Design for green electronics, a great potential is still ahead

Design for green electronics is an issue which has been taken on board by many electronics producers. In this paper it is reported what the current status of these kinds of activities is - with particular reference to the situation in China. The carriers for this are 28/29" TV products. With help of the so-called environmental benchmark method it has been established what the differences in environmental performance are. In this study, the fields of energy consumption, material application, packaging and recyclability are considered for products sold on the Chinese market. It is concluded that for design and environment none of the brands considered scores consistently best. Compared to results of similar studies for products sold in other regions of the world, the observations for the products in China turn out to be consistent: both local brands and among global brands big differences in green design performance still exist.