Hewlett‐Packard's Use of the GreenScreen™ for Safer Chemicals

Abstract

The electronics industry is now being impacted by a rapidly growing number of chemical regulations and substance restrictions. In the light of this trend, there is a significant risk of facing multiple substitutions for the same application unless potential replacement technologies are properly assessed against environmental and human health criteria in advance of their widespread adoption. To ensure that replacements for restricted substances have lower impact to human health and the environment, it is essential to be able to determine the impacts of the alternatives compared with the original substances. In this work, we evaluated tools and methods for comparing restricted substances to their alternatives, including restricted substance list (RSL) screening, risk phrase or hazard statement screening, multi‐criteria decision analysis, life‐cycle analysis (LCA), risk assessment and hazard scoring schemes. This chapter describes how these tools were incorporated into an integrated alternatives assessment protocol for evaluating the environmental and human health impacts of replacements for restricted substances.

Answering the Call for Improved Chemical Alternatives Assessments (CAA)

“…Various industry sectors are using alternatives assessment tools during product development [16]. For example, Hewlett Packard uses GreenScreen® to assess the human health and environmental impacts of alternatives to chemicals restricted in the electronics industry [17].…”

“…• Streamlined approach to evaluating life-cycle impacts and exposure [54] • An alternatives assessment approach with clear triggers and checklists for exposure and LCA, and a harmonized approach among local jurisdictions to meet regulatory requirements [17] • Need for more models and case studies for alternatives assessment; for example, case studies that describe the use of tools and lessons learned (identified by multiple sources)…”

“…• Libraries or repositories to share evaluations for chemicals and materials to encourage the adoption of better materials and reduce the redundancy of assessing the same chemical/material multiple times [17] Improved accessibility to tools and guidance…”

A decision‐analytic approach to screening in chemical alternatives assessment

“…When it comes to selecting what chemical(s) to use, the decision stakes can be high. For many product manufacturers, it is critical to minimize the number of times they have to replace a chemical of concern because these substitutions can be expensive and disrupt commercialization schedules (Holder, Mazurkiewicz, Robertson, & Wray, ). For many brands and retailers, the conversation with suppliers has shifted from piecemeal chemical substitution to making systematic evaluation of alternative formulations a “fundamental component of product design” (McFadden, ).…”

“…This might be especially important for AA, which is traditionally focused on choosing an alternative chemical that is less hazardous than the existing baseline chemical in a product (Heine & Whittaker, ; Holder et al, ). Once the less hazardous than baseline threshold is met, the evaluation considers more complex interactions among hazard and exposure reduction, as well as other attributes.…”