Developing an ISO 14048-Based EuP integrated service platform for evaluating environment impacts and supporting eco-design in Taiwan

Abstract

Due to Environmental pollution and natural resource exhaustion, environmental protection has become the critical issue. Hence, the European Commission published the Energy Using Products (EuP) Directive, which creates an architecture for product requirements of the eco-friendly design on all environmental aspects from cradle to grave. In order to help electronic companies execute the life cycle assessment (LCA) and apply the environmental product declarations, this research develops an ISO 14048-based EuP integrated service platform (EuPISP). The EuPISP applies the web service technology and the eco-spold XML data exchange standard to share the LCI (life cycle inventory) data between the members of the EuPISP. For ensuring the consistency of the EPDs, the EuPISP provides the electronic companies with the product category rules that explain which the information must be reported in the EPDs. In addition, the EuPISP invites the related domain experts to review and verify the correctness of LCI data, and provides the electronic map to let the electronic companies quickly search the LCI data of the specific common parts or components. Through the employing the EuPISP, the cost and time of LCA for electronic products can be diminished significantly. © Springer-Verlag London Limited 2009.