Eco-redesign of a personal electronic product subject to the energy-using product directive

Abstract

It cannot be denied that environmental consciousness is becoming important. Ironically, legislation is probably the most satisfactory driver for pushing manufacturers to take environmental concerns into design considerations. In fact, the European Union introduced a new law (directive 2005/32/EC) for regulating the environmental consequences of all energy-using products (EuPs) in August 2007, the scope of which covers all products that rely on energy sources in any form for operation. Design alternatives are required in the product development stage so that environmental concerns can be considered as a decision parameter. In complying with the directive, life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful tool to draw conclusions and to compare the performance of alternatives. In this connection, a case study is carried out to assess the environmental impact of a personal electronic product through LCA, subject to the scope of the stated directive. The objectives of this paper are threefold: (i) to report the case in relation to the directive; (ii) to summarise the results of the LCA accordingly; and (iii) to suggest a new conceptual design and to compare the LCA of this new design with the original design.

Keywords:

• eco-design
• life-cycle assessment
• electronic products
• environment
• case study

Acknowledgements

The work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant from the Innovation and Technology Commission of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (project No. GHP/050/05). The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers who provided the authors with insightful and constructive comments that helped to improve the quality of the paper.