Environmental concerns are capturing the national agenda. Gas prices have hit an all-time high; consumers are spending a bundle at the pumps; and America's dependence on oil from unstable regions such as the Middle East and Venezuela have become hot-button issues. Additionally, Gallup's annual Earth Day survey revealed that Americans are becoming more concerned about the environment, and national knowledge of global warming and climate change have increased. Some say we're in the midst of the "neo-green movement" or the "hybrid revolution"-a movement not based on hemp clothing-but the emergence of an environmentalism that values sustainability, as well as capitalism.

Increasingly, activists, historians and politicians of the 1960s and 1970s believe there are parallels between today's mounting public concern over global warming and the prelude to our nation's last great era of environmental reform. These experts say that during the original environmental movement, support for ambitious government action came from a broad array of groups responding to an impending sense of crisis. Perhaps riding this undercurrent, and also following a precedent set by Europe and Asia, American states are eager to pass energy efficiency regulations for consumer electronics (CE) products. The patchwork of state electronics recycling initiatives continues to burgeon with a sense of urgency.

The good news is that the CE industry is getting prepared and will be in a position to set an example for global industry. Well before increased public concern, or any hint of a new brand of environmentalism, the CE industry has been constructing its environmental vision and proactively improving its eco-efficiency with a mantra of proactive, voluntary prevention versus a legislated or regulated cure.

READY OR NOT ... HERE IT COMES

Though it may not make the papers or be brandished by an advertising campaign, this summer will bring shelves upon shelves of greener CE products worldwide. July 1, 2006 is a date that has loomed on the horizon for CE manufacturers since 2003 when the European Commission handed down its Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (nicknamed RoHS) along with an ambitious and daunting three-year compliance deadline.

The directive sought to restrict the use of certain chemical substances found in electronics to preclude their eventual addition to Europe's landfills-an objective linked to the European Commission's broader, overall agenda on the management of electronic waste. On August 13, 2005, the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive made manufacturers responsible for recycling their products and issued a system of shared responsibility among manufacturers for "historical" waste (i.e., products put on the market prior to August 13, 2005).

Sharp plans to expand the development of what it calls "super green" factories, technologies, product and devices which, as the moniker suggests, goes beyond being simply "green" and meets stringent environmental-impact standards.

Also in the vein of "producer responsibility"-defined as the company that manufactures and sells the product under its brand name-and assigned to the end of the product lifecycle, RoHS dictates product design must limit the amount of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and two types of flame retardants widely used in CE products. However, the EU recognizes several exemptions that include allowing lead in the glass of cathode ray tubes (to protect against radiation) and allowing mercury in back-lighting (for energy efficiency reasons).

To enforce compliance, the RoHS directive allows the 25 EU member states to ban the sale of products that contain these chemicals and to levy substantial fines on product manufacturers. Thus, under RoHS, manufacturers face the daunting prospect of forfeiting participation in the robust European market with its population of 450 million and a gross domestic product that rivals that of the U.S. What's more, RoHS principles and reach are global and indicate that any product or component covered by RoHS entering the EU must be in compliance, which includes cables made in China, parts molded in the U.S. and flame retardants made in Japan.

If it's destined for the EU, it's impacted by RoHS. So not only did RoHS compliance demand focus and dedicated resources with cross-functional participation and buy-in, it requires companies to rethink many other aspects of their business, including customer and supplier relations, logistics and supply chain management. "Top management recognized the importance of global RoHS compliance and lent support as needed. It was and remains an expensive undertaking and requires remarkable dedication of procurement staffs," said Douglas Smith, director of corporate environmental affairs for Sony.

LEAD-FREE

By far one of the most significant feats along the industry's road to RoHS compliance was the conversion to lead-free solder. Because improperly disposed of lead can be hazardous, RoHS required it to be eliminated. However, for manufacturers, finding an alternative to lead solder took a great deal of innovation. Solder typically uses lead because of its lower melting point, which makes it easier to use. And, while new forms of solder are possible, the melting point of these alternative materials are higher-requiring manufacturers to invest in new equipment and completely reinvent their manufacturing process.

