Introduction

The development in electronics has resulted in products with rapidly increasing functionality, lower weight and less volume, giving users big advantages in the use phase. With its complex composition, an increasing number of new applications, shorter product life, use of hazardous substances and lack of data on the material contents, electronic and electrical equipment (EEE) constitute a threat to both man and the environment.

EEE manufacturers and their suppliers will face a number of important challenges in the near future affecting their business. These are among others the new EU directives putting forward an increasing need to design and build products in an environmentally conscious and profitable way and a need to cope with the demands and the expectations from the customers and society. But it is not enough just to deal with the expectations from the immediate vicinity. You have to put focus on the entire lifecycle of the product and the interested parties involved in the success of the product concerned.

Some companies might look upon these challenges as a threat to their well established business and it might very well be so. The sooner the better you face these threats the greater is the chance of successfully transforming them to something useful.

Environmentally conscious product development should not be considered as a sort of charity but as a business opportunity.

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