New Trends in Ecodesign

Dr. Wolfgang Bloch 1, Dr. Ferdinand Quella 1

1
Siemens AG, Corporate Environmental Protection, Munich, Germany

Abstract
Over the last several years the focus on eocdesign moved away from the design of components or simple
products only towards the design of systems. Especially the European product-related legislation, e.g.
WEEE, RoHS, ErP and REACh, became a major driving force for integrating new design aspects like
energy efficiency, materials and resource efficiency and design principles for recycling into the product
design process. Standardization of design principles helps companies to meet internationally introduced
regulatory requirements. In addition ecodesign principles are extended to the design of manufacturing
sites and include the complete supply chain.

Keywords:
Ecodesign principles, European legislation, WEEE, RoHS, ErP, REACh

1 INTRODUCTION systems. The extension to plants as a possible next step to

Environmental European legislation has a high priority for create higher reduction potentials is already in front of us.
the European, mainly in the area regulating product related
topics. This is due to the fact that product related topics
have to harmonized within the European economic Design of Design of Design of
framework and was not specifically regulated by components plants and systems
individual countries until now. Having this in mind we can or products projects
understand how and why topics like e.g. recycling, energy
use and critical substances regulations were introduced to
e.g. IEC 62430*
the European market.
In general the regulative environment is changing today future
consequently the meet higher expectations of interested
*IEC 62430 „Environmentally conscious design“
parties like NGO’s:
Fig. 1: Extension of Ecodesign scope in the last years

• Number of regulations are worldwide increasing,

setting minimum requirements
• More political reduction targets are visible
• Automatisms like increasing targets with time are
foreseen in latest legislation, but also
„toprunner“ approach leads to continuous progress
• Numbers of environmentally compatible products are
increasing worldwide and companies show the progress
• Basic tools are now available like ecodesign standards
and materials record as basis for LCA, ISO 14006
(2011?) will publish missing „Guidelines for
incorporating ecodesign into environmental
management systems“
• Further standardization / provision of data is required
In parallel the design principles for developing more
environmental conscious products changed from a more
simple approach of designing components or products
only to a more holistic approach of designing complex
The extension of ecodesign principles for plants may
include the following aspects [1]:
• LCA over the complete life cycle, Total cost of
Ownership (TOC approach)
• Identify energy consumption drivers: ovens, fans,
heating, cooling, energy intensive processes
• Apply already existing environmentally compatible
components (purchasing dpt)
• Check software for energy consumption
• Identify local environmental regulations
• Energy reuse, avoid losses, stand-by
• Packaging and transport
• EHS concept for installation, take back and recycling
• Take back, re-use and recycling for manufacturing
materials and equipment.

Proceedings of EcoDesign 2011 International Symposium

M. Matsumoto et al. (eds.), Design for Innovative Value Towards a Sustainable Society, 9
DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-3010-6_3, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012
10
2 EUROPEAN P RODUCT-RELATED LEGISLA-
TION
2.1 Energy related Products Directive
By implementing climate mitigation measures to meet the
politically given targets of the Kyoto Protocol the
European Commission became aware that by setting
emission reduction targets for the “energy intensive
industries” only we will not meet the reduction targets.
Consequently they introduced a legislation framework to
reduce the energy consumption during the use phase of
electrical energy using products. A set of “Implementing
Measures” was defined together with the industries
respectively. The already agreed “Implementing
Measures” are listed below:
• Standby and off mode losses of EEE
• Simple set top boxes
• Domestic lighting
• Tertiary sector lighting (office and street)
• External power supplies
• Televisions
• Electric motors
• Circulators
• Domestic refrigeration and dishwashers
• Domestic washing machines
• Fans (motor driven with an electric input power
between 125-500 W).
The lasted development regarding this legislation is the
extension towards “Energy related Products”, like
• Local room heating products
• Central heating products using hot air to distribute heat
(other than Central Heating Products)
• Domestic and commercial ovens (electric, gas,
microwave), including when incorporated in cookers
• Domestic and commercial hobs and grills
• Professional washing machines, dryers and dishwashers
• Non-tertiary coffee machines
• Networked standby losses of Energy using Products,
but the new view in terms of introducing ecodesign
targets, the EU demands by means of Corporate Social
Responsibility and Sustainability higher energy
efficiency from manufacturers as well.
One demand in the EU IPP Communication (COM(2003)
302) is a decoupling of energy consumption from
economic growth, first target -20 % energy consumption.
Decoupling indicators could be: Resource productivity,
energy efficiency, resource specific impact.
In general this can only be achieved if…
• the quantity of energy consumed by the total volume of
products of one kind in the market is estimated and the
reduction target is broken down to the next ecodesign
process of these products and
• this can go beyond the „toprunner“ approach and will
be more eager.
2.2 Restriction of Hazardous Substance Directive
The RoHS-Directive (Restriction of Hazardous Substance
Directive) was introduced to the market to ensure that all
Electical and electronical equipment in scope do not
contain certain hazardous substance:
• As of July 1st 2006, the RoHS-Directive restricts the
use of Lead, Cadmium, hexavalent chromium
compounds, Mercury and polybrominated biphenyls
(PBB) and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDE)
• A maximum concentration value (MCV) of 0.1% by
weight in homogeneous material for PB, Cr(VI), Hg,
PBB and PBDE resp.
• MCV of 0.01% weight in homogeneous materials for
Cd is tolerated.
The actually controversy discussed topics are the changes
of the scope of the directive, the review mechanism for all
RoHS exemptions and the extension towards new
substances. Latest in 2019, the EU Commission will
introduce an open scope for all elevtical and electronical
equipments. Important is the definition of “electrical and
electronic equipment” which means equipment which is
dependent on electric currents or electromagnetic fields in
order to work properly and equipment for the generation,
transfer and measurement of such currents and fields and
designed for use with a voltage rating not exceeding 1000
volts for alternating current and 1500 volts for direct
current.
LSSIT* Fixed Installation Means of transport
Driverless Pallet
Carrier with
Navigation System
Airport Luggage
Industriel Placement
Transport System
Systems
Industriel
Wind Power
Plant
Transformer
Tramway – 750V DC
Frequency Converter
Building Control System
Hybrid Bus
*Large Scale Stationary Industrial Tools
Fig. 2: Scope exclusions for RoHS are necessary for
industry and were supported by Trade Associations
Common efforts by trade associations resulted in a RoHS
Recast compromise considering several important topics
for Industry. Positively we achieved:
• Important scope exclusions for e.g.
• Means of transport for persons and goods
• Large Scale Stationary Industrial Tools
• Large Scale Fixed Installations

