Event Calendar

Tuesday, June 2, 2020

iNEMI/SMTA Technical Webinar Series: Quantifying Environmental Life Cycle Impacts for ICT Products - A Simpler Approach

Start Date: 6/2/2020 11:00 PM EDT
End Date: 6/2/2020 11:45 AM EDT

Location:
United States 

 

Tuesday, June 2
11:00 a.m. EDT (Americas)
Register for this webinar



Overview
Information and communications technology (ICT) products are key to modern society.  A large amount of energy is consumed during the manufacturing, use, and disposal of ICT products, in addition to other environmental impacts. The inherently short life and increasing demand of ICT products worldwide will only worsen the scenario. With today’s climate change challenges, it is incumbent 
on us, as electronics developers and manufacturers, to take action to reduce the impact. As in similar situations, one needs to be able to measure, to know what path to take. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the well-recognized methodology to assess environmental impacts through a product’s life (cradle to grave), from raw material extraction to end of life. Performing an LCA for a complex product, such as ICT products, is usually done using large scale LCA software with expert resources. This is expensive and time consuming. This webinar will describe a simplified approach for estimating the eco-impact of ICT equipment which provides a means to more quickly and easily evaluate product concepts and optimize design trade-offs. It uses simplified techniques and algorithms for estimating primarily greenhouse gas emissions in terms of carbon dioxide equivalents. We will also discuss the development of the iNEMI Eco-Impact Estimator, its applicability, validation, along with current and proposed activities to further advance its capabilities for more general use.


About the Presenter            
Tom Okrasinski is a Senior Manager of the Product Environmental Engineering Group in Nokia’s Bell Labs Chief Technology Office. Over his career he has been committed to developing eco-sustainable programs and processes for Information and Communication Technologies product innovation and development. This includes product environmental life cycle assessment, energy efficiency improvement, eco-beneficial materials research & advancement, and eco-sustainability metrics development. Tom is co-leading a project for the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) that is updating and expanding the consortium’s previously developed eco-impact estimator tool, which enables extremely efficient and accurate life cycle impact assessment for ICT products.

Prior to Nokia, Tom worked in the telecommunications industry for Alcatel-Lucent and AT&T, and in the energy industry for ExxonMobil. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Drexel University, and is a licensed professional engineer and planner. He lives in Richmond, Virginia, USA.