Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1517668
54 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2024 NCAB seems very committed to sustainability. Please share some of the history and context of that commitment. I came to NCAB in 2022 and found a company with a significant focus on sustainability, more so than any other company I had worked with. Initially driven by our ISO 14001 certification, we started 15 years ago by making sustain- ability part of our factory audits. In the begin- ning, it was a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) type of audit. As the focus on sustain- ability increased, by 2010, we were conducting full sustainabil- ity audits. In 2018, Anna Lothsson, the strate- gic purchasing direc- tor, became the global sustainability director, a newly created posi- tion. Today, we have separate sustainabil- ity audits at all facto- ries. NCAB has pub- lished a sustainability report as part of the cor- porate yearly report since 2014. In 2022, we created a focus group within our Techni- cal Council. is prompted a more direct focus on PCB circularity. Is sustainability one of NCAB's core values? Yes and having sustainability as our backbone means it is considered in everything we do. When I'm presenting something on technol- ogy, I consider how to include sustainability in the discussion. How can sustainability be part of our technology roadmap? at is how we're talking to people. Part of designing for excellence is designing for sustainability. Do you believe the sustain- able road provides better overall cost for the customer? Sustainability is being folded into cost now and can be a unique selling proposition. But cost is a big issue. You cannot typically convince a customer to buy at a little higher price just for a greener product, especially since it's still not that green. We are at the very earliest stage of development. What's next? Sustainability is not only material circularity. We also must look at production processes, and what we can do today. While we are wait- ing for recyclable materials, there are still things we can do to reduce the envi- ronmental footprint. At NCAB, we are work- ing on several ideas. We are developing a score- card for PCB processes on sustainability, with a focus on water and energy consumption, waste created, and total CO 2 footprint. We already have a sys- tem to report CO 2 con- sumption on customer orders, even at the quo- tation stage. Like any CO 2 report, these are not exact num- bers, but we are close to the truth. Doesn't Europe require you to provide some documentation on your CO 2 footprint? I understand that OEMs are now asking for this. at is correct. It is not a strict requirement yet, but it soon will be. We are also develop- ing a new guideline, Design for Sustainabil- ity, where we lead the designer into an aware- ness of the nature of their design. I expect this guideline to be available in a few months. It also covers new technologies such as additive manufacturing. ere is another very practical thing we have been thinking about, and I discussed this at length with Dieter Weiss at IPC WinterCom in Barcelona in January. PCBs basically have a