Appliance Industry Sustainability Standards

The appliance industry trade association is the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) representing manufacturers of major, portable and floor care home appliances, and their suppliers throughout the U.S. and Canada. Altogether, AHAM boasts a membership of over 150 companies located throughout the world. In addition, AHAM is also a standards development organization, accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). In that role, it has authored numerous appliance performance testing standards used by manufacturers, consumer organizations and governmental bodies to rate and compare the performance and quality of appliances.

AHAM is in the process of developing Sustainability Standards for all mainstream appliances, small and large, with the very active participation of manufacturers. These standards are being created based on a standard LCA process but with an added focus on “hot spot” analysis. This means that the AHAM standard allows for points to be earned that are allocated directly proportional to the impact the product creates at the particular stage of its life. As such, these standards create a common metric across the industry to help consumers compare the sustainability of appliances. To date, AHAM has released two appliance standards, one for refrigerators and one for clothes washers, and manufacturers have begun using them to certify their appliances accordingly. Standards for dishwashers and cooking appliances are in development as well. The hope is that this will lead to some standardized labeling for appliances so that specifiers and consumers will be able to minimize the number of labels needed to understand the overall environmental impact of a particular appliance.

Refrigerators

The Sustainability Standard for Household Refrigeration Appliances was first published in June of 2012 and was produced as a joint effort between AHAM, Canadian Standards Association (operating as CSA Group), and Underwriters Laboratories (UL). Because of this tri-party development and publication, the standard is cited as AHAM 7001-2012/ CSA SPE-7001.12/ UL 7001. It recognizes that the environmental performance of refrigeration home appliances has commonly been evaluated on the single environmental attribute of electricity consumption during use. This Standard was intentionally developed using life-cycle thinking with a broader, multi-attribute, and more holistic approach to assess the environmental impacts of refrigeration home appliances using life-cycle assessment (LCA) data along with other key factors. Eligible refrigeration products can be evaluated for their sustainability under this standard based on six attributes each of which provides points that can be awarded through a combination of prerequisite and optional point items as follows:

(a.) Materials – 25 points

(b.) Energy consumption during use – 45 points

(c.) Manufacturing and operations – 15 points

(d.) Product performance – 5 points

(e.) End of life – 10 points

(f.) Innovation (bonus attribute) – 10 points

TOTAL points available – 110 points

Note: The first five attributes are required; Item (f), innovation, is a bonus attribute, and is therefore not required.

For refrigeration appliances to be considered as having some level of recognized environmental performance under this Standard, such appliances shall:

(a.) Receive a minimum total of 60 points

(b.) Meet ENERGY STAR® performance criteria within the attribute of “energy consumption during use”

(c.) Meet the requirements of the product performance attribute

(d.) Show a balanced manner of reaching the 60 point level such that some points are attained in each of the 5 required attributes (i.e. items (a.) – (e.) above)

Full details of all aspects of the definitions, prerequisites, requirements, and testing of household refrigeration appliances is included in the full publication of the standard.

Clothes Washers

The Sustainability Standard for Household Clothes Washing Appliances was developed in a manner similar to the refrigeration standard development. It was also a joint effort of AHAM, CSA, and UL and is referred to as AHAM-7003-2013/ CSA SPE-7003/ UL 7003. First published in May of 2013, it recognizes that there is more to a sustainable clothes washing appliance than just water use and energy consumption. Eligible products can be evaluated for their sustainability attributes under this Standard based on six categories each of which provides points that can be awarded through a combination of prerequisite and optional point items as follows:

(a.) Materials – 20 points

(b.) Energy and water consumption during use – 45 points

(c.) Manufacturing and operations – 20 points

(d.) Consumables – 5 points

(e.) End of life – 10 points

(f.) Innovation (bonus attribute) – 10 points

TOTAL points available – 110 points

Note: The first five attributes are required; Item (f), innovation, is a bonus attribute, and is therefore not required.