• No additional Bans of further substances
• No Annex III (REACh candidate list for future bans)
• 5yr validity date on exemptions cat. 1-7, 10,11
• 7yr validity date on exemptions cat. 8 & 9
• 24 Application exemptions for cat. 8 & 9
• Better review mechanism for exemptions
• Transition period when exemption removed of 12 to 18
months
• Case-by-case assessment
• CE Marking may result in better transparency,
but there are still some areas for discussion:
• „Open Scope“ (cat 11) implemented in legal text
without impact assessment
• Review of Scope until 22.07.2014 not limited to „Open
Scope“ impact assessment
• Weak methodology to amend restricted substances in
RoHS and independent from REACH
• 1st review of additional substance bans until
22.07.2014
• CE Marking for RoHS results in a market entrance
requirement
• Limited Reuse of spare parts (from EEE put on market
before July 1st 2006) runs out July 1st 2016
Unfortunately the categories of the RoHS-Directive and
the WEEE-Directive are not the same.
2.3 Waste of Electrical and Electronical Equipment
Directive
By introducing the Waste of Electrical and Electronic
Equipment (WEEE) Directive (2002/96/EC) the WEEE
sets collection, recycling and recovery targets for all
electrical goods. The main aspects are:
• Producers need to finance collection of all WEEE
• Producers need to register their products falling under
the defined categories
• Products need to carry the WEEE label
• Collection rate of 4kg/person annually
• Art. 175 gives certain freedom to each Member State in
transposing this Directive.
Healthcare
Equipment
Scope In- / Exclusion
Company’s
work in
Trade Associatons
Industrial & Energy Lightning
Equipment Equipment
Scope Exclusion Scope Inclusion
Fig. 3: Needs of an industrial enterprise
11
Again, industry positioning thru the network of Trade
Associations is necessary to introduce feasible legislation.
The industry position is:
Scope and Categories of equipment: In general all
professional industrial equipment should be removed
out of the scope. This means all professional industrial
equipment.
WEEE collection: No producer responsibility should be
introduced, to take full ownership on WEEE collection.
Rate of Collection, Recovering and Re-use/Recycling: It is
not useful to introduce a general collection rate of 65%.
Rather an individual handling in respect to the categories
is necessary. To strengthen the Waste framework directive
the re-use of products is recommended. The new waste
hierarchy added re-use to the existing hierarchy:
Prevention before preparing for Re-use before Recycling
before other Recovery, e.g. energy recovery and Disposal.
Because of higher new WEEE recycling rates re-use might
become more important! But, re-use requires an
internationally accepted concept of standardization like
IEC 62309: Dependability of products containing reused
parts - Requirements for functionality and tests.
For producers of high-end technologies the shortage of
rare raw materials plays more and more a significant role.
Future technologies will change the requirements for raw
materials drastically. Many EEE technologies depend on
conventional metals like copper and silver but additional
growing demand of special metals is to register as lithium,
gallium, indium and rare earth. [2]
Therefore long-term strategies to preserve valuable raw
materials are essential. This means, that the possible
conflicts are no longer inevitable conflicts, but much more
useful mutual complements controlled by an intelligent
WEEE management strategy.
3 CONCLUSIONS
Potential Energy Reduction with already existing electro
products are still in the range up to 50 % (example: electro
motors, lamps). In the next product generation there is
more reduction potential, including Material Resource
Efficiency. With the Extension of Ecodesign to plants
and systems there is a new chance for reduction. For the
future chances of manufacturing industries a substitution
or intensified Recycling of Specific Materials is required
(example: Indium, Silver, RE).
REFERENCES
[1] Wimmer, Lee, Quella, F., Pollack, (2010): The
Competitive Advantage, Springer, Heidelberg.
[2] Bloch, W., Plumeyer, M., Wuerl, H., (2011):
Siemens’ WEEE management strategy, Waste
electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)
handbook, Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge.