Using an example product to work through the best practice process and procedures

To gain tangible business benefits from the Club, ENVIRON recommends that member companies should apply the EcoDesign and Product Stewardship process and procedures to at least one of their products during the Club workshops and webinars. Senior management should provide sufficient resources and support so that this product can become a worked example of how the process and procedures have been integrated into the company's New Product Design Process. This will also help prepare the necessary compliance evidence documents should the company wish to apply for certification to the IEC 60601-1-9 International Standard.

Choosing a product and sharing information

The company will be asked to notify ENVIRON regarding what product they have chosen to work on during the workshops and webinars. For example, a company may choose to work on an existing product with high volume but lower margin, where even small EcoDesign improvements can generate worthwhile cost savings.

The company will also be asked to notify ENVIRON on whether they intend to share information about this product with the other companies in their network group. For example, the company may be happy to circulate certain information about the product to other network group companies, but keep other product information confidential. It will be for companies to circulate this information - all product information which the company communicates to ENVIRON will be treated as confidential unless the company has already circulated it to other network group companies.

Where possible, the member company should bring the example product and its packaging to the introductory workshop, together with associated documentation (e.g. bill of materials, exploded parts diagram, product marketing literature etc) and any tools required for product disassembly and examination. In our experience, it is important for ENVIRON to provide early feedback to companies on specific EcoDesign improvements which are directly relevant to their particular products. This is also key to generating momentum within the Club for companies to share their experiences and lessons learned. With permission from the company, these example products may also be used to illustrate particular aspects of EcoDesign during the subsequent webinars.

Intellectual Property Rights

During its membership of the Club a company may generate intellectual property or works which relate to the business of the member. ENVIRON agrees that it does not have any interests in or ownership of any such works and any such Intellectual Property Rights.

Case study to summarise EcoDesign outcomes

Towards the end of their Club membership we recommend that the company should develop a short case study (e.g. two pages) to explain the worked example, its significant life cycle impacts, the EcoDesign targets that were set to reduce these impacts, and any progress that has been made towards their achievement. Many of the EcoDesign targets may require extensive design effort and it may not be possible to fully implement them within the five month timescale of the workshop and webinars. These targets should still be documented in the case studies. ENVIRON will provide guidance on how to write the case study and also provide examples of similar case studies that ENVIRON has produced at other companies.

For further information, please contact Dr Aidan Turnbull
Head of WEEE, RoHS & EcoDesign on +44 (0)1225 748420