The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM), CSA Group, and UL Environment today announced the release of AHAM 7002-2014/CSA SPE-7002-14/UL 7002, Sustainability Standard for Household Portable and Floor Care Appliances, the first voluntary sustainability standard for such appliances. This new standard is the third in a family of product sustainability standards under development by AHAM, CSA Group, and UL. These standards are intended for use by manufacturers, governments, retailers, and others to identify environmentally responsible products. The standard is based on a lifecycle approach for identifying the environmental impacts of household portable and floor care appliances in six key areas: materials, manufacturing and operations, energy consumption during use, end-of-life, consumables, and innovation.

This standard serves as an objective and practical measurement tool to assist portable and floor care appliance manufacturers in evaluating the environmental sustainability of their products. Other sustainability standards are under development and are expected to be published in 2014 and 2015. This includes standards for dishwashers, conventional cooking products, microwave ovens and clothes dryers.

Throughout the standards development process, a cross-section of stakeholders, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Environment Canada, The Sustainability Consortium, Consumer’s Union, environmental groups such as the Carbon Disclosure Project, and retailers such as Sears, Best Buy, and Lowe’s were engaged to help ensure that the standard is credible and compatible with existing government and retailer initiatives. PE INTERNATIONAL and Five Winds Strategic Consulting also assisted with the project.

“AHAM is very pleased that its collaboration with CSA Group and UL has resulted in another sound tool for measuring the sustainability of a portable or floor care appliance.   This work represents the home appliance industry’s strong commitment to sustainability.  Our work will continue on new standards for other products,” explained Joseph M. McGuire, president of AHAM.

“CSA Group is committed to contributing to a better, more sustainable world,” said Bonnie Rose, President Standards, CSA Group. “We are proud to work with AHAM and UL to bring a life cycle approach to evaluating environmental impact of household appliances. This standard will encourage not just sustainability in operation of the product, but also in the way it is manufactured and disposed of at end-of-life.”

“Human and environmental health and sustainability represent the safety challenge of this century. More and more, consumers are concerned about the lifecycle-based environmental impacts of the products they use in their homes every day, particularly those of appliances,” said Lisa Meier, VP and GM of UL Environment. “Our ongoing commitment to lifecycle-based standards development reflects our attention to this concern.”

About AHAM

The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers (AHAM) is a not-for-profit trade association representing manufacturers of major, portable and floor care home appliances, and suppliers to the industry and is headquartered in Washington, DC.  AHAM is a standards development organization, accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and has authored numerous appliance performance testing standards used by manufacturers, consumer organizations and governmental bodies to rate and compare appliances. You can visit the AHAM web site at www.aham.org

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Allison Hawkins
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