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Go Green, Join ELCINA Eco-Design Club!
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The Eco-Design Club will help Indian electronics companies in practicing green manufacturing.
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Saturday, November 24, 2007:
To encourage environment-friendly manufacturing in India, Electronic Industries Association of India (ELCINA) has formally launched its Eco-Design Club (EDC) for all the players in the electronics industry. The Eco-Design tool has been developed under the Asia Eco-Design Electronics (AEDE) project, funded by European Union. Using this tool, EDC's club members can meet global environmental standards, and develop energy-efficient and competitive products for their success in the market.
Commented K Srinivasan, additional secretary, ELCINA, “ELCINA has formally launched Eco-Design Club today. Earlier, it was service to members only.
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But considering the benefits of Eco-Design, we have expanded this service to all the players in the electronics industry. ELCINA wants to act as facilitator for creating awareness of green manufacturing.”
The tool was demonstrated by Martin Charter, director, The Centre for Sustainable Design, UK, the lead partner in the project and one of the developers of the Eco-Design tool. “The best thing about this tool is that you do not need to go for innovation. It can be easily integrated into existing production process of companies. Thus, if you are making new product, then try making better product using this tool,” said Charter.
The Eco-Design tool is basically a set of various informations that contains updated information on various legislations across the world, checklist and other information that can help electronics companies to practice environment-friendly manufacturing and develop green products. This tool was distributed to the participants in the launch session in a compact disc. The tool can be freely accessed from www.cfsd.org.uk/aede.
Selective ELCINA members have used the trial version of this tool to improve their manufacturing. Continental Devices India Limited (CDIL) is one of those ELCINA members who despite cut-throat competition came forward voluntarily and took the initiative of using the Eco-Design tool. CDIL found the tool quite useful and feels that using the tool had added some more value to its brand.
“We basically wanted to clean our processes as eco-product and eco-factory are two pillars of Environmental Management System (EMS). You cannot develop an eco-product without an eco-factory. We have been using the Eco-Design tool to learn various benefits that it provides. It has been extremely useful for us. Now we have eliminated lead (Pb) from all our devices. This has made us fully compliant to European Union's Restriction on Hazardous Substance (RoHS) directive. We had to also ensure that even our suppliers are RoHS-compliant,” said Pradeep K Nag, deputy general manager, projects and plant engineering, CDIL.
CDIL, at present, exports more than 60 per cent of its product and Europe has been the main market for the company. The initiative taken by CDIL has been appreciated by stakeholders in the electronics industry. ELCINA has even proposed CDIL to lead the Eco-Design Club as it has taken this initiative (without any legislation in India) to practice green manufacturing. The company is not even ready to wait for the legislation to come, expressing its commitment for green manufacturing.
“There are no stringent energy conservation laws as such. Energy Conservation Act 2003 is not fully implemented. We have seen lack of energy consciousness in India. Apart from legislation like RoHS, a lot has to be done by the Government but we cannot wait for legislation. We have to act before it is too late,” added Nag.
In recent days, natural calamities and health hazards are on the rise because of various kind of pollutions. Seeing the ill-effect of various toxic elements used in electronic products including lead, cadmium, mercury and others, many countries have already formed various legislations. India, at present, has no legislation that bans the use of hazardous substance in electronic products. However, some electronics companies in India have, on their own, taken initiative to develop green products. The manufacture of green products involves lots of additional cost, making them more expensive compared to the products from other companies which do not follow such norms.
Vinod Sharma, managing director, Deki Electronics, shared, “Most of the players in the electronics industry are busy in making money. We cannot put air conditioner in our car and console ourselves that there is no heat outside. We have to understand that global warming and climate change is a reality. Thousands of people are dying and suffering from various kind of natural calamities. We need to take Eco-Design very seriously as it helps in saving resources and saving environment is saving resources. Those of us who understand the issue like this have to carry this message forward.”
Present on this occasion, Dr U.P. Phadke, advisor, department of IT, appreciated the initiative of industry players to go for Eco-Design and mentioned some of the key efforts being made by the Government of India.
“I am pleased to see that some of the players in the electronics industry are so actively involved in going for an eco-friendly business. We have been seriously involved in working on various issues related to Eco-Design. To begin with, we have been working on technology to reduce e-waste particularly for the semiconductor industry. The Central Pollution Control Board has also issued draft guidelines for environmentally sound management of e-waste in India and has given 60-days time for the stakeholders in the industry to respond to the guidelines. We will decide soon on this e-waste guideline after seeing response from the industry,” said Phadke.
An online Eco-Design community on Orkut is under way, ELCINA said. This community will be open for all to discuss various issues on Eco-Design.
--Prasoon Srivastava
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