Environmental diagnosis and management instruments
Replacing an office device that works with one that is 30% more efficient can take decades to offset the emissions of manufacturing it. In electronics, using things longer is usually the cleanest choice.
01Measuring in order to manage
Environmental management needs tools to answer concrete questions: what impact a project will have before it is built, whether a plant meets what it promised, how much a product pollutes over its life. Each question has its instrument:
| Instrument | Question it answers | When it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Environmental impact assessment | What effects will this project have and how are they mitigated? | Before approving a work or activity |
| Environmental audit | Are the law and the commitments being met? | Periodically, during operation |
| Management system (ISO 14001) | How are environmental aspects controlled and improved on a continual basis? | Permanently |
| Life cycle assessment | What is the impact of a product from extraction to waste? | In product design and comparison |
| Carbon footprint | How many greenhouse gases does an organization or a product emit? | To set targets and communicate |
02Environmental impact assessment
The General Environmental Law, 25,675, requires a prior environmental impact assessment (EIA) for any work or activity that could significantly degrade the environment; the provinces set the procedure. The study describes the project and the environment, identifies the impacts, assesses them, proposes mitigation measures and a management plan, and goes through a stage of public participation before the authority decides.
A classic tool for identifying impacts is the Leopold matrix, proposed in 1971 by the United States Geological Survey: it crosses the project’s actions with the factors of the environment and, in each affected cell, records the magnitude and the importance of the impact. Its value lies in forcing us to look at all the combinations, not only the obvious ones.
03Management systems and audits
The ISO 14001 standard, in its 2015 version, organizes environmental management with the same cycle of continual improvement as ISO 45001: the organization identifies its environmental aspects (emissions, waste, consumption) and their impacts, considers the life cycle perspective, meets the legal requirements, sets objectives and controls them. Audits verify the system with evidence; third-party audits make it possible to certify it.
04Life cycle and carbon footprint
Life cycle assessment, standardized in ISO 14040 and 14044, adds up the impacts of all the stages: extraction of materials, manufacturing, transport, use and end of life. In electronic equipment the result depends strongly on use: in devices that are always on, the energy consumed dominates, and in those used briefly, manufacturing does, which includes that of chips and displays, very intensive in energy and materials.
The carbon footprint of an organization is calculated with the GHG Protocol or ISO 14064, in three scopes: direct emissions (scope 1), those from purchased electricity (scope 2) and the rest of the value chain, such as the manufacture of what is purchased and the use of what is sold (scope 3), which are usually the largest.
The footprint of an electronic device over its service life, split between manufacturing and use, and the years it takes a new, more efficient device to offset the emissions of its own manufacturing. The initial values are an example; the manufacturing footprint is taken to be the same for the new device.
05In the laboratory
Build a reduced Leopold matrix for the installation of a board assembly plant in an industrial park, with ten actions and ten factors.
Using a wattmeter, measure the consumption of the laboratory equipment when on, on standby and off, and estimate the annual footprint of the energy it consumes.
List the environmental aspects of an equipment repair workshop, with their impacts, and propose a measurable objective for the most significant one.
06Common mistakes
- Looking only at consumption in use. In many electronic devices manufacturing weighs more.
- Replacing working equipment "for efficiency". If use is low or the grid is clean, the manufacturing of the new one is never offset.
- Confusing the EIA with a bureaucratic formality. Its value lies in changing the project before it is built.
- Forgetting scope 3. It is usually the largest part of an electronics company’s footprint.
07Self-assessment
A 30 W device switched on 8 hours per day: how much energy does it consume per year?
87.6 kWh.
With a factor of 0.35 kg CO₂e/kWh, how much is that in emissions?
About 30.7 kg per year.
In which scope are the emissions from the electricity a company buys counted?
In scope 2.
What does the Leopold matrix cross?
The project’s actions with the factors of the environment.
08Further reading
- Vicente Conesa Fernández-Vítora. Guía metodológica para la evaluación del impacto ambiental (Methodological guide for environmental impact assessment) (in Spanish). 4th ed., Mundi-Prensa, 2010. The most widely used impact assessment method in Spanish, with matrices and valuation.
- Walter Klöpffer and Birgit Grahl. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): A Guide to Best Practice. Wiley-VCH, 2014. Life cycle assessment according to ISO 14040 and 14044, step by step.
- World Resources Institute and WBCSD. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol: Corporate Standard. Revised edition, 2004. The reference standard for the carbon footprint of organizations and its scopes.