Aim
The aim of the Thematic Network1 ECOLIFE was to strengthen the European electr(on)ic industry and to preserve the European leadership in environmental technologies. In order to achieve this challenge the following objectives were realised:
The stated objectives were realised through the following activities:
Activities
The objective of the research work was to contribute to the elimination or at least mitigation of priority environmental problems by developing solutions of wide ranging and general applicability in the electr(on)ic industry. The following main working areas were defined
Ecodesign
Closing the Cycle
End of Life Aspects
Results
After collection of case studies, discussions, and several versions of the eco-design guide, the final version of the "Environmentally Improved Product Design – Cases studies of the European Electric and Electronics Industry" has been issued in June 2002. The Guide contains 23 case studies from European electr(on)ics industry (from multinational as well as from SMEs) that illustrate five general eco-design principles, on which each partners agreed at the beginning of the task, which are:
Partnership
20 organisations participated in ECOLIFE as “Associated Members”. They are producers, research centres and recyclers coming from 9 different European countries. The Austrian Society for Systems Engineering and Automation was the co-ordinator of the project.
Associated Members received a financial contribution from the EC
ARÖW (DE), The Centre for Sustainable Design (UK), ENSAM (FR), GAIKER (ES), Fujitsu Services (UK), FhG-IML (DE), ISE (BE), LogMaS (HU), MMUy (UK), Motorola (DE), Philips (NL), RIF-IT (DE), Robotiker (ES), Schneider Electric (FR), SIEMENS (DE), Sony (DE), STENA Technoworld (SE), Technical University Berlin (DE), UDB (AT), U.E.G. (AT).
The project started on November 1998 and was finished in October 2001.
1/The task of participants in a Thematic Network is to set-up efficient co-ordination between the different research activities and to take all appropriate steps for technology exchange and transfer, including exchanges of personnel and training of industrial personnel.