Procurement of components for environmentally compatible electronic products

The electronics sector will be attaching increasing importance to the environmental procurement of materials and components for inclusion in products. This will result partly from future producer responsibility imposed on the manufacturers, and partly from the fact that the manufacturers' own customers (i.e. the users of electronic products or systems) will increasingly specify their own environmental requirements when purchasing. This will require greater awareness on the parts of designers, purchasers and marketing/sales departments. It also requires high-quality tools for specification and procurement. The key issues of environmental procurement is to obtain environmental data of components and materials and of the suppliers' and manufacturers' operation, to make a proper selection of these and to create environmental data about the electronic products, supporting marketing and recycling of the products.