What's more, many of the hundreds of thousands of components provided by manufacturers' suppliers had to be redesigned to withstand more heat. To meet this challenge, companies responded with research and development and produced thousands of lead-free solder manufacturing facilities worldwide.

Panasonic and Philips began exploring lead-free solder in the late 1990s and implemented it in all of their products in 2003. Toshiba also achieved 100 percent application of lead-free soldering in 2003, as did Sony. Dell, Philips, Sharp and many other manufacturers were lead-free well before the July 2006 deadline. Today, the industry uses a silver-nickel-copper alloy in place of lead and many companies have taken the initiative and voluntarily banned hazardous substances not covered by RoHS. For example, Panasonic has banned an ambitious 39 additional chemicals from its products.

In addition to the issue of lead, another enormous undertaking by the industry in the RoHS shift was the education and streamlining of their suppliers. Again, in-line with the EU's concept of "producer responsibility," the manufacturer is wholly responsible for RoHS compliance, which indicates that an inadvertent supplier error could result in the removal of the company's products from store shelves and hefty penalty fines. Even if suppliers are obligated contractually to replace non-compliant products, nothing can replace the manufacturer's lost revenue opportunity and the violation's far-reaching impact on brand equity.

To prevent this, manufacturers have gone the extra mile and the process has been painstaking. Many companies have instituted their own supplier declaration or certification process, analysis technology and testing equipment, as well as vast systems of procurement auditing procedures. To comply with the other restrictions of RoHS, companies eliminated the specified brominated flame retardants-also ubiquitous in electronics products-and replaced them with phosphorous-based materials that can withstand such high temperatures that they do not require flame retardants.

So, it's just a European thing, right? Wrong.

RoHS principles and reach are global and countries such as China, Taiwan and Japan, along with 27 American states, now are developing legislation to follow the example of the EU's RoHS directive. A case in point is California, which will adopt the RoHS in January 2007-in just six months-with a narrower scope of covered electronics products. By design, most manufacturers proactively heeded the prodromal drumbeat of RoHS and have implemented RoHS globally.

CE ENVIRONMENTALISM

While theoretically electronics manufacturers could have developed product lines exclusively for the European market to comply with RoHS restrictions, most major manufacturers sought to make the design changes and adopt the new technologies on a global scale. As a result, the products on retailers' shelves are largely eco-friendly and contain a minimal amount of potentially hazardous substances, most of which are there for important safety reasons. And should these products one day meet their fate in a landfill rather than being responsibly recycled, they will have zero threat to the environment.

ENVIRONMENTAL HONORS. To honor the environmental efforts of the CE industry, the 2007 International CES will feature an eco-design category to highlight products' environmental attributes spanning all phases of the product lifecycle from manufacturing to consumer use and recyclability. This will showcase the best of the best for environment-friendly design, and let the CE industry tell the world about its environmental stewardship. Do you have a new "green" product to enter? For more information about the Innovations Award for Eco-Design, contact Sarah Balog. 
The global impact of RoHS highlights the pinnacle of a cultural change that has been underway in the electronics industry for several years. One company's executive described this change as his organization's "new religion"-an amalgam of concern for the environment and a ripe opportunity for increased competitiveness and efficiency. Many major manufacturers have implemented standards and developed plans based on an "environmental vision" by making large-scale commitments to becoming eco-efficient across the entirety of their businesses. (Eco-efficiency is a quantitative measure of a company's impact on the environment relative to the scale of its business activities and is defined individually by companies.)

To do this manufacturers are participating in a vast array of voluntary efforts-using biodegradable product packaging, decreasing water and energy consumption at production sites, developing special product lines that incorporate multiple environmental attributes and going above and beyond to develop new green technologies that make their business processes more environmentally sound.