For clothes washing appliances to be considered as having some level of recognized environmental performance under this Standard, such appliances shall

(a.) Receive a minimum total of 60 points

(b.) Meet ENERGY STAR® performance criteria within the attribute of “energy and water consumption during use”

(c.) Meet the requirements of the product performance prerequisite

(d.) Show a balanced manner of reaching the 60 point level such that some points are attained in each of the 5 required attributes (i.e. items (a.) – (e.) above)

(e.) Under the Materials attribute, meet the prerequisite and receive at least one point in certain evaluation subsections

(f.) Under the Manufacturing and operations attribute, meet the prerequisite and receive at least one point in certain evaluation subsections

(g.) Under the End of life attribute, meet the prerequisite and receive at least one point in certain evaluation subsections

The published clothes washing standard goes on to provide the details of all of the attributes, testing and documentation required similar to the refrigeration standard. It is anticipated that AHAM will continue to develop similar voluntary standards for other types of appliances. In fact, they have pending standards for dishwashers and cooking appliances that may be released during 2014.

Addressing Appliance Life-Cycle Impacts

Using the ISO and AHAM standards as a guide, manufacturers have been learning a great deal about the environmental impacts of their appliances. Those that have engaged in the EPD process have looked at the specific impact categories required and have been able to determine where in the life-cycle process those impacts occur. In particular, refrigerators have been recognized by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and others as the most energy consuming appliance in a home which is logical given that it is the most complex to create and needs to operate continuously during its use phase. Manufacturers who have performed LCAs and EPDs on household refrigerators, therefore, have been making strides to reduce the negative impacts while building on the positive ones. Some of those efforts are summarized in the following discussion.

Appliance Raw Material Acquisition and Processing

This “cradle” portion of an appliance includes energy, water and material inputs required to bring raw materials and pre-made parts to the manufacturing plant. To the extent that re-cycled steel can be used in appliances, it is being pursued and scrap material is often reclaimed for this purpose. The other required materials are commonly purchased plastic fabrications or pre-made hardware such as screws that are shipped as finished pieces to the manufacturing plant. Those pieces have varying degrees of environmental impact depending on the particular material, the fabrication processes used, and the distances that they are shipped. One proactive initiative is the use of returnable packaging and pallets required for shipping the various parts. This initiative minimizes the impact of those shipping materials allowing them to be used repeatedly until they need to be ultimately recycled and made into something else.

Manufacturing and Assembly

Once all of the materials and parts are at the manufacturing plant, energy and other resources are required for manufacturing certain parts from raw materials and assembling the bought pieces into different subsystems ultimately creating the finished overall product. All of the associated scrap, emerge and emissions, and packaging are accounted for in this manufacturing and assembly process. Scrap can be collected while recycled, energy use and emissions can be minimized based on operations and fuel types. This includes the impact of specific processes such as painting the steel housing of the refrigerator which can be likened to an automotive painting process. The biggest distinction is that appliances often only require 1 to 2 coats of paint over a pre-treatment coating while automotive painting often requires 5 to 7 coats. Conservatively speaking, then, the appliance painting process has 50 to 70 percent of the impacts of automotive painting.

Refrigeration appliances also require insulation to be incorporated into the enclosure of the appliance to help it maintain the temperature when it is operating. Typically, manufacturers use a spray foam insulation that requires blowing agents to deliver the insulation into the cavity of the refrigerator or freezer. Materials used as blowing agents are rated based on their Global Warming Potential (GWP) compared to carbon dioxide (CO₂), the most basic greenhouse gas with a GWP rating of 1, the lowest on the index. By comparison, compounds such as nitrous oxide have a 20 year GWP of over 200 while hydrofluorocarbons can have 20 year GWP ratings anywhere between 3,400 and 12,000 depending on its makeup. Obviously, using a blowing agent that has a low GWP rating is a much more environmentally sensitive choice.

With the GWP issue in mind, and in the interest of manufacturing more environmentally responsible refrigerators and freezers, some appliance manufacturers have started changing the blowing agents used in the spray foam insulation. By switching from blowing agents with high GWP ratings to alternatives with lower GWP, they can reduce their impacts down to a rating of 1. This makes it the lowest possible, the same as carbon dioxide, and is non-ozone-depleting. The difference can be dramatic when compared to other common blowing agents, so much so that when one manufacturer makes the switch it could have an impact on global warming the equivalent of removing more than 400,000 cars from the road.

The final step of manufacturing and assembly is the packaging and preparation for shipping which bring us to the “gate” in the life-cycle of an appliance. Once again, the use of packaging that can minimize waste and encourage recycling of packaging material is worth undertaking by manufacturers. From there the most effective and least polluting means of shipping and transportation needs to be identified to deliver the products to the building where they will be ultimately used.