Today, energy needs continue to rise, as do concerns about climate change. While politicians are still struggling to come to global agreements, consumers in many countries are already taking environmental issues into account before making a purchase - from reusing plastic bags to buying cars with reduced fuel consumption. Many technology companies are now also becoming aware of their responsibility to help stabilize global climate change. Philips took decisive steps to optimize its environmental performance through its EcoVision action program many years ago and introduced the EcoDesign process for product development as early as 1994. When Philips Speech Processing developed the Digital Pocket Memo 9600 series a few months ago, the company focused on delivering an environmentally sound product. The results are impressive - significant energy savings, a reduction in CO2 emissions of up to 80% and even cost savings for customers as a positive side effect.
To integrate ecological issues into its development processes, Philips Speech Processing has appointed development director Gerhard Podhradsky as its environmental protection officer. "Many consumers do not realize that ecological issues are not only important for companies in the chemical or aviation industry. The environment has become a decisive factor in our product development, too," says Gerhard Podhradsky. "When we developed the Digital Pocket Memo 9600 series, we applied the EcoDesign process and analysed the potential environmental consequences of even the smallest part used during production of the product." The Digital Pocket Memo contains no hazardous substances and comes with two rechargeable batteries, an external power supply unit and a USB docking station. The ability to charge the batteries via USB helps to reduce standby energy consumption. Energy savings of 30% have been achieved by using state-of-the-art components, improved firmware and optimized energy management. As a result, users can dictate with the Digital Pocket Memo for up to 17 hours without having to recharge the batteries.
During an extensive lifecycle impact assessment of the product, Philips investigated the ecological consequences of every step, from production to distribution and recycling. "We realized that the focus of our energy savings efforts should be on energy consumption during the product's usage," explains Gerhard Podhradsky. While a heavy user with 4,000 hours of digital dictation would have needed 800 AAA alkaline batteries over four years, the same extensive use of the new Digital Pocket Memo 9600 will require 300 fewer batteries.
Saving energy and costs Having analysed customer demand and customer preferences, Philips Speech Processing found that only one third of professionals using dictation devices bought a docking station, which had been available as an accessory. Taking ecological issues seriously, the company decided to offer the latest product with a docking station and rechargeable batteries as part of the standard package. If a customer were to switch from using the predecessor with alkaline batteries to the Digital Pocket Memo 9600 with standard docking station, the emission of CO2 could be reduced by approximately 80%.
Gerhard Podhradsky: "Looking at actual figures, CO2 emission is relatively small. But if every company investigated and reduced the global warming potential of their products or services at such a high rate, the environmental consequences would be extremely positive."
Besides helping to address climate change issues, this decision also means considerable cost savings for each customer, since less energy is being consumed - at the office, medical practice or at home, depending on where the dictation device is used. "Environmentally conscious decisions very often save costs - ideally on the customer side," concludes Gerhard Podhradsky.
Transparency for customers The upcoming EU directive on the eco-design of products that consume power aims to improve the environmental performance of products throughout their lifecycle through the systematic integration of environmental aspects at the earliest stage of their design. Several countries or states in other regions, such as California in the United States and Australia, are also working towards decreasing energy consumption and contributing less to global warming by introducing legislative measures. While many legal requirements are yet to come, Philips Speech Processing is at the forefront of environmentally conscious product development with its latest dictation devices.
Christopher Seyffert, Marketing Director at Philips Speech Processing, adds: "We know that energy savings and climate issues are on our customers' minds these days. In order to improve transparency, we have created an Environmental Product Declaration for the Digital Pocket Memo 9600 series, which includes a summary of the lifecycle impact analysis."
The Environmental Product Declaration provides quantified environmental data and can be found here.
About Philips Speech Processing For more than 50 years Philips Speech Processing has been the driving force in delivering dictation and speech technologies to users around the world. With its headquarters and production centre located in Vienna, Austria, Philips Speech Processing is the world's market leader in professional analogue and digital dictation solutions, with a global market share of more than 25%. From office-based desktop dictation to mobile dictation, from conference recording to entire workflow solutions, our products support every imaginable scenario. Revolutionary digital dictation products, such as the SpeechMike, the Digital Pocket Memo with Voice Commands and the Barcode Module are helping professionals to work more quickly and efficiently every day, in the easiest possible manner, entirely in keeping with Philips 'sense and simplicity' philosophy. For more information, visit: www.philips.com/dictation
About Royal Philips Royal Philips of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a global leader in healthcare, lifestyle and technology, delivering products, services and solutions through the brand promise of "sense and simplicity." Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 121,700 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of USD 34 billion (EUR 27 billion) in 2006, the company is a market leader in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring systems, energy efficient lighting solutions, personal care and home appliances, as well as consumer electronics. News from Philips is located at www.philips.com/newscenter.
