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VTech Holdings Limited
VTECH SUSTAINABILITY ACTIVITIES
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Design for Environment
VTech’s products are designed to
minimise our environmental impacts
throughout the whole product life
cycle from cradle to grave. With the
compliance of RoHS2 and REACH
standards, we aim to use minimum
permitted hazardous substances
and chemicals in all ELPs and TEL
products. We also follow the LCA
principle from the beginning of the
product design to different stages of
production chain. Our designers and
engineers are required to follow the
requirements on the LCA checklist
to select a more eco-friendly product
and packaging materials, reduce
the use of materials and energy,
maximise the use of reusable items
and avoid disposing of recyclable
materials to landfill during the product
development stage. We initiated
our “Every Component Counts”
principles since 2008 and we have
made continuous improvements
in the reductions of material and
components usage in our products.
Through our “Every Component
Counts” programme, our designers
and engineers also make suitable
adjustments for components and
material reductions. In recent years,
we have continued to embed the
principle of “Compact Design” in our
packaging design, choosing more
environmentally friendly packaging
materials and reducing the weight of
materials used for all VTech products.
For example we chose to use PP
(Polypropylene) plastic instead of
ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene)
plastic for some of our ELPs and used
100% recyclable cardboard as the
packaging materials for all ELPs.
We continue to incorporate
eco-design principles from the
manufacturing phase of the
production life cycle to the product
usage in the end user’s home. Every
year we conduct LCA practice for
our key products to compare the
carbon footprint between the old
and new models, and ensure that
there is continuous reduction in
carbon footprint of the new model. By
embedding the eco-design principles
and with continuous reduction in
plastic materials and components
usage, the carbon footprints of the
following two new ELP and TEL
models have reduced 11% and 6%
respectively compared with the old
generation.
We have also successfully launched
our first TEL product that uses
waterborne paint. Compared to
the traditional solvent base paint,
the application of waterborne paint
substantially reduces the usage
and emission of Volatile Organic
Compounds to the atmosphere
both in the product itself and in
the manufacuring process, which
also improves our productivity and
air quality at our workplace. This
provides our customers with more
eco-friendly choices.
6%
Old Model
New Model
11%
Old Model
New Model
Other stages (logistic, disposal)
Manufacturing
Other stages (logistic, disposal)
Manufacturing
Use Phase
VTech Product Carbon Footprint
Comparison of Baby Monitor
VTech Product Carbon Footprint
Comparison of Infant Toys