IEC PAS 62545:2008

IEC/PAS 62545
Edition 1.0 2008-01
PUBLICLY AVAILABLE
SPECIFICATION
Environmental Information on Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EIEEE)

IEC/PAS 62545:2008(E)
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IEC/PAS 62545
Edition 1.0 2008-01
PUBLICLY AVAILABLE
SPECIFICATION
Environmental Information on Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EIEEE)

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
PRICE CODE
R
ICS 13.020, 43.040.10 ISBN 2-8318-9583-9

– 2 – PAS 62545 © IEC:2008(E)
CONTENTS
FOREWORD.3

INTRODUCTION.4

1 Scope.5

2 Normative references .5

3 Terms, definitions and abbreviations .5

4 Methodology and rules to be followed in order to build up environmental
information on electrical and electronic equipment (EIEEE) .9
4.1 General .9
4.2 EIEEE for an environmentally homogeneous product category (EHPC) .11
5 Description of items to be considered when establishing an EIEEE frame.11
5.1 Information about the producer.11
5.2 Description of the product .12
5.3 Environmental aspect identification : reference product and methodology .12
5.4 Constitutive materials .12
5.5 Manufacturing process .12
5.6 Distribution.12
5.7 Use phase.13
5.8 End of life.13
5.9 Environmental impacts .13
5.10 Eco-solutions .15
5.11 Date of elaboration of the EIEEE.15

Annex A (informative) Life cycle impact category indicators .16

Bibliography.19

Figure 1 – General structure of the environmental information on electrical and
electronic equipment.10

PAS 62545 © IEC:2008(E) – 3 –
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION

____________
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION ON ELECTRICAL

AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT (EIEEE)

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising

all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote
international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To

this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications,
Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC
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8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
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patent rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
A PAS is a technical specification not fulfilling the requirements for a standard, but made
available to the public.
IEC-PAS 62545 has been processed by IEC technical committee 111: Environmental
standardization for electrical and electronic products and systems.
The text of this PAS is based on the This PAS was approved for
following document: publication by the P-members of the
committee concerned as indicated in
the following document
Draft PAS Report on voting
111/86/NP 111/93/RVN
Following publication of this PAS, the technical committee or subcommittee concerned will
investigate the possibility of transforming the PAS into an International Standard.
This PAS shall remain valid for an initial maximum period of 3 years starting from the date of
publication. The validity may be extended for a single three-year period, following which it
shall be revised to become another type of normative document, or shall be withdrawn.

– 4 – PAS 62545 © IEC:2008(E)
INTRODUCTION
Global awareness of the urgency of preserving the natural environment has been resulting in

the developments of local, national, and/or international regulations on products, a growing

consciousness of consumers of products environmental impacts, and generally speaking a

growing involvement of every stakeholder in these matters.

This is resulting in an increasing need of exchanges of environmental information between all

actors of the product life cycle, from the raw material provider to the recycler, through the

manufacturer and the finished product end user. At every stage, needs in terms of content

and format of environmental information are different, and possible solutions to fit these

needs are multiple. But the key actor of this chain is definitely the producer, who must put on
the market products, which:
• are in conformity with the relevant environmental regulations,
• fulfil the technical and environmental requirements/expectations of users.

Every producer is then led to collect the necessary information upstream of the manufacturing
stage, and deliver product-related environmental information downstream.
Upstream information is so far being collected by individual producers from their numerous
suppliers. This means that every supplier is receiving as many requests as he has customers.
Though these requests generally deal with the same items, they are all different and require
customized answers.
In the same way, producers have to answer as many questionnaires as they have customers,
or to provide consumers with the information they are expecting. This long-standing situation
is more and more difficult to manage for companies because of the growing number of
questionnaires, most often very different in contents and format, and the increasing number of
answers to be provided. It is thus costly and burdensome for:
• every supplier to reply to a lot of different questionnaires,
• every producer to manage a huge quantity of data, and to deliver proper information.

But the main concern about the current situation is that it doesn’t ensure a level playing field
on the market. Current rules of play appear insufficient to avoid misunderstanding between
stakeholders, mistakes, false claims, which eventually lead to market distortion.
There are therefore clear and urgent needs for standardization to structure and harmonize
these exchanges of information.

At that time, many different ways of meeting these needs for providing environmental product
information exist. But existing systems all present some deficiencies (see Annex A), that this
PAS claims to solve.
PAS 62545 © IEC:2008(E) – 5 –
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION ON ELECTRICAL

AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT (EIEEE)

1 Scope
This PAS provides guidelines on generic environmental attributes to be considered by product

committees when preparing a declaration frame suited to a concerned product category to

disclose credible, relevant, and harmonized product related environmental information to who

needs or requests it. As a result, generic requirements to be followed by upstream suppliers

to deliver necessary information to downstream producers are also specified.
This PAS is stand-alone and only applicable if relevant requirements on environmental
aspects and impacts information does not exist in relevant product standard.
2 Normative references
The following referenced documents are indispensable for the application of this document.
For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For undated references, the latest edition
of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
IEC/TR 62139:2004, Guidelines for the addition of environmental aspects in product
standards specific to TC23
ISO 8601, Data elements and interchange formats — Information interchange —
Representation of dates and times

ISO 14001:2004, Environmental management systems – Requirements with guidance for use
ISO 14020:2000, Environmental labels and declarations – General principles
ISO 14040:2006, Environmental management – Life cycle assessment – Principles and
framework
ISO 14050:2002, Environmental management – Vocabulary
IEC Guide 109:2003, Environmental aspects – Inclusion in electrotechnical product standards
IEC Guide 114:2005, Environmentally conscious design - Integrating environmental aspects

into product design and development of electrotechnical products
3 Terms, definitions and abbreviations
For the purposes of this document, the following terms, definitions and abbreviations are used.
...