IFA 2007: Consumer electronics must be "sustainable"

Consumer electronics companies need to act urgently to reduce the environmental footprint of their products, according to a leading industry executive.

Delivering the opening keynote at the IFA consumer electronics show, Rudy Provoost, head of consumer electronics at PhilipsPhilips, put sustainability top of the agenda.

Although Provoost stopped short of measures such as an outright ban on "standby" mode for home entertainment equipment, he told delegates that manufacturers could do more to reduce the power consumption of their products, as well as to reduce packaging and encourage more take-back and recycling of old equipment.

"Almost all our TVs use less than one watt on standby. 10 years ago that was nine watts or more," he said. "It now costs just one Euro a year if a TV is left on all the time. But we are going to fight further to get that consumption to next to nothing."

Removing features such as standby mode would not be practical, however, because consumers find it useful, said Provoost. "We need to make sure that a feature as consumer-friendly as standby does the minimum amount of environmental damage," he explained.

None the less, the electronics industry needs to "offer consumers more sustainable choices". Philips has introduced its own green labelling scheme for its most environmentally-friendly goods.

To qualify, products need to be at least 10 per cent more efficient, in environmental terms, as similar products on the market.

The criteria for awarding the logo includes packaging, ease of recycling, use of hazardous substances, energy consumption, weight and lifetime reliability, according to Philips. "Improving reliability reduces servicing costs and makes more efficient results of natural resources," Provoost said.

"At the end of the day we are in business, and that business makes its living making electrical goods which consume resources. But we have become good at minimising that [environmental] impact."

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