ELECTRONICS SUSTAINABILITY - IPC LEADING THE WAY
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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.

INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP

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.

Sustainability for Electronics Leadership Council
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RESOURCES

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. 

Learn more here.

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:

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.

Register Here


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.

Register Here


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!

STAY CONNECTED
Dr. Kelly Scanlon, Lead Sustainability Strategist

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.

LINKEDIN PAGE
To engage in conversation on IPC's sustainability initiative, visit IPC's Sustainability for Electronics LinkedIn page.
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