HERNDON, VA -- A new International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative white paper sets forth ways to "simplify and align" the reams of environmental data mandated by various governments and the electronics supply chain.

The new white paper covers

• The growing demand for data, especially with the proliferation of environmental legislation.
• Options for industry to collect, store and report on part/product material content.
• Success in other industries (beyond electronics manufacturing).
• Issues regarding intellectual property protection.

In a press release, CEO Bill Bader said, "We wanted to provide a nonpartisan view of available options along with a high-level description of how these various options are executed. It was also our intention to deliver a set of recommendations to help simplify and align environmental materials data reporting."

The white paper supports the direction of the global standard IEC 62474, Material Declaration for Products of and for the Electro Technical Industry, iNEMI said. There are also ties to IPC-1752, Materials Data Management.

"We've gotten strong support from our members for the recommendation outlined in the white paper," said Bader. "They feel it is very important that the electronics manufacturing supply chain align on a standardized approach to data collection and reporting if we are to create any kind of economic efficiencies and data quality improvements across the global supply chain."

Among the major companies said to be supporting the recommendations are Agilent, Alcatel-Lucent, ASE, Cisco, Dell, Delphi, DSM, H-P, Huawei, IBM, ITEQ, Intel, Lenovo, Nihon Superior and STATS ChipPAC.