Environmental compatibility is a cornerstone of product development at Siemens. We began mapping our requirements regarding environmentally compatible product and system design with an internal standard as early as 1993.
To integrate this standard in our guidelines on environmental protection, health management and safety (EHS), parts of the former Siemens standard SN 36350 were transferred to an Environmental Protection (EP) standard.
The EP Standard entitled "Specifications on environmentally compatible product and system design" focuses on the entire product lifecycle in detail and applies to various product aspects with regard to environmental protection. The following topics are covered in detail in specific sections of the standard:
An additional document giving examples and possible solutions is available to help development engineers implement the standard's requirements.
The EP Standard also describes how environmentally compatible product and system design is to be integrated in management systems. It complies with the specifications of the international standards IEC 62430 "Environmentally conscious design for electrical and electronic products" and IEC 62474 „Material declaration for products of and for the electro technical industry”.
Our EP Standard currently contains 20 rules for environmentally compatible product design as well as 13 system-related rules that cover requirements throughout the lifecycle. All of the rules help to reduce the environmental impact of our products and systems.
In addition, the EP Standard includes strategies for the following topics:
The semi-quantitative evaluation tool supports our engineers in measuring and assessing improvements that are achieved through new product and system designs. The developer can use this relatively simple self-assessment to evaluate the improved environmental benefits of a product. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a complex method for analyzing the environmental impact of our products and systems that is widely used at Siemens.
The Siemens EP standard and its additional documents and tools represent a comprehensive toolbox that is continuously updated and developed.
An Annex to the EP Standard lists declarable substances and substances that are to be avoided. All new developments are required to comply with this list.
Another Annex lists battery types that must be recorded to meet the different reporting requirements in the member countries of the European Economic Area (EEA).
2011-Mar-09 | Author