What Does It Mean to Build Electronics Sustainably?
Companies have obligations to balance environmental, social, and economic sustainability drivers. Within electronics industry value chains, these obligations are increasing in number and scope.
IPC’s engagement with industry stakeholders and expert insights from the Sustainability for Electronics Leadership Council indicates that you and your company have obligations to:
- Fulfill sustainability reporting and disclosure requirements
- Meet resource efficiency targets and minimize waste
- Ensure value chain resiliency
- Develop and support workforce talent
As a member of the electronics industry value chain, your company needs solutions that help it to stay balanced and thrive in the face of continual change.
IPC’s Sustainability for Electronics program provides data-driven and evidence-based solutions that support you. We create industry standards, workforce training, certification and validation programs, industry intelligence, and advocacy.
IPC has a global reach, is dedicated to electronics manufacturers, and has a long history of collaborating with the industry. We know the industry and we know how to help it to build electronics better.
Sustainability for Electronics Leadership Council
The Sustainability for Electronics Leadership Council comprises industry experts responsible for helping IPC to identify the most pressing sustainability topics the electronics manufacturing industry is facing and ensuring a strategy to address these topics.
Standardization Activities that Provide a Foundation for Circular Materials
IPC standards provide information needed for materials and supplier declarations, electronic product data description, design for excellence, corporate social responsibility management, and greener cleaners. We look to expand the sustainability-related topics covered by IPC standards and welcome your participation in leading the way.
Materials and Supplier Declarations Committee and associated task groups covering these topics:
- Materials Declarations
- Conflict Minerals
- Materials and Substances Declaration for the Aerospace, Defense, HE and Other Industries
- Lab report data transfer
Visit the Materials Data Exchange homepage for more information.
Electronic Product Data Description Committee and associated task groups covering these topics:
- Obsolete and Discontinued Products
- Digital Product Model Exchange (DPMX)
- Digital Sustainability Credentials
- Connected Factory Exchange (CFX)
Plus, other subcommittees covering:
- Design for Excellence (DFX)
- Halogen-Free Materials
- Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability in the Supply Chain in China
- Greener Cleaners in Electronics Manufacturing
Standardization Activities Enabling Supply Chain Traceability and Transparency
Materials and Supplier Declarations Committee and associated task groups covering these topics:
- Generic Requirements for Declaration Process Management Materials Declaration
- Conflict Minerals Data Exchange
- Lab Report Data Transfer
- Declaration Process Chemicals (In Development)
- Materials and Substances Declaration for the Aerospace, Defense, HE and Other Industries
Electronic Product Data Description Committee and associated task groups covering these topics:
- Generic Requirements for Digital Twin
- Model Based Definition (MBD) for Digital Twins
- Cybersecurity Protection
- Obsolete and Discontinued Products
- Digital Product Model Exchange (DPMX)
- Critical Components Traceability
- Trusted Supplier Component-level Authentication (CLA)
- Digital Sustainability Credentials
- Connected Factory Exchange (CFX)
IPC Education
IPC’s education team develops relevant workforce training. IPC member companies have free access to training modules covering electrostatic discharge (ESD), safety, and foreign object debris (FOD) in an electronics manufacturing environment. Non-member companies can still engage with these and other important electronics industry training courses.
Advocating for Sustainable Electronics
IPC’s advocacy team ensures industry expertise informs policymakers and each other. Sustainability policy priorities include chemical and product policies and environmental and social sustainability policies.
Some recent activities include:
- IPC responded to the European Chemicals Agency on the proposed universal restriction on PFAS in September 2023
- IPC co-hosted a webinar “Unpacking the TSCA PFAS Reporting Rule: Impacts on the Electronics Sector” in November 2023
- IPC co-hosted a webinar “Navigating Plastics Use and Management in the Electronics Value Chain” in March 2024“
Webinars
- Enhancing Circularity: Opportunities for IC and Other Component Reuse
- Circularity Challenges in Electronics Manufacturing
Articles
- Recycling PCBs: NCAB is Navigating Challenges and Embracing Opportunities
- PCB007 Magazine: The Sustainability Issue
- IPC Standards and Electronics Sustainability
- Team Players: A New Industry Leadership Council Provides Solutions to Sustainability Challenges
- What Does Sustainability Mean for Electronics Manufacturers
Industry Intelligence and Whitepapers
Podcasts
Videos
- A Sustainability for Electronics Discussion with: Heller Industries
- A Sustainability for Electronics Discussion with: Mycronic
- A Sustainability for Electronics Discussion with: Koh Young Technologies
- A Sustainability for Electronics Discussion with: MacDermid Alpha
- A Sustainability for Electronics Discussion with: Viscom
- Electronics Materials: From Vectors to Circles
Blog
Sustainability Events
IPC APEX EXPO 2025
March 15 - 20 2025 | Anaheim, CA
We have already begun the Call for Papers – the deadline for technical paper abstract is October 4, 2024!
More information available here.
Pan-European Design Conference (PEDC)
January 29 - 30 2025 | Vienna, Austria
The Pan-European Electronics Design Conference is jointly hosted and organized by FED and IPC – two associations representing more than 3,700 companies from the electronics industry. Topics will include Development, Design for Excellence, Software and Tools, and the Design Process of electronic systems and the call for abstracts is open now!
More information available here.
American Center for Life Cycle Assessment
September 24 - 26 2024 | Snowbird, UT
Explore the latest innovations, technologies, and practices driving the transformation of environmental sustainability. This gathering is more than an event; it's a collaborative space where leaders, innovators, and a passionate community unite to shape the future.
Join IPC for a special session entitled “There’s no end to a circle. A workshop on how to address circularity challenges in electronics manufacturing.”
More information available here.
Demystifying the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) for the Electronics Manufacturing Industry
September 11, 2024, 11:00 EDT | Webinar
The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is a European Union directive that introduces legal obligations on businesses to respect human rights and the environment. It requires applicable companies to conduct human rights and environmental due diligence across their global value chain. It also includes certain obligations regarding climate change as well as language empowering victims of corporate abuse to sue companies before national courts of EU Member States for harm occurring within their value chain.
Building Electronics Sustainably: Unique Challenges Facing the Electronics Manufacturing Industry
August 28, 2024, 12:00 EDT | Webinar
The electronics manufacturing supply chain faces unique sustainability challenges and life cycle assessment and tradeoff analyses can be used to help electronics designers and manufacturers to build electronics better.
Join Dr. Kelly Scanlon, lead sustainability strategist at IPC International, Inc., for the beginning of a conversation about the electronics industry’s challenges and how reliable, accurate, and protected data can enable designers and manufacturers to overcome these challenges and achieve their sustainability goals.
IPC APEX EXPO 2024
Past - April 6 - 11 2024 | Anaheim, CA
We had more sustainability-related content being presented this year than ever before including 12 Professional Development Courses, 6 Posters, and 19 technical conference presentations. Check out some insights from the show floor in the video player above!
Connect with Dr. Scanlon to learn more about IPC's Sustainability Initiative.
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Engage on LinkedIn
Follow IPC's Sustainability Initiative on LinkedIn for up-to-date information on current work, and how you and your company can become involved.