Page 258 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

234 C h apter Ele v e n

Miniaturization and the shift to digital technologies have made
product repair an increasingly difficult and specialized job. In Europe,
Sony has introduced the “exchange and refurbishing program,” an
innovative service concept for the efficient repair of products with
large sales volumes, such as the Walkman, Discman, PlayStation, and
mobile phones. In the case of a defect, a customer can exchange their
product at the dealer for a refurbished model, or even for a new one
(if a defect is found within the three month guarantee period from
date of purchase). Defective products are collected and refurbished,
broken parts are repaired or exchanged, and housing parts are checked
at a central European location. Since “factory-like” repair is more effi-
cient, average costs have been reduced by 25%. This way more prod-
uct parts and components get the chance for a second life. For example,
Sony is achieving a 68% reuse rate for the plastic components of
returned PlayStations, and virtually all of the remaining components
that cannot be reused are recycled.

References
1. E. D. Williams, R. U. Ayres, and M. Heller, “The 1.7 Kilogram Microchip: Energy
and Material Use in the Production of Semiconductor Devices,” Environmental
Science & Technology, 2002, 36, 5504.
2. More information about Motorola’s Green Design Advisor is available at
www.epa.gov/perftrac/events/design.pdf .
3. Solders in Electronics: A Life-Cycle Assessment. epa.gov/dfe/pubs/solder/lca/
index.htm.
4. More information about Xerox’s corporate citizenship is available at www.
xerox.com/about-xerox/citizenship/enus.html.
5. HP’s Global Citizenship report is available at www.hp.com/hpinfo/
globalcitizenship/.
6. More information about Sony’s environmental programs is available at
news.sel.sony.com/en/corporate_information/environmental.