Environmental Report

“In 2009, we decided to take our commitment to the environment to the highest level and established an environmental committee with the aim of making XP Power the leader in its industry on environmental issues.”
ISO 14001

A number of our key sites have gained iso 14001 Environmental Certification

XP Power has always placed great emphasis on minimising the impact its activities have on the environment. The Group's key sites have long maintained policies and practices to reduce energy and material consumption whilst also recycling wherever practicable. A number of our key sites have also gained the ISO 14001 Environmental Certification demonstrating our commitment to environmental responsibility.

These practices and initiatives not only resonate with our customers and employees; they also make enormous commercial sense.

In 2009, we decided to take our commitment to the environment to the highest level and established an environmental committee with the aim of making XP Power the leader in its industry on environmental issues. This will both ensure we fulfil our Corporate Social Responsibility obligations and present a major business opportunity in its own right as customers around the world look to improve their own environmental performance through the adoption of new, more efficient power conversion products.

The Power Conversion Industry

While we have initiatives to reduce energy consumption in our operations, recycle and utilise communication technologies to reduce the need for travel, XP Power itself plays an interesting and pivotal role in the energy chain. The power conversion products we design and manufacture are the “bridge” between the electricity utility companies and the consumer, converting the energy from the grid and providing it in a form that can be used by electronic equipment. XP Power is therefore uniquely positioned to make a real contribution to energy efficiency and emission reduction and is leading the power conversion industry in terms of product efficiency.

Historically, electronic power conversion has been a notoriously inefficient process. The original linear transformers still in use today in some sectors are only 50% efficient with half the energy they convert being wasted as heat. XP Power does not operate in this area, specialising instead in modern “switching” techniques, enabled by semiconductor technology, which allow power converters to be much smaller and more efficient. Modern power converters have typical efficiencies of 80%. While this is a major improvement over legacy products, XP Power is committed to developing technologies to reduce such wastage to a minimum.

XP Power and Efficient Energy Conversion

XP has consistently raised the bar in terms of power converter efficiency and, as the chart below illustrates, has increased the number of high efficiency and low stand-by power products in its ranges significantly in recent years. (Stand-by power is the energy consumed by the power converter when the equipment it powers is idle and not operating.)

We are proud, for example, that our CCM250 converter is the most efficient power supply of its type available on the market today, being capable of achieving an impressive 95% efficiency. Moving from 80% efficiency to 95% has dramatic energy saving effects. At 95% efficiency the power converter is wasting 5 times less energy compared to a typical 80% efficient power converter. The aggregate energy saving is staggering when applied to the number of power converters we sell in a single year.


“XP Power's laboratory in Singapore is accredited by the Californian Energy Commission to perform efficiency testing, allowing the Company to certify its own products. XP Power is also an Energy Star partner and can use agreed test methods to determine and certify products that are Energy Star compliant.”


In 2010 we plan to launch 17 new product families with class leading efficiencies, many above 90%, and 24 new product families with low stand-by power.
high efficiency products introduced

In 2010 we plan to launch 17 new product families with class leading efficiencies, many above 90%, and 24 new product families with low stand-by power.

The technology and components required to push the boundaries of energy efficiency are invariably more expensive but with greater legislative focus on, and public scrutiny of, this area we have evidence that our customers are increasingly willing to pay this premium. The pay back comes not only in a reduced environmental impact but also results in lower energy bills and superior product design and functionality. Since these new products can be made smaller and our customers have less issue in removing unwanted heat from their equipment, noisy and unreliable fans are often no longer required, for example.

Power converters also consume energy while they are in stand-by mode. There are currently around 1.5 billion external power supplies in the USA alone, accounting for 6% of the US national electricity bill. If left unchecked it is believed that this figure could quickly rise to 30%. In 1992 the US Environmental Protection Agency laid down voluntary guidelines relating to energy consumption of single output external power converters which became the Energy Star program. The California Energy Commission declared these requirements would be mandatory from 1 July 2006. The US Congress has enacted further legislation setting out mandatory requirements for power converters which came into effect on 1 July 2008. The European Union has also produced a Directive relating to energy efficiency of power converters. XP Power aims to exceed rather than merely meet these standards and will continue to raise the efficiency bar.

Harmful substances

AEB Series

The AEB series of desktop power supplies meets the Energy Star and California Energy Commission efficiency standards.

European legislation on the Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) came into effect in 2005. This legislation limited the levels of certain substances in products including lead. Although the legislation is applicable only to products sold in Europe XP Power took the decision that all of the products we designed and manufactured would be compliant. This was not only good for the environment but good for our business.

In summary, XP Power is on a mission to develop smaller products that waste less energy, consume less physical material and avoid hazardous substances.

Next steps

XP Power will become the leader in its industry in addressing the effect it has on the environment. We will achieve this by:

We are also aiming to gain Applicant Membership of the Electronic Industry Citizen Coalition (EICC) in 2010. This process will require us to meet and show commitment to the EICC Code of Conduct dealing with Environmental and Corporate Social Responsibility issues. This is the highest recognised standard for our industry and XP Power will exceed its requirements.

I am confident that these initiatives will not only benefit the environment but will help us grow our business and increase the value of our Group.

 

ˆ

David Hempleman-Adams
Chairman
Environmental Committee

 

Environmental