ZURICH, Switzerland — Engineers the world over are used tooptimizing for size, cost, reliability and power consumption. They are also used to a relatively free-hand in how to make those optimizations and how to weigh different factors – say the brightness and look of a display versus power consumption; or the way power management works to save power in standby mode.

Now the European Union is getting involved with its ecodesign initiative. And like previous initiatives such as those on the handling of electromagnetic interference, the handling of waste equipment (WEEE) and RoHS and REACH in the area of materials, if companies do not pay attention to the requirements they will not be allowed market their products within the European Union.

So questions of design will not only be issues of performance versus cost but may involve additional cost for the sake of reaching mandatory environmentally-oriented benchmarks. This is also likely to extend to a requirement placed upon vendors to "educate" users through documentation put out with products.

For two years the European Union has been investigating and consulting following a July 2005 decision to address almost all energy-using products (EuP) on the market with Ecodesign regulations. So far the initiative covers about 20 product categories including desktop and laptop computers and computer monitors, televisions, set-top boxes, copiers, faxes, printers, scanners, multifunction devices with a phased introduction of regulations over the next two years.

The main drive behind the legislation is a desire within the European Union to bear down on power consumption and green house gas emissions. As the directive says, "The ecodesign of products . . . provides new opportunities for manufacturers, for consumers and for society as a whole."