1996 Electronics Industry Environmental Roadmap - Civil and ...

Information and Knowledge Systems
emphasizing performance-based, multimedia permitting approaches. Details about these
pilot projects could be made easily available to regulators in other states, or to industry
advocates who are seeking to influence the structure of regulations. With the addition of
powerful search agents, multi-jurisdictional analyses could be easily conducted to assess
uniformity or lack thereof, and data about pilot projects or model programs made
available.
Source of Information/Data on Standards: Existing or emerging standards, whether
formal or ad hoc, could be posted for review, comment, and dissemination.
Component Specific or Media Specific Discussion Groups: As noted elsewhere in this
roadmap, several efforts demand broad industry participation in order to accelerate the
elimination of certain substances from the manufacturing process. For example, the focus
on the elimination of lead from solder materials represents a priority across several
segments of the electronics industry. An environmental interaction site could provide a
ready, virtual discussion group of individuals who are involved in eliminating lead to
share ideas, information, and breakthroughs. In this sense, the site fills the function of
professional association or trade meetings but with more real-time input. The same kind
of discussion groups could focus on environmental processes for specific components
(i.e., printed wiring boards, displays, ICs, etc.) or other specific media, materials, or
chemicals.
Best Practices and Corporate Environmental Stewardship: The Web approach provides
an ideal forum for presenting discussions of best practices in design for environment,
manufacturing, end-of-life management, or a wide variety of other areas. Corporations
with practices that have resulted in significant benefits could post descriptions and case
studies to the net. Furthermore, trade associations or environmental advocacy
organizations could also post studies to the net. Similarly, corporations that have adopted
environmental stewardship programs or environmental reporting policies could post their
stewardship reports to the net, providing a wide ranging view of industry’s proactive
environmental efforts. This kind of information could prove valuable to efforts aimed at
improving regulatory practices and establishing community confidence in the
environmental integrity of industrial operations.
The Virtual Environmental Toolkit: Software for design, management, or other applications
could be made available on the Web for evaluation, testing, or even purchase. Furthermore,
industrial associations, consortia, or the government may wish to offer freeware
across the net for use in certain high priority applications. Finally, such a “virtual toolkit”
could provide the platform for creating a national testbed and framework laboratory, supporting
the rapid deployment and harmonization of emerging tools.
The Environmental Library: A meta-index of resources to support knowledge transfer,
continuing education, technical research, and information sharing. The Library could also
contain the capability to electronically disseminate standards information. The addition
of advanced searching agents would greatly enhance the usefulness of the site.
Professional Networking and Discussion: The Web can provide a forum for discussion
and networking about key topics of concern. A discussion forum modeled after the popular
news groups available on the Net could be fashioned to address specific topics, and
provide a “virtual conference room” for peer-to-peer communication about technical and
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