Before
After
VTech Holdings Limited
22
VTECH SUSTAINABILITY ACTIVITIES
Design for Environment
VTech’s products are designed to
minimise our environmental impacts
throughout the whole product life
cycle from cradle to grave. We
follow the LCA principle at different
stages of the production chain. Our
designers and engineers are required
to go through the LCA checklist to
ensure that we choose the most
eco-friendly materials and use the
minimum resources during each
manufacturing process. For example,
all the materials used for our ELPs
and TEL products are compliant with
the RoHS2 and REACH standards. At
the design stage of our products, we
have incorporated the LCA principles
into our design guideline including
the choice of eco-friendly materials,
energy and resources consumption
in production, packaging design,
use of the products and disposal
method. We have initiated our “Every
Component Counts” programmes
and “Compact Design” principles
since 2008 which have resulted in
significant reductions in material and
component usage in our products.
In recent years, we continue to adopt
the principles of “Compact Design” in
our packaging design to reduce the
size of the packaging and the weight
of the materials used for all VTech
products. We also carefully select the
environmentally friendly packaging
materials and ensure that all of them
are 100% recyclable. For example,
we use FDA-approved aqueous
coatings, which are fast-dying, water-
based and protective coatings for
the packaging of our TEL products
sold in the US market. For our ELPs,
the packing materials are made of
100% recyclable cardboard. We have
also largely replaced PVC (polyvinyl
chloride) with PET (polyethylene
terephthalate) in our packaging as
PVC contains chemical additives and
heavy metal content which produces
toxic substances during the recycling
and incineration process. We also use
paper in other parts of packaging,
such as using paper DVD cases to
avoid the use of plastic clamshells,
and introducing corrugated cardboard
boxes, which are made with naturally
renewable materials, to our product
packaging.
We have also produced significantly
less waste during the manufacturing
process. Through redesigning
and adjusting our surface mount
machinery, we have reduced the size
of the PCB rim by 20-80% depending
on the product models. After
implementing the PCB rim reduction
programme, we significantly reduced
the PCB rim usage per TEL products
production output by 13%. We
have also improved the PCB design
for our 57 TEL products models
through our “Every Component
Counts” programme. That means
significantly less PCB materials have
been purchased, transported, and
ultimately sent for disposal compared
with the previous years.
The eco-design principles continue
from the manufacturing phase of
the production life cycle to the
product usage at the customers’
home. Every year we conduct LCA
for our key products to compare
the carbon footprint of the new
model with the old one to ensure
that the carbon footprint of our new
version is continuously reduced. By
implementing the new energy efficient
technology and with continuous
reduction in materials consumption
and component count, the carbon
footprints of the new models, CS6829
and 151500, have reduced 40% and
23% respectively compared with the
old generation.
23%
VTech Product Carbon Footprint
Comparison of model
061320 vs 151500
Old Model
New Model
40%
VTech Product Carbon Footprint
Comparison of model
CS6629 vs CS6829
Old Model
New Model
Other stages (logistic, disposal)
Manufacturing
Use Phase
Other stages (logistic, disposal)
Manufacturing
Redesign of PCB rim
