An update to the IEC 62474 declarable substance list (DSL) and data exchange format was published on April 8, 2015. Regulatory changes prompted 5 new and modified substance entries. Nearly 30 other changes were implemented as part of a year-long DSL review to identify substances whos names have changed in regulatory usage and to implement common naming conventions.
Details of the update are provided on the IEC 62474 blog.
The European Standardization Bodies CENELEC and CEN (which are the EU regional counterparts to IEC and ISO respectively) have published their 2015 roadmap of new standardization activities. This roadmap reflects the mandates that the two SDOs (standards development organizations) have received from the European Commission (EC) to develop standards needed for future regulations. It provides manufacturers with insight to emerging regulatory areas for environmental compliance of products sold in the EU.
In the Environment section of the roadmap, standardization requests from EC/EFTA include:
Elements of EU Work Programme for 2015 include:
Other standardization and activities relevant to the EEE industry and to be developed in 2015 include:
Resource efficiency – CEN and CENELEC will continue discussions with the European Commission with the aim of identifying possible standards that could contribute to the implementation of the Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe (COM(2011) 571), which is one of the flagship initiatives under the Europe 2020 Strategy. It is possible that some new standardization activities will be launched in 2015.
Substances of high concern – CEN will complete the development of a standardization roadmap in relation to substances of high concern in articles, based on consultations with industry representatives and other stakeholders. The aim of this exercise is to identify which new standards might be needed to support the implementation of relevant European legislation such as the REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) Regulation, the Waste Directives, the POP (Persistent Organic Pollutants) Regulation, and the RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment) Directive.
Several standards already exist within the EEE industry to address substance of high concern; however, few such standards exist for other products. Therefore, CEN has been asked to look at possible standards across all products (not just EEE). The key risk for the EEE industry is if any of the standards conflict with the existing EEE standards and force the EEE industry to change its procedures for restricted substance control.
For the emerging large network equipment (LNE) Energy Star specification , the U.S. EPA and DOE are requesting stakeholders to provide comments and proposals on two test method issues that were discussed at the January 30th, 2015 meeting: the use of the snaked traffic topology, and the ambient temperature requirement. Additional information on the issues and the request for proposals is provided in the request letter posted on the Energy Star LNE website.
The U.S. EPA will also be hosting a series of working group sessions to discuss outstanding issues related to developing an LNE specification.
On January 30th, 2015, the U.S. Environment Protection agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) hosted a meeting to discuss the ENERGY STAR® Large Network Equipment (LNE) program. In acknowledgement of the complexity of LNE products, during that call, EPA proposed hosting a series of phone – based working sessions over the coming months to discuss key outstanding issues. With this letter, EPA is outlining the topics and timing for those conference calls. EPA welcomes stakeholder feedback on additional topics for discussing during the working calls.
The IEC technical committee responsible for environmental standards for the EEE industry (IEC/TC111) recently updated its strategic roadmap to highlight areas that have emerging needs for international standardization. This roadmap provides EEE manufacturers and suppliers with insight into areas with emerging conformity requirements and where more well defined methods and/or guidance are needed. These requirements are typically driven by new regulations or divergent requirements that are causing trade barriers or supply chain issues.
Background
In 2004, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) created technical committee TC111 to develop internationally recognized standards to assist manufacturers in complying with emerging environmental regulations of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) and other voluntary initiatives. The use of harmonized standards reduces uncertainty and risk for international trade and helps enable communication and consistency across a global supply chain. IEC standards are recognized by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and member countries of the WTO have agreed to harmonize their national standards with IEC standards wherever possible.
The Role of IEC Environmental Standards
Several of the IEC/TC111 standards are commonly used for assessing compliance to regulations such as EU RoHS (and other global RoHS regulations), EU REACH (declaration of SVHCs), WEEE, and emerging carbon footprint and environmental footprint regulations. The standards provide tools for material declaration, assessing restricted substance controls, analytical testing, environmentally conscious design, etc.
For a list of all IEC/TC111 published standards and standards under development, see the RoHS news post IEC/TC111 – Environmental standardization for electrical and electronic products and systems.
IEC is often not the first standards organization to create a standard on a specific topic, but it can help harmonize approaches across national or regional standards.
What’s New in the Revised Roadmap
The standardization topics in the roadmap are organized into seven categories:
The IEC/TC111 roadmap is included in the Strategic Business Plan (SBP) which may be downloaded from the IEC website.
The standardization topics under Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) and Eco labels are newly added and have been gaining considerable interest.
