- 3 -
Environmental issues traditionally confined to certain regions or countries have come to global attention
thanks to treaties aimed at protecting the environment such as the 1989 Montreal Protocol, the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Rio Declaration. In the process, a growing
number of people became aware of the seriousness of environmental degradation stemming from
pollutants and began making efforts to clean up the environment in various industries.
Initially, people paid attention mostly to coping with "end-of-pipe" pollutants in an attempt to minimize
the amount of pollution. Naturally, they relied heavily on highly efficient processing facilities for dealing
with pollutants. However, that method was not able to reduce pollution at the source. Overcoming the
problem requires using fewer raw materials and/or utilizing non-toxic substances. This new approach is
considered a pollution prevention system that is more advanced than the traditional end-of-pipe cleanup
method.
The European Parliament enacted the Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE),
which defines extended producer responsibility (EPR) regarding electronic and electrical products, and the
Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS), which is designed to ban
the use of specific toxic substances. The two directives are set to take effect in Jan. 2007 and July 2006
respectively. In addition, the European commission proposes a directive on the eco-design of energy-using
products (EuP), which will make it mandatory to consider the environmental impact associated from the
whole life cycle of a product from its designing phase.
These various rules for the development and supply of environmentally friendly products pushed private
enterprises like iameco to come up with integrated product policies (IPP). Businesses are applying IPP to
assess the environmental impact of their products and make improvements as necessary. In so doing, we
make use of LCA and eco-designing techniques with regard to all product-related processes.
Environmentally friendly products require close collaboration and among all entities involved in production,
including end-product producers. For this reason, most end-product producers in the electronics industry
are operating the so-called "green" procurement system (GPS) in an effort to use raw materials and
components that are not harmful to the environment.
In line with the growing popularity of "green" procurement system, electronics manufacturers, many of
who are the customers of iameco, are increasingly demanding eco-products as well as LCA and
environmental information on products. iameco is doing all it can to supply eco-products in order to meet
customer demand.
