PPDS has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting and promoting sustainability in the AV industry with a strategy designed to help customers reduce their electronic waste and enhance their green credentials. This will see the company continue to bring more energy efficient products to market, and reconfigure and reduce packaging—while providing greater access to information on energy consumption for more educated and environmentally focused business buying decisions.

The declaration was made by Martijn van der Woude, head of global business development and marketing at PPDS, who was speaking at the company’s Global Access: Future Tech international event for end customers and its Global Partner Alliance in November.

van der Woude, together with the full global PPDS management trio and team members, outlined some of the actions and measures already taken, with a commitment to bringing even more in 2023. This includes extending its focus on delivering the most energy conscious products to market and bringing lower cost of ownership to customers, which the company says is more relevant than ever in the ongoing global energy crisis.

“Sustainability has always been of great importance to us at PPDS. We’re proud of what we have achieved to date, and we feel it is our duty and our responsibility, both to customers—who are calling for this—and to the planet, to do even more. And we encourage our competitors to do the same,” van der Woude said. “Collaborating closely with our partners, we will be working hard to ensure that our existing and future Philips professional display products and solutions continue to provide best-in-class experiences, while also delivering on lowest energy consumption and reduced impacts throughout product lifecycles, including the use of recycled and recyclable materials, and the carbon neutrality of products.”

PPDS: Playing Its Part

In addition to improving the energy efficiency of its digital signage, interactive displays, dvLED and pro TV solutions, PPDS—alongside its sister organizations, TP Vision, MMD Monitors and Displays, and AOC—has already made significant strides in enhancing its green credentials throughout the display lifecycle, from manufacturing in its factories, along transportation journeys, through to its headquarters and regional sales operations.

Benefiting from its unique position, manufacturing its own products in its own factories (no outsourcing) as a part of TPV, PPDS is owner of its own destiny, ensuring appropriate measures are taken throughout the entire production process, from concept to completion.

This is highlighted, as a part of its continued expansion program, with the recent opening a new manufacturing plant for its dvLED production, with the building’s design and the practices within it providing not only a quality working environment, but an environmentally conscious one, too.

Products are also now contained in condensed packaging, carefully calculated to minimize resources used and to maximize the number of products able to be loaded in any one shipment. Palletization has also been reviewed and refined, with a 184 ton Tank to Wheel (TTW) CO₂ reduction and 107 ton reduction of wood pallet consumption in the process to date.

“This helps to reduce our carbon footprint without compromising the safety of each display during transit and it reduces the levels of waste likely to be immediately disposed of,” said Stefan van Sabben, global CSR and sustainability manager for the company. “Philips professional displays are packaged in brown board boxes, with one color only printing using soy-based ink. This ethos is continued through the packaging of pre-production components, with finished packaging made almost fully of recyclable materials.

“These, and many more measures, will continue to be evolved and introduced during 2023 and beyond—with a number of innovative solutions to be unveiled during ISE 2023 (Jan 31- Feb 3), in Barcelona,” he added.

Greater Transparency

In tandem with this focus, PPDS also provides clear and immediate access to information around the energy efficiency of its range of digital signage, interactive displays, dvLED, and pro TV products to customers.

Earlier this year, the EU’s revised energy labelling system came into force, replacing the existing labelling (A+++, A++, A+, A, B, C, and D) with a more simplified A-G measurement rating. Existing appliances with an A or A+ rating are likely now listed as G.

The new A-G labels placed on Philips professional displays now feature a QR code which, when scanned using a smart phone, immediately shows the information stored on the EPREL database, allowing greater transparency to customers and easier market surveillance by national authorities.

“It’s estimated that up to 25% of products in the market do not comply with energy efficiency labelling regulations and that around 10% of potential energy savings are lost due to non-compliance,” said van der Woude. “The new labelling and database will help improve understanding and coherence for customers to correctly identify and select the most efficient products.”

To learn more about PPDS and the company’s commitments and efforts around sustainability, visit the website here.