Reducing the Electronics Environmental Impact

EECONE is a European consortium – the European ECOsystem for greeN Electronics – that aims to position Europe as a model for sustainable and circular electronics. EECONE's main objective is to reduce electronic waste (e-waste) in Europe – gathering 48 entities from 16 European countries – and following a key objective of the European Green Deal and the Circular Economy Action Plan (3.1. Electronics and ICT).

EECONE aims to integrate end-of-life management constraints for electronic products upstream of the development phase, from the design stage. EECONE has structured its program around the "6Rs" concept – Reduce, Reliability, Repair, Reuse, Refurbish, Recycle – to initiate a zero-waste, efficient, and responsible electronics industry.

How to attain it?

1. Defining: Creating clear, simple, and open tools for defining and designing electronic component and systems (ECS) with a view to their circularity. Generating, for the first time, a clear framework to help producers evaluate their choices and eco-design pathways, in order to foster European leadership in the ecological transition.
2. Designing: Providing innovative approaches such as eco-design, for reduction, repair, reuse, refurbishment, and recycling to decrease electronic waste and boost circularity in a new generation of electronics.
3. Showcasing: Demonstrate the innovation potential, ease of use, and versatility of the sustainable solutions throughout the value chain.
4. Raising awareness: Create an ecosystem that supports the generation of "6R" ecological solutions.

Co-leader of the "Tools and techniques for green Electronic Components Systems by design" work package with the CEA, Dassault Systèmes provides its collaborative platform supporting the eco-design of electronic components and systems at any levels. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform gives access to a common, cloud-based infrastructure for sharing electronic system designs and LCA results at every product step – from the chip to the printed circuit board, and finally to the electronic system.

With SIMULIA, the team has improved product performance, reliability, and safety, and was able to explore and evaluate innovative alternatives before any physical development, thanks to structural and thermal performance, fluid dynamics, vibroacoustic, electromagnetism, multibody simulation. DELMIA has been used to ensure and optimize repair and recycling processes by integrating the indicators identified during the project. Finally, OUTSCALE ensured a robust, secure, sovereign, and customized IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) cloud computing services, deployed on a trusted industrial infrastructure for every work package’s partner – AT&S (Austria), Aniah (France), IMEC (Belgium), Fraunhofer (Germany), TST (Germany), and ACORDE (Spain).

The eco-design of a remote control as a real-world use case

Why a remote control? It’s the perfect, daily, product that gathers all the sustainability concerns with the traditional elements of an electronic object (with plastic, energy need, embedded electronics…). This use case will present five usual steps for this kind of product, as: concept research with circularity objectives, preliminary Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), research and development, simulation of the overall product and complete LCA phase.

The concept research phase is complemented by defining the scope of eco-design, with the aim of linking creative solutions to their environmental impact (throughout the product's lifecycle) right from the design stage. Defining the circularity objective establishes targets for reducing environmental impacts throughout the product's lifecycle. This takes into account performance and economic objectives while reducing electronic waste. Ideation can also appear in other functional aspects identified as negative imprints. As an example, the design team identified replacing the battery with a photovoltaic cell. 

The preliminary LCA, a rigorous scientific method used to systematically and objectively evaluate the environmental impact of a product's design and key enabler of eco-design, serves as a guide for these objectives and highlights potential environmental critical points of the future product.

The research and development phase focuses on developing solutions that meet the defined circularity objectives. To create a product with a low environmental impact, the design focuses on alternatives to minimize the materials used, explore eco-friendly options, and facilitate disassembly.

The simulation phase aims to achieve high durability. Evaluating resistance over time allows for a reduction in waste through an extended lifespan and fewer replacements. During development, the virtual model can be manipulated and disassembled to test each recycling option, assess weight-reduction opportunities, and optimize material types.

The complete LCA phase allows for an in-depth analysis of environmental impacts throughout the product's life cycle to minimize their effects. Weight or consumption reductions between two generations—to reduce waste production, energy use and battery removal—and comparison with optimization databases provide crucial insights for assessing the overall decrease in the environmental footprint of the tested options.

Small devices represent a considerable share (33%, or 20.4 billion tons) of electronic waste. Only 12% of these devices are recycled, highlighting the urgent need for change.

Companies

4mod Technology, Acorde Technologies Sa, Aniah, Arcelik A.S., At & S Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik Ag, Atea Sverige Ab, Bosch Car Multimedia Portugal Sa, Dassault Systèmes, Design And Reuse, Ecodc Ab, Get Electronique (Spherea), Infineon Technologies Ag, Infineon Technologies Austria Ag, Institut Mikroelektronickych Aplikaci (Ima), Interactive Fully Electrical Vehicles (Ifevs), Leonardo S.P.A., Luna Geber Engineering (Lge), Melsen Tech A/S, Nerosubianco (Nsb), Orbotech Ltd, Premo Sl, Robert Bosch Gmbh, Robert Bosch Kft, Smartsol Sia, Soitec Sa, Stmicroelectronics France, Stmicroelectronics Grenoble 2 Sas, Stmicroelectronics Srl, Swiss Vault Systems (Svs), Synano Bv, Tecnologias Servicios Telematicos Y Sistemas (Tst), Thales Dis France, Vitesco Technologies France, Weeecycling

Research organizations

Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior De Investigaciones Cientificas (Csic), Cea – Commissariat à L’Energie Atomique Et Aux Energies Alternatives, Cnrs – Centre National De La Recherche Scientifique, Csem – Centre Suisse D'électronique Et De Microtechnique, Dti – Danish Technological Institute, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Imec, Rise Research Institutes Of Sweden, Silicon Austria Labs (Sal), Utia

Universities

Charokopeio University (Hua), Institut Polytechnique De Grenoble, Özyegin University, Technicka Univerzita V Liberci (Tul), Technische Hochschule Deggendorf (Thd), Universita Degli Studi Di Perugia, Universite Catholique De Louvain, Universite Grenoble Alpes