Meeting the EuP Directive: Life Cycle Assessment Information Sharing as Opportunity for Global Compliance

The EU´s directive 2005/32/EC seeks to set eco-design standards for the life cycle of energy-using products (EuP). While not yet formally ratified like the WEEE and RoHS standards, this directive is expected to ride the same wave of momentum and go into effect in the next few years. WEEE and RoHS have gone beyond Europe and had similar application in other parts of the world, thus global EuP-like directives are also likely. If manufacturers want to continue to comply with this new wave of regulation, they will need to start exploring existing tools. A key need for compliance is the creation of global networks of shared environmental and energy profiles for products, which could be led by the electronics industry. This paper discusses developments in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) over the last decade and how it can be a key tool in meeting EuP- like standards, currently planned to go into effect in 2007.