close
attention to the new White House order. EO 13423 currently covers only desktop
and laptop computers and monitors. In time, though, it will add other electronic
products like TVs, imaging devices (printers and copiers), cellular phones,
PDAs, and computer servers.
Implementing the policies of the EO requires electronics purchased by federal
agencies to meet at least 95% of the requirements of Electronic Product Environment
Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registered products, unless there’s no EPEAT
standard for such products. Computers and monitors also will require Energy
Star features.
SETTING THE STANDARD
EPEAT requirements are based on a set of standards established by several stakeholders,
including industry companies, under IEEE 1680, published in 2006. I specifies
23 required and 28 optional criteria across eight areas of environmental impact
covering all product life-cycle stages. IEEE 1680 integrates a wide variety
of existing regulations and standards, including the Energy Star program and
the EU’s RoHS and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directives.
Putting additional pressure on anyone who hopes to do business with the U.S.
government, the new EO also calls for every agency to “seek to reduce”
the environmental and energy impact on how they purchase electronic equipment.
That means they must take into account improvements in the design and materials
choices of new electronic equipment.
The EO also requires federal agencies to report their progress on procuring
“green” electronics at least annually. Federal agencies with special
requirements—the Pentagon is one example—will be given more room
to operate when it comes to the electronics hardware they’re allowed
to procure.
It’s not clear at this point how much of the federally procured electronics
is actually “green” by EPEAT standards. But a multi-agency committee
headed by the White House Office of the Federal Environmental Executive (OFEE)
has been meeting regularly to develop a plan on how to create a database for
this information.
EPEAT TAKES ON NEW LIFE
Some research indicates that companies are already picking up the pace in adopting
EPEAT-registered products and Energy Star requirements. The Green Electronics
Council (GEC), the agency that administers EPEAT, says that about 36 million
EPEAT-registered products were sold over a seven-month span last year (July
through December).