For more than a decade, decreasing carbon dioxide emissions and product energy consumption has been a concern of many CE companies, and many companies now are moving toward the fulfillment of their long-term goals. In 2004, Sharp made it a goal to have "zero global warming impact by 2010" by reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. To do this, Sharp plans to expand the development of what it calls "super green" factories, technologies, product and devices, which, as the moniker suggests, goes beyond being simply "green" and meets stringent environmental-impact standards. By 2010, Sharp will have replaced all of its business vehicles with low-emission vehicles and has been working to promote "eco-driving" companywide. Toshiba, too, has an Environmental Vision 2010 and aims to double Toshiba's overall eco-efficiency by fiscal 2010.

In addition to its effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Sony has made a commitment to channel resources to develop such renewable energy sources as solar and wind power generation. Many companies also have made specific efforts to lower the standby power consumption of their products that go beyond the requirement of the EPA's Energy Star program requirements. For example, today all computers designed by Dell consume less than five watts in low-power mode and exceed the current levels set by the EPA for energy efficiency. Dell also has taken the extra step of reducing the amount of time before entering low-power mode to save even more energy, from the 30 minutes required by the EPA for Energy Star compliance, to 15 minutes.

BEYOND PRODUCT DESIGN, the CE industry is contributing to energy-savings and reduced green house emissions in another way-by keeping consumers off the road and allowing them to control their energy expenditure. Today, more than 12 million Americans telecommute full-time and do not face the headache of traffic or guzzle gas in their commute. And, as reconfirmed by a recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center, three-fourths of American adults prefer to watch movies at home-bad news for Hollywood, but good news for the environment. Additionally, programmable thermostats, home automation systems and a new generation of products called "smart meters" all let consumers control and monitor their energy savings.

Companies are taking steps to improve the environmental performance of their products, which means that hazardous substances are reduced, less energy is consumed, recyclability is increased, less packaging is used and useful life is extended by designing products that are repaired and upgraded easily. For example, Philips Green Flagship product line is a collection of 160 products that meet a standard of environmental excellence-only the company's top eco-designed products are given the Green Flagship stamp. With this product line, Philips proves that the flat panel television-often assailed for increased energy consumption-also can be energy efficient, and the company produces more than 30 energy-efficient models. Sony, Sharp, Panasonic and many other manufacturers also make the newest television technology available to energy-conscious consumers.

In addition to reducing energy consumption, CE companies have made extensive efforts to reduce the amount of packaging used to ship their products. To ensure that once consumers unfurl their shiny new CE device, companies see to it that the packaging materials they use can be recycled easily or are made of biodegradable materials. For its packaging Panasonic uses recycled newspapers, as well as plastics made from corn starch and other bio-mass. Likewise, companies are striving to reduce the amount of water used at production facilities. Many companies use advanced purification technologies to collect water used in the manufacturing processes and recycle it for reuse.

And while it is no secret that by reducing, reusing and recycling companies are making themselves more efficient and competitive, the CE industry's efforts are noteworthy. For example, everyone now recognizes British Petroleum (who re-branded themselves as BP in 2002) as the anti-petroleum, pro-renewable energy, oil company that is moving "beyond petroleum." Yet, by comparison, the CE industry is degrees of magnitude greener both by nature and in its efforts. Not to mention, the industry creates products that are helping to change the world and even save the environment through concepts like telecommuting, home entertainment, and home heating and cooling control.

So why haven't you heard about these efforts? The reason could be that the one area of environmental stewardship where the CE industry seems to be a laggard is-touting its own success. With many companies headquartered abroad, the U.S. often has been left out of extensive corporate campaigns that publicize the industry's incredible environmental stewardship.

Though zeitgeist claims abound in the U.S. and space may be becoming scarce on the environmental bandwagon, the CE industry was green before being green was chic. In 2006, CEA made a goal to promote the CE industry's tremendous environmental stewardship. But, of course, this goal cannot be met without the commitment and cooperation of its member companies. Become involved in the efforts of CEA's Environmental Policy Committee, participate in the CE: Clean Environment booth at the 2007 International CES and submit your latest green product into the Innovations Award for Eco-Design.  V

By Kristina Taylor
Vision July/August 2006