Building an EcoDesign toolkit for the electronics industry

Global companies are beginning to recognize the health, safety, environmental and economic benefits of resource management programs that lead to a position of sustainable development. As a result, many such companies are developing and beginning to implement design practices that consider environmental aspects across all life stages of their products (raw material acquisition, manufacturing, packaging/distribution, use/service, and end-of-life management). The Ecobilan Group's Environmental Information & Management Explorer (EIME) tool was developed to enable eco-design practices in the electronics industry. To illustrate the utility of EIME, a case study performed by the Eastman Kodak Company (Kodak) during pilot testing of the software is presented and discussed. Pilot study experience indicates that several enhancements to the tool are necessary for broad use. The Ecobilan Group is working in partnership with Kodak and potentially other stakeholders to further enhance the EIME tool. Enhancements that have been identified include expanding the capability to model product end-of-life alternatives, incorporating a single-figure eco-efficiency index for scoring environmental performance of products, expanding the current life cycle inventory database, and developing connectivity between EIME and predict data management libraries.