Best Practices / Advices

Green Tutorial:

Best Practices / Advice

How to get started?

There are three mains steps to take:

Establish specific and measurable environmental targets for each product-type, and specify these targets in the requirements specification
Include the environmental issues in the agenda for design reviews during the development phases
Establish metrics in order to make the environmental performance of the products visible and measurable

In the below table is mentioned some of the important areas to work with to improve the environmental performance of products.

Best practices/Advice
Use less materials	Minimise the equipment weight Specify materials with established recycling systems (steel, aluminium, pure thermoplastics etc.) Specify the use of recycled materials (primarily polymers) Consider alternatives to materials listed as limited resources Minimise material waste during production
Reduce energy use	Design with automatic power-down and stand-by functions Switch off parts of the circuit, which are not in use all the time Change clock-frequencies dependant on the need for speed Consider power consumption when choosing components and component-families Prioritise high efficiency in power supplies Remember: lower power consumption means lower temperature, which means less need for cooling and fans, and can lead to higher reliability and longer life, which for the customer is lower Cost-of-Ownership
Chemicals	Phase-out or minimise use of substances/chemicals, which are mentioned in lists of banned or restricted substances (including lists from customers) Map and evaluate the use of substances/chemicals, including their influence on occupational health and safety, when choosing manufacturing processes (cleaning, soldering, gluing, welding, etc.), also when applied at suppliers
Minimize waste	Design equipment with possibilities for repair, upgradability and reuse Design for recycling means: easy to dismantle easy to obtain 'clean' material-fractions, that can be recycled (e.g. iron and copper should be easy to separate) easy to remove parts/components, that must be treated separately use as few different materials as possible mark the materials/polymers in order to sort them correct avoid surface treatment in order to keep the materials 'clean'

Example from Compaq:

Compaq's DFE Guidelines emphasize several key principles:
ENERGY CONSERVATION	Products which minimize energy consumption during both active and inactive periods facilitate preservation of worldwide energy resources. Further, a focus on energy conservation reduces customer operating costs
DISASSEMBLY	Concepts learned from our global network of recycling partners have been integrated into mechanical design practices. Our product designers plan for the end of a product's life, when computer components can be recycled.
REUSE AND RECYCLABILITY	Compaq products use materials that can be easily identified and recycled, employing available recycling infrastructures. Ease of recyclability will help our customers reuse or recycle products at the end of their useful life.
PACKAGING	Packaging materials are the first product aspect a customer sees and handles. Additionally, packaging is the initial source of waste generated by a product once it enters the market. Kept to a minimum under DFE Guidelines, our packaging is composed of recycled materials and uses no heavy metal inks. We require at least 35% recycled materials in all corrugated papers for packaging. Compaq packaging is made of materials that can be easily identified and recycled.
UPGRADABILITY	Compaq incorporates design features that will aid in extending the life of a computer. Features such as microprocessors, memory, internal storage and other subsystems that can be upgraded will aid in the prevention of early product obsolescence.