13/07/2020
On 5 July 2020, during its 31st meeting CCSA/ST2 approved the drafts for comments of five new green design standards for various communication devices, including: fixed-line telephones; routers; outdoor machine rooms and cabinets; communication power supply; and communication wiring devices. These standards will require enterprises to systematically take into account the resources and the environmental implications throughout the entire processes of product design and development, from the selection of raw materials, product production, sales, usage, recycling to disposal. They aim to drive enterprises to better fulfil their social responsibility by minimising resource consumption, using as few as possible hazardous raw materials, and reducing the impact of products on the environment and on people’s health.
These standards could be adopted by MIIT to support its Green Products Evaluation System – first proposed in 2016 in MIIT’s Notice on Establishing the Green Manufacturing System, which triggered the development of a large set of green standards. Specifically, the Green Manufacturing System will be built in four main fields, namely: green factories, green products, green parks, and green supply chains; for each field, a standard and evaluation system will be developed, preliminarily by 2020. With respect to green products, the evaluation system proposed by MIIT shall include at least 100 standards in various key sectors; to date, 91 standards have been included, including two horizontal national standards and 89 product-specific association standards across different sectors. In the specific case of the communication sector, nine CCSA association standards have been adopted, covering optical network terminals, Ethernet switches, mobile communication terminals, wearable wireless telecommunication devices, servers, video conference devices, communication cables and optical fibre cables.
On one hand, the five new green evaluation standards currently under development will further expand the coverage of the green products evaluation system in the communication sector, thus contributing to the completion of the entire Green Manufacturing System. On the other hand, they could exert significant impact on the market competition, because government-led systems are often used to support government policies, tenders, procurement, or other similar procedures. European stakeholders are advised to keep tracking or participating in the development of these standards.
List of green design product standards (updated on 1 Aug 2019)
MIIT general office’s Notice on Establishing the Green Manufacturing Standard System
http://www.miit.gov.cn/n1146285/n1146352/n3054355/n3057542/n3057544/c5258400/content.html
