Environment and Compliance Compass available fromFBDi in English and German

Also new are revised, clearly-designed flow charts and a complete English version. With the new version, the FBDi offers valuable procedural guidelines for risk reduction. Wolfram Ziehfuss, Executive Director of the FBDi, said: „Product bans of electronic devices need not be a result of increased market surveillance in EU member states“.

The FBDi Environment and Compliance Compass provides clarity in dealing with issues of conformity with relevant EU laws, currently greater than 33 in number. The FBDi Compass summarizes over 180,000 pages of often difficult to understand directives in fewer than 150 pages and explains their use through flow charts and notes. Those not conversant in EU regulations can now better understand and meet the requirements, including for the first time English-speaking companies. To keep the requirements understandable and executable for manufacturers and suppliers outside the EU, the FBDi Compass includes the necessary minimum of data. It also ensures that all economic stakeholders in the supply chain „speak the same language“ in terms of the applicable EU regulations – which data, as necessary and required by product, must be fulfilled to meet certain statutory obligations, regardless of delivery format. This is of great assistance to small and mid-sized companies. Since it applies to all products, not only can penalties be avoided, but also the investment in specifically employed environmental specialists. „In particular in small and mid-sized companies, there is often no separate environmental department to handle EU directives. Even if, in some cases, regulations are unclearly written or overlap in parts, could not only misinterpretation lead to penalties, but also ignoring the regulations or pleading ignorance“, noted Mr. Ziehfuss.

Version 2.0 in German is now available in digital format, the English version by mid-August. The price for FBDi members is 450€ plus VAT, for non-members 850€ plus VAT. Included are all updates until January 1, 2013. Purchasers of version 1.0 of the FBDi Compass can receive a new version free of charge.

The FBDi Compass can be used in various ways. Fundamentally all the sections are logically sequenced with links to one another.

Part 1 ‘Impact Analysis’ delivers information specific to the stakeholder and leads the user directly to the relevant regulations for their product. It is presented in flow chart format. Each step ends with a reference to the next appropriate section.

Part 2 ‘Classification Album’ indicates in which product category a product belongs. Sample images help the user verify they have assigned a product to the correct category.

Once the appropriate category for a product is known, Part 3 ‘Mandatory Data’ summarizes all the necessary data, so that the steps required for the specific regulations can be determined.

„The principle is equally applicable for every product“, said Wolfram Ziehfuss, executive director of the FBDi. „This makes the FBDi Compass a valuable navigation aid for dealing with EU directives for device manufacturers, suppliers, and customers across all industries“.