Mission & Goals

The Electronics Sector encompasses all aspects of the consumer electronics market. The sector is focused on providing credible and scientifically grounded support for communicating the real impacts of all consumer electronics. Electronics have some of the most complex supply chains that span across the globe. With a thorough evaluation of consumer electronics, this sector can make a difference in how users understand the working of their electronics and what that means to society.

We strive for collaboration in reaching this goal, attempting to leverage and support existing efforts, and avoid duplication where possible. The sector also supports research on novel life cycle impact calculation methodology in the Materials Systems Laboratory at MIT.

Scope

The Electronics Sector was formed in January of 2010. To respond to the dynamic and rapidly changing electronics industry, we are developing flexible and cost effective methods for assessing the life cycle impact of electronics and robust networks for data collection throughout a complex supply chain to allow for continuous improvement of the core models behind our methodology.

Research

The sector collaborates with other universities and researchers to tackle significant issues like assessment of material hazards and efficient recapture, reuse, and recycling at the end of useful life for consumer electronic products. Together we can provide a solid scientific voice in the public debate over these impacts.

White Papers

Bio-Based Versus Conventional Plastics for Electronics Housings: LCA Literature Review
Dr. Sarah B. Boyd
University of California, Berkeley
February 2011

Bill of Attributes (BOA) in Life Cycle Modeling of Laptop Computers: Results and Trends from Disassembly Studies
Ramzy Kahhat, Soumya Poduri, Eric Williams
March 2011

Projects

Sustainability Measurement and Reporting Standard – Laptop/Desktop/Monitors

Standardized method to evaluate and report product life cycle information for electronics products. The Working Group is divided further into fully active Product Committees addressing the specifics related to the following product families:

• Laptop
• Televisions

Life Cycle based Metric Development

At UC Berkeley, researchers at the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability are collaborating on the life-cycle based metric development process, and providing sector guidance through the Center for Responsible Business.

Sustainability Consortium, Electronics Sector: Ethical Sourcing Metrics; Karen Salvini, Avi Ringer, Ian Hepworth, Tony Kingsbury, University of California, Berkeley

Review of the open life cycle literature for personal computers, laptops & liquid crystal displays; Sarah Boyd, University of California, Berkeley, Omar Romero-Hernandez, Fulbright Visiting Scholar – UC Berkeley, Professor and Researcher – ITAM (Mexico)

Product Attribute to Impact Algorithm (PAIA) Methodology Development

TSC is one of the sponsors of an ongoing research effort by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Materials Systems Laboratory to develop and refine a methodology to streamline life cycle assessment through 1) probabilistic triage to identify the most significant contributors to carbon and energy impact and 2) mapping product attributes to this impact at the product class level.

Participants

• American Chemistry Council
• Arizona State University
• BASF
• Best Buy
• Carbon Trust
• Dell
• EPA
• Hewlett Packard
• Intel
• MIT
• NRDC
• Novozymes
• Toshiba
• UL Environment
• UC Berkeley
• Walmart