Printed Circuit Design & Fab - March 2009 - (Page 41) GReeN manufacturInG electronics as a solution for sustainability Our collective industry holds potential for far-reaching energyefficient impacts. by MARKUS STUTz and RoBERT C. PFAhL, JR. Over the past several years, environmental sustainability has evolved into a more refined technical discipline. The imperative is clear: We, as global citizens and industry leaders, have an incumbent responsibility and opportunity to minimize the environmental impact from our operations, products and services. To date, most “environmental” initiatives within the electronics industry have focused primarily on the potential pollutants that might occur as a result of manufacturing processes or end-of-life disposal of products. As a result, efforts have centered on elimination of substances (most notably, lead), along with recycling/reuse and take-back, much of which has been driven by legislative requirements. In addition, individual firms have focused on energy efficiency to make their products more competitive. There is, however, another — more significant — aspect, and that is the electronics industry as a solution for climate change. While there is the responsibility to minimize the environmental impact from operations, products and services, the compelling news is that the industry has a particular opportu- eLV chanGes affect automotIVe eLectronIcs The European Union’s End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) Directive addresses pollution resulting from vehicles by encouraging re-use, recycling and other forms of recovery of vehicles and their components at the end of their useful life. The directive also bans certain hazardous substances. Last August, the EU Commission amended Annex II of the directive, banning the use of lead solder in electronic circuit boards and other electrical applications for vehicles and spare parts that are type-approved after Dec 31, 2010. nity to use its products and services to help society function more efficiently and easily, while consuming less material and energy resources. A recent article in The Economist1 references a GeSI (Global e-Sustainability Initiative) report, saying “the savings made possible by computing’s ‘enabling effects’ could amount to five times computing’s own footprint.” Another report predicts that electronics-enabled solutions could cut annual CO2 emissions in the U.S. by 13% to 22% from business-as-usual projections for 2020. This translates to gross energy and fuel savings of $140 billion to $240 billion.2 Between 1990 and 2007, the economic output of the European Union grew almost 40%, and its per capita incomes by more than a third.3 Yet, its energy requirements and power consumption, while rising, did so by only 11%. This “decoupling,” as it has been called, of economic growth and energy use, shows that today, more can be done with each unit of energy consumed. Statistics from the US show a similar trend: The amount of energy needed to produce a dollar of economic output has fallen by 50% since 1970.4 If productivity can rise without a similar increase in energy consumption, then an environmentally sustainable, low-carbon economy is realistically achievable. The electronics industry is in a unique position to demonstrate leadership in reducing its own footprint by creating energy efficient solutions5 for other sectors through structural change and innovation. Structural change is the contribution by the industry to re-engineer the way organizations operate. Replacing products with online services (e.g., newsletters), moving business to the Internet (e.g., customer support) and adopting technology-enabled ways of working (e.g., telecommuting, videoconferencing) are great first examples of the changes the industry can produce. PRINTED CIRCUIT DESIGN & FAB 41 MARCH 2009
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