Jiang Feng, Executive President of CHEAA, led a delegation to visit the VDE Berlin office on August 31, 2023, to discuss with VDE on the carbon accounting of home appliances. Burkhard Holder, Managing Director of VDE Renewables GmbH at VDE, and Hong Wei, Director at VDEGS Shanghai, attended the meeting. Dean Wen, RE Manager of Great China at VDEGS Shanghai, and Dr. Michael Riess, an expert of BU3 Production at VDE Prüf- und Zertifizierungsinstitut GmbH, joined the meeting online.
Jiang Feng introduced CHEAA and its key work including China Household Electrical Appliance Technical Conference and AWE, and briefed CHEAA’s work on carbon footprint accounting of home appliances. Wan Chunhui, Vice Secretary General of CHEAA, provided a detailed introduction to this work.
Mr. Burkhard Holder has over 20 years of experience in the renewable energy field. He shared VDE’s experience in the carbon footprint accounting for batteries and the photovoltaic industry and suggested that for industries with long supply chains, it is not practical to calculate the carbon footprint of every component. Instead, it is advisable to select critical components and raw materials and use appropriate databases for calculation. With technologies such as photovoltaic power generation, energy storage, and smart interconnectivity for household appliances applied and promoted in Europe, Mr. Holder believes it is important to approach the carbon footprint accounting and decarbonization from a holistic perspective of residential or commercial buildings. He emphasized the significance of the carbon footprint accounting for household appliances, but also noted the challenges such as data collection, software development, data security, and data verification, which requires collaborative efforts from manufacturers, industry associations across the supply chain, and third-party testing organizations. He suggested establishing a platform for communication and inviting companies and more stakeholders to participate in discussions for the development and improvement of the carbon footprint accounting for household appliances.