Environmental Performance Criteria
The standardization area of “Environmental Performance Criteria” is in response to the plethora of eco label criteria emerging around the world. Environmental labelling programs and registries specify criteria for assessing environmental performance of a variety of electrical and electronic products. Programs exist for computers, monitors, imaging equipment, TVs, tablets, phones, and many other EEE products. These programs give purchasers an easy, predefined mechanism to set green procurement requirements. However, many of the environmental labelling programs have overlapping scope and sometimes establish inconsistent (or even incompatible) environmental criteria. Inconsistencies can create significant challenges for manufacturers and suppliers who try to optimize environmental performance of products and manufacturing operations simultaneously for all markets around the world.
An IEC International Standard on Environmental Performance Criteria would enable users, ecolabelling bodies and registries, manufacturers and supplies (from around the world) to leverage and build upon a harmonized set of baseline environmental performance criteria. A harmonized set of baseline criteria provides benefits to all stakeholders.
Product Category Rules (PCR) for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
An International standard for EEE product category rules has also been gaining interest. Conducting LCAs that provide meaningful information is challenging for the electronics industry. With a complex supply chain and significant impacts from raw material extraction and part manufacturing in several environmental impact categories, the assumptions made with respect to setting scope, boundary conditions, cut-off rules, product use, electricity generation, and the use of primary vs. secondary data are very important in the usefulness and comparability of the results. This is particularly important as governments around the world tighten rules to avoid green washing with environment claims.
A baseline set of internationally harmonized PCR across the electrotechnical industry can provide a significant opportunity for the industry to better utilize the results of a LCA. The International Standard may also provide rules and guidance for the development of supplemental sector specific PCR that may be needed for specific types of products. A baseline PCR across the entire EEE industry will also provide consistency for the supply chain which may be providing parts and materials to a number of different sectors.
ECD Compliance uses published and emerging International Standards to support manufacturers and suppliers in meeting current and future product environmental compliance and sustainability requirements. We can also provide a window for your organization into emerging environmental standards. For additional information, contact ECD Compliance.
Future posts will examine some of these standardization areas in more detail.
The final draft specification of the Energy Star Computer Specification 6.1 was released by the U.S. EPA (operators of the US Energy Star program). The focus of the 6.1 specification versus the 6.0 specification is the inclusion of slates, tablets, and two-in-one notebook computers. “Slates” refers to app based tablets such as the Apple iPAD and Android tablets. There has been significant pressure from purchasers to develop a specification for these products given their increasing use within the work place. The Computer 6.0 specification came into effect on June 2, 2014, but does not include these devices in scope.
The Energy Star program operators were trying to release the 6.1 specification for the same June 2nd effective date as the 6.0 specification; however, challenges with clearly defining and differentiating between the different types of computer products on the market and with identifying the appropriate energy efficiency thresholds and measurement tests for each type of computer has caused a couple months of delays. Energy Star is an important marketing tool for computer manufacturers, especially for sales to institutional purchasers. There was significant feedback and lobbying by manufacturers to ensure the new product types and test methods fit with their new computer and tablet models.
A summary of changes made to the 6.1 specification based on stakeholder feedback is provided in the cover letter to the final draft 6.1 specification:
The approach outlined in this final draft reflects extensive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders over the past several months. Changes of note include:
- EPA has defined Portable All-In-One Computers but no longer includes these products under the Integrated Desktop Computer category as was previously proposed. Further, Portable-All-In-One Computers are now in scope.
- Clarification has been provided regarding diagonal screen size for both the Slate/Tablet and Portable All-In-One Computer definitions to more clearly separate these two products types that share a similar form factor but have different use cases.
- Portable All-In-One Computer requirements have been added in Table 2 of the power management requirements (Section 3.3), and in the energy criteria (Section 3.6).
- EPA has included guidance on future consideration for battery charging efficiency in Slates/Tablets in Version 7.0.
- Based on stakeholder feedback, DOE has changed the display brightness requirement for Slates/Tablets from 200 cd/m2 to 150 cd/m2.
Slates and Tablets
The U.S. EPA had originally intended to use the battery charging standard (BCS) for evaluating tablets and slates; but given that the BCS program is being discontinued, the EPA proposed using the notebook test methods and energy consumption levels to assess the tablet/slate products. In most cases, the slates/tablets will need to meet the lowest total energy consumption (TEC) specified for notebooks (category 0).
The new specification defines slates and tables as:
4) Slate/Tablet: A computing device designed for portability that meets all of the following criteria:
a) Includes an integrated display with a diagonal size greater than 6.5 inches and less than 17.4 inches;
b) Lacking an integrated, physical attached keyboard in its as-shipped configuration;
c) Includes and primarily relies on touchscreen input; (with optional keyboard);
d) Includes and primarily relies on a wireless network connection (e.g., Wi-Fi, 3G, etc.); and
e) Includes and is primarily powered by an internal battery (with connection to the mains for battery charging, not primary powering of the device).
