The electronics industry has indeed been moving toward green engineering—willfully or not—since I last wrote about it in the September 16-30, 2005 issue of EE Times-Asia. Following the enforcement of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive on August 13, 2005, companies have been worrying about meeting Europe's RoHS directive, which took effect last July 1, 2006. The RoHS bans from Europe any new electrical and electronic equipment that contains more than a certain level of lead, cadmium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) flame retardants.

As many electronics companies work to develop new component lines and change production processes to comply with the RoHS, Europe is going even further. In November 2005, the European Parliament adopted the first reading of the Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) directive. The following month, their council reached a political agreement on a system that requires manufacturers and importers to make available along the entire supply chain information on the hazardous properties of some 30,000 chemicals. The EU regulation will replace 40 existing legal acts and create a single integrated system for all chemicals. A European Chemicals Agency will be established in Helsinki to manage the registration of substances and maintain a database of chemicals.

Yet another European regulation is claimed to wrap it all up for electrical and electronic equipment. The Eco-design Requirements For Energy-Using Products (EuP) directive is a draft document that combines two previous draft directives related to energy efficiency and the impact of electrical/electronic equipment on the environment.

The EuP directive will require manufacturers to consider the life cycle of product groups in making an ecological assessment. Product life would include raw materials used and their extraction or acquisition, production process, packaging, transport, maintenance, use and disposal.

Will it end with these European green laws? Many companies and politicians complain that environmental regulations are set to stifle businesses and free trade. For instance, an "independent" organization sustained by oil companies took out an advertisement in May to "educate" consumers on the benefits of carbon dioxide emissions.

While that advertisement is amusing to most of us, it reveals the impact of environmental awareness on business strategy. With European regulations coming into force, there would be no running away from ecological responsibility. That market is small compared to the United States, but not small enough to be ignored by any sizeable business.

The EuP and other regulations will force design for environment, and the time to prepare is now. We have dedicated the Spotlight section this issue to that end.

Gina Roos at EE Times highlights the technical challenges in finding a replacement for reliable tin/lead finishes and choosing a mold compound that meets the higher reflow temperatures required by lead-free processing. Roos discusses the impact of RoHS on production processes and solutions with executives at Analog Devices, Microsemi and Texas Instruments.

In his article, Suresh Lulla at Qimpro Consultants describes efforts by India's Tata Chemicals and Tata Sponge Iron toward achieving zero waste. The Spotlight section thus goes beyond RoHS to cover sustainable development, a business principle—perhaps the only principle—that ensures both future-proofing for environmental regulations and profitability.

I wish you success in designing products that deliver desired functionality in harmony with the environment.

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