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76 PCB007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2024 Article by Maarten Cauwe, Geert Willems, and Eddy Geerinckx Editor's note: is is an excerpt om a paper tiled "A Parametric Approach to Quantifying the Environmental Impact of PCB Manufactur- ing ," presented at IPC APEX EXPO 2024, and is available for purchase at ipc.org. Introduction Sustainability for electronics is receiving more attention due to environmental concerns, regulatory obligations, and to ensure compet- itiveness in a growing market for sustainable products. To facilitate the discussion on the environmental impact of electronics, there is a strong need for data on energy use, carbon footprint, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, hazardous chemicals used during manufactur- ing, waste generation, etc. Hundreds of millions of different part num- bers of electronic components are used in the electronics industry today on custom designed substrates using hundreds of different types of laminates and other types of substrate base materials. Electronic components are manu- factured using numerous distinctive technol- ogies, processes and materials. To assess the environmental impact of these components and their manufacturing processes, a truth- ful and universally accepted methodology is needed in order to gain acceptance of the results and to stimulate improvement actions 1 .