IEC Technical Committee 111
Environmental standardization for electrical and electronic products and systems

Environmental issues are becoming more and more important around the world, especially with regard to health, climate change, energy and natural resources protection. The range of environmental issues has widened and now includes the whole life cycle of products. As a consequence of this awareness, regulations, company and product policies and legislative approaches are being issued and some of them have come into effect in all major parts of the world. In the electrical and electronic equipment sector, they particularly focus on product waste management control of hazardous substances and, more generally, chemicals, energy efficiency, and environmental consideration during product and systems design.

Created in 2004, IEC Technical Committee 111 (Environmental standardization for electrical and electronic products and systems) deals with standardization of environmental aspects.

This concerns:

• Preparing the necessary guidelines, basic and horizontal standards, including technical reports, in the environmental area, in close cooperation with IEC product committees, which remain autonomous in dealing with the environmental aspects relevant to their products.
• Liaising with product committees in elaborating environmental requirements of product standards to foster common technical approaches and solutions for similar problems and thus ensure consistency in IEC standards.
• Monitoring closely the corresponding regional standardization activities worldwide to become a focal point for discussions concerning standardization.
• Note: electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and electromagnetic field (EMF) aspects are excluded from the scope.

IEC Technical Committee 111 has begun work on a standard that covers test methods for hazardous substances and another that will help manufacturers declare which materials they are using in their products. Both are significant for the global electronics industry because of increasing legislation around the world such as the California Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003 and the European Union’s RoHS and WEEE Directives, as well as similar legislation now under study in China.

The standard for test methods is important because it is expected to give manufacturers a way to prove which substances their electrical and electronic products contain. The second will make importing and exporting those products easier through a uniform means of declaration which customs agents can use to ensure that products entering the market adhere to legislation concerning restricted substances, such as lead and cadmium.

For more information a full list of work in progress for TC 111 is available.