Appliance manufacturers can now take advantage of a new Sustainability standard that can be used to evaluate the environmental impact of refrigerators.  Manufacturers can evaluate their products on a scale offering points for using recycled materials and using blowing agents which have a low contribution to greenhouse gases.

It’s the first sustainability standard for refrigerators and is a giant step forward in ensuring that refrigerators are manufactured with regard for how the product will impact the environment during the manufacturing process, while in use by the owner and when it reaches the end of its lifecycle. The standard identifies the environmental impact that refrigeration products have in five key areas:

• Energy
• Materials
• End-of-life
• Performance
• Manufacturing

Wayne Morris, AHAM’s Vice President of Technical Operations and Standards, recently spoke with Plastics News about how the new standard and the role of plastics play.

 Click here to read the article.

WASHINGTON, DC (June 7, 2012) – The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), CSA Group, and UL Environment today announced the release of AHAM 7001-2012/CSA SPE-7001-12/UL 7001, Sustainability Standard for Household Refrigeration Appliances, the first voluntary sustainability standard for home appliances. This new standard is the first in a family of product sustainability standards under development by AHAM, CSA Group, and UL Environment intended for use by manufacturers, governments, retailers, and others to identify environmentally preferable products. The standard is based on a lifecycle approach for identifying the environmental impacts of refrigeration products in five key areas: energy, materials, end-of-life, performance, and manufacturing.

Click here to read the full release.