DCA's PTER Services
General RoHS and Substance Restriction Services
Governments have discovered a new way to regulate the environmental impact of manufacturing industries: focus on their products. Product-Targeted Environmental Regulation ("PTER") focuses on three primary areas:
Note that it's not just governments that are imposing these requirements; retailers like Wal-Mart and Toys-R-Us, and large customers like Kaiser Healthcare are developing custom requirements. Voluntary standards such as the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool, or EPEAT also play a role in driving improved environmental performance of products.
DCA helps companies track, understand, comply with, develop, and influence these regulations, corporate requirements, and standards.
All manufactured products have a supply chain; chemical substances are used through this supply chain to produce parts and materials for end products that perform functions consumers and businesses need. Increasing concern about the hazardous nature of some of these chemical substances, as well as the risks posed to workers and users throughout the product lifecycle, has resulted in an increasing number of regulations around the world starting, most notably, with several in the European Union.
RoHS and ELV in Europe, as well as similar laws in China, Korea, and California (with more expected), all target certain substances that are used in products. These are hazard-based laws that focus on the intrinsic hazards of substances like lead, mercury, cadmium, and others regardless of whether there is the potential for exposure. REACH targets products, but in a limited (and still important) manner. REACH focuses on the actual substances and mixtures of substances (called "preparations"), and the risks (risk is a function of intrinsic hazard and exposure potential) to humans and the environment posed by their use. These can be chemical substances that are used in the manufacturing process but do not appear in the finished product ("process" substances such as fluxes or other solvents) or are actually part of the product (such as metals or flame retardants).
Companies come to DCA for
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Complex product waste, such as end-of-life automobiles and electronic equipment, is of increasing concern to governments around the world. With the increased use of short-lived electronic products by consumers, electronic waste ("e-waste") has become the fastest growing segment of the municipal waste stream.
Many products are manufactured from materials that can be recycled and reused, but seldom are. This is due to lack of recycling infrastructure, material selection that does not consider recyclability, and poor profitability. Governments are requiring manufacturing companies to fund recycling in a variety of different ways and in a variety of different locales including the EU, Korea, China, Canada, and an increasing number of states in the United States.
As with substance requirements, companies come to DCA for
There are many voluntary and mandatory energy efficiency requirements in existence and being developed today. Most target the energy used by products; some are more holistic and target the entire product lifecycle. Research for the EU's Energy-using Products directive ("EuP") found that on the order of 25% of the total energy used by products like televisions and computers is consumed by the manufacturing process. It takes lot of energy to manufacture products; reducing the energy consumed to manufacture a product is as important as reducing energy requirements during use.
The scope of products being considered for regulatory and voluntary requirements for energy efficiency is expanding. EPEAT's product scope is expanding in the near term to imaging equipment (i.e. printers, copiers, etc.) and televisions, and in the longer term to servers and network infrastructure equipment while EuP already has a very broad scope, with implementing measures (i.e. legal performance requirements) to be proposed in 2008.
Companies that need to
Where is PTER going? Where is your company going? Will you increase your competitive advantage, simply stay out of trouble, or be an also-ran? Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, manufacturers have strived to produce compelling products at a profit; "features and function" and "cost" have been the drivers. Suddenly a wrench has been thrown in the works for which manufacturing industries and their expansive supply chain are woefully unprepared. So don't feel alone, but also understand that there are important actions that you can take today to achieve a competitive leadership position, or simply stay out of trouble.
DCA has the vision, established ongoing dialog with governments, industry leaders, international standards bodies, local, national, and international environmental NGOs, and leading universities to see the big picture and the knowledge and experience needed to implement practical solutions. Our expert staff can provide you with the insight needed to develop a strategic approach to PTER. Contact us today to learn more.
