A joint industry approach to environmental impact evaluation of electrical and electronic products

A collaborative project between five member companies of the French Federation des Industries Electriques et Electronique (FIEE; Federation of Electrical and Electronic Industries) has conceived and is currently developing a methodology for the assessment of environmental impacts of product designs. The methodology is based on the considerations of environmental impacts associated with all phases of a product's life cycle, including manufacture, distribution, use, and disposal; and it allows product design engineers and other non-environmental specialists to understand not only a collective set of environmental impact categories, but also the probable sources of those impacts that may result from a product design. This methodology extends the state-of-art of design for environment (DFE) tools by supplementing more traditional life cycle impact analysis with some new parameters that evaluate the construction of a product as well as its content. These parameters provide more direction to the designer for improvement of the product design and help to communicate specific information relative to design rules, standards, or specific company requirements. This paper describes the characteristics of the software tool and the associated database which comprise the methodology for product Environmental IMpact Evaluation (EIME). The structure of the methodology permits its application to all types of products. The flexibility of the tool configuration affords customization to each company in which it is implemented.