Legislation

Sustainability Standards and Regulations
 

Please find here a little more information on the standards and regulations most important for Product Designers, you will find links on them all to get further information:

ISO 14062  - There have been no sustainable design standards so far, and the nearest thing has been the ISO 14001 standard for environmental management. However, ISO has developed ISO 14062, focused on product design and development. See  International Organization for Standardization website
Download a two minute briefing on ISO14001

• Climate Change Levy - Legislation is still one of the principal drivers for more sustainable design. The UK's Climate Change Levy is an umbrella law with widespread effects. But there are also industry-specific regulations, such as the EU's End of Life Vehicle Directive. See Climate Change Levy
• End-of-Life Vehicle Directive - This will make car manufacturers responsible (from 2007) for the recycling and disposal of vehicles at the end of their life. Vehicle manufacturers in Europe have also agreed to voluntarily increase fuel efficiency by 25% by 2008.
• The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) - WEEE came into force October 2004 and embodies the principle of producer responsibility - meaning that discarded equipment can come back to haunt you at the end of its life. This is likely to trigger design changes towards product life extension and upgradeability. The 1.5 million odd Pcs that end up in landfill each year will have to be dealt with by the manufacturers - there is a government target for 70% recycling of computers.
• The Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive - This directive is intended to reduce both the quantity and toxicity of packaging by encouraging a range of sustainable design approaches, including reuse, recycling and alternative materials.

• Visit the DTI website to learn more about:

End-of-Life Vehicle Directive
WEEE directive
Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive 

• The Energy Using Products Directive (EuP) - EuP will require the design of such products to consider a whole range of life cycle elements, including energy efficiency.
• REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) - REACH is an EU procedure that has identified 30,000 chemical substances, only about 10% of which have been studied in any detail. The EU estimates that the cost to industry of abiding by REACH regulations will be €2.6-5.2 billion over 11 years. Yet the EU also anticipates savings in terms of healthcare costs of as much as €50 billion over the next 30 years.
• The Landfill Directive - The Landfill Directive took effect during 2004. It aims to reduce both mass and hazards - all wastes must be pre-treated before reaching landfill, and there is an emphasis on recovery or recycling. In the UK it means that domestic and hazardous wastes can no longer be dumped together and the number of landfills that can take hazardous waste has dropped from 277 to eight. Landfill prices for hazardous waste such as contaminated soil is showing rises of 300-400%.

Find out what DEFRA and the Environment Agency have to say about the Landfill Directive

References

British Standards. (2002) ISO/TR 14062:2002 Environmental management-Integrating environmental aspects into product design and development, British Standards Institute, UK.

Engineering Council UK, (2005) Standards for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC), ECUK, London, UK.

HM Government. (2005) Securing the future: delivering UK sustainable development strategy, Executive Summary