Voluntary Agreement on Ecodesign results in significant reduction in energy consumption by printer and copier manufacturers between 2011 and 2013.
Angel News reported on the findings of engineering consultancy firm ERA Technology’s Energy Efficiency Report, which indicated that between 2011 and 2013 OEMs boosted their energy efficiency by one-fifth due to measures taken by the companies as part of the Voluntary Agreement on Ecodesign, which came into force in 2011.
The “industry self-regulation initiative” was developed by EuroVAprint and signed by 16 OEMs which agreed to comply to “environmentally-friendly design requirements of imaging equipment products”; with the report finding that as a result of the agreement, the imaging equipment industry reduced the energy consumption of its products sold between 2011 and 2013 by 10.5 percent, while OEM products used 20.8 percent less energy.
Furthermore, the number of products complying with the requirements “has been continuously increasing from 93.2 percent in 2011 to 97.63 percent at the end of 2013”. The “strict set” of requirements relates to “energy consumption, recyclability, and use of compatible cartridges”, and is supported by the European Commission; with manufacturers also agreeing to “undertake measures to encourage the use of automatic duplex […] and ‘N-up’ printing” as well as to ensure that certain environmental information is made available to customers.
Maxime Furkel, President of EuroVAprint and employee of Lexmark, commented: “Our industry is a vivid example of how self-regulation can work in Europe. The Ecodesign measures provide the right conditions for industries to take universal and immediate action to reduce energy consumption. Our voluntary agreement allows different manufacturers to work together for energy saving targets and achieve immediate results.”
The Recycler reported on how ETIRA lobbied for the Ecodesign’s criteria to include remanufactured cartridges, with the agreement consequently stating that OEM cartridges “shall not be designed to prevent reuse” and that hardware “shall not be designed to prevent the use of non-OEM cartridges” and “must be able to accommodate non-OEM ink and toner cartridges”. ETIRA General Secretary Vincent van Dijk discussed the subject at this year’s Focus on Europe conference, which you can read about in issue 260.