Slate/tablet computers must support a “Display Sleep Mode” but are not required to have “System Sleep Mode”, “Wake on LAN”, or “Wake Management” functionality that is required for most other types of computers. Slates and tablets generally have a very low power long idle mode that is intended to minimize energy consumption and maximize batter life when the product is not being used. Section 3.6 of the 6.1 specification provides the technical energy consumption requirements for slates/tablets and portable all-in-one computers. In general, slates/tablets must meet the energy consumption requirements specified for notebook computers in section 3.5 and portable all-in-one computers must meet the energy consumptions requirements specified for integrated desktop computers. Please see section 3.6 of the specification document for further details – the link to the document is provided below.
Energy Star specifications are usually set so that only the top tier of products on the market qualify for Energy Star; however, it will be difficult to precisely anticipate how this will play out for slates and tablets. The U.S. EPA has stated that “EPA intends to further evaluate Slate/Tablet product data to inform the development of future Slate/Tablet energy consumption requirements in Version 7.0.” and “EPA has included a permanent note in this section stating that it intends to create independent Slate/Tablet requirements in Version 7.0 if the data from the Version 6.1 certification process can support sufficient differentiation of these products. EPA will also monitor other sources of product energy performance, such as CEC battery charger data, to help inform future Version 7.0 development.”
Products already included in the 6.0 Specification
The 6.1 specification does not change any of the definitions or energy efficiency requirements for the desktop, notebook and other computers that were already within the scope of the 6.0 specification.
Additional Requirements of Energy Star
The Energy Star specification also requires that products meet certain other design for environment provisions such as substance restrictions and appropriate design for recyclability. These requirements were included in the Energy Star partner commitments for the 6.0 specification and are expected to carry forward to the 6.1 specification.
Resources
The Computer Specification 6.1 final draft is available from the U.S. EPA Energy Star website.
The US Energy Star for computers program will include tablets, slates and two in one notebook computers within scope of the computer 6.1 specification. There has been significant pressure from purchasers to develop a specification for these products given the increased use of such products within the work place. The U.S. EPA (operators of the US Energy Star program) had originally intended to use the battery charging standard (BCS) for evaluating tablets and slates; but given that the BCS program is being discontinued, the EPA has now proposed using the notebook test methods and energy consumption levels to assess the tablet/slate products. In most cases, the slates/tablets would need to meet the lowest total energy consumption (TEC) specified for notebooks (category 0).
The U.S. EPA has now distributed a Draft Version 6.1 Energy Star Computers Test Method for stakeholder comments. The EPA is requesting that comments be submitted on or before June 13, 2014. The draft revised test method is available on the Energy Star website.
The Energy Star computers version 6.1 specification also requires that products meet certain other design for environment provisions such as substance restrictions and appropriate design for recyclability.
The EPA had intended to release version 6.1 of the computer specification and certification requirements such that it takes effect on June 2, 2014 to align with the effective date for version 6.0. However, given that the test method will not be finalized until after the June 13, 2014 closing date for stakeholder comment; it’s more likely that the version 6.1 specification will become effective a few months later than planned.
ECD Compliance is a stakeholder in the development of several new Energy Star specifications and can assist manufacturers. For additional additional information or support with new Energy Star specifications, contact us.
The EICC and GeSI industry associations have released their version 3.0 Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (CMRT). The new template is intended to align with the new IPC-1755 conflict minerals declaration standard, but is not backward compatible with the previous version 2.03a CMRT which was used by many manufacturers for collecting their 2013 conflict minerals data. The CMRT template is available through the EICC/GeSI conflict-free sourcing initiative .
The joint ISO and IEC standards committee JTC1/SC39 titled “Sustainability for and by Information Technology” was created in 2012 and has the scope
Standardization related to the intersection of resource efficiency and IT which supports environmentally and economically viable development, application, operation and management aspects.
Current standards that are in development are focused on environmental performance of data centers and other Information Technology Equipment.
The work programme includes:
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) created technical committee TC111 in 2004 to develop internationally recognized standards to assist manufacturers in complying with emerging environmental legislation of Electronic Equipment. The use of harmonized standards reduces uncertainty and risk for international trade and helps enables communication and consistency across a global supply chain.
The TC111 work program includes development of international standards or specifications under the following work program:
Published Standards
Standards in Development
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), DIGITALEUROPE, and the Japanese Green Procurement Survey Standardization Initiative (JGPSSI) officially announced that the JIG-101 standard that has provided the electronics industry with a list of substances of concern since 2005 is obsolete and has been replace by the International IEC 62474 standard on materials declaration. The press release is available on the CEA website (http://www.ce.org/News/News-Releases/Press-Releases/2013-Press-Releases/Joint-Industry-Guide-%28JIG%29-101-Transitions-to-%281%29.aspx)
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