Use versus manufacture life cycle electricity and environmental impacts for computer tape drives

Abstract

Many companies have focused on pollution prevention initiatives including reducing the amount of energy required for production. However, many products consume orders of magnitude more energy and cause greater environmental emissions over the entire life cycle. With this in mind, a life cycle assessment of manufacturing and use-phase effects was done for a computer tape drive (TD) product. Quantum Corporation's Environmental Stewardship Group initiated an evaluation of the differential electricity and environmental impacts of its TD products that are shipped worldwide. This research showed that when internal corporate service functions were included in the evaluation, 60% more electricity was used than when only final assembly was considered. In addition, the consumption of electricity from external suppliers was nearly three times higher than internal use sources. Finally, use-phase electricity consumption was a factor of four higher than total manufacturing consumption. Better management of TD life cycle electricity use would serve to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) for customers, while at the same time, reducing the global environmental impact of the product.