Project Introduction

Development of an embedded Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions database with a G-BOM analyzer and a SME advisory kit for electrical and electronic Industries to respond to the implementation and compliance of ISO 14067 (carbon footprint of products)

With the support of the SME Development Fund of the Government of HKSAR, and six industrial sponsors, the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) launched the G-BOM analyzer with embedded carbon footprint database and SME advisory kit Programme for Electrical and Electronic Products.

The programme is aimed at helping the electronic industry to comply with the new ISO 14067 on effective calculation of product carbon print throughout product life cycle, communication of the result and supply chain carbon management.

Objectives

  1. Develop an embedded GHG emissions database for SMEs to check the environmental performance of a product during the design and development stagein order to increase product competitiveness;
  2. Develop a G-BOM analyzer for SMEs to estimate product carbon emission in a simple and cost-effective way;
  3. Implement the embedded GHG emissions database and G-BOM analyzer to electronic scale and induction cooker as showcases of the end product; PCB and LCD display as showcases of component respective for the previous two end products.
  4. Develop a SME advisory kit for the electrical and electronic industries to correspond to the coming ISO 14067;
  5. Implement the advisory kit to a downstream end-product manufacturer and a upstream component manufacturer as case studies for low carbon supply chain

Although stakeholders have been searching for tools and methods to develop products that have low environmental impacts and carbon emissions, several tools are available in Hong Kong which concern about human activities in primary footprint rather than CO2 emissions from the whole life cycle(include raw material use, manufacturing, distribution, use and end-of-life) of products in the secondary footprint. None calculate the carbon footprint based on a whole product life cycle approach. The project's deliverables will fill the gap.