The system, developed by the EVA's Technical Committee, in co-ordination with the association's European Vending Machine Manufacturers group, aims to stimulate improvement and innovation, as well as offer operators a tool with which to improve the eco-efficiency of their own businesses. Furthermore, it will allow them to choose the ‘greenest' machines available.

"The vending industry is taking a number of positive initiatives towards the protection of the environment, individually and as a community", says Catherine Piana, EVA Director General. "The new version of the EMP doesn't just compare machines, but rather ranks them against competitors as more or less energy-efficient.

"The Protocol will give a customer-friendly and transparent tool for the purpose of selecting the most energy-efficient machine.  This, in turn, will foster eco-innovation and give a competitive advantage to the more eco-efficient manufacturers.  The EVA is proud to represent an environmentally-aware industry that is not waiting for legislation to force eco-responsible behaviour, but rather, anticipates and takes brave steps forward."

The Technical Committee, headed by Marco Baron, Market & Product Manager, from FAS, has been developing the protocol for the nearly two years. The end result is a piece of protocol, agreed upon by all industry stakeholders represented by the EVA. "I am very proud about the revised EVA-EMP protocol, which represents a lot of hard work over the past year and a half. The project to implement a Consumption Energy Scale arose after the participation of the EVA as stakeholder of the EuP LOT12 Preliminary study and after making some careful considerations on the Green paper on European Strategy for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy. Although the vending industry is a small industry, we want to demonstrate our sensitivity and pro-activity about energy-related matters, as we did in the 1999 when the EVA-EMP Protocol was issued for the first time."

The new protocol is divided into two main sections:  the first is the protocol for measurement itself, covering all types of machines; the second creates energy classes for the vending machines, in the same way that this has been done for white goods. Manufacturers will follow the procedure described in the document and will send their self-certifications to the EVA for the record.

Manufacturers are very positive about the protocol. "N&W Global Vending has always supported sustainable development,'' says Walter Michelini, who took an active part in the development of the protocol within the Technical Committee. "In fact, since 2002 we have used an LCA approach in designing and manufacturing our vending machines. We expect that this EVA EMP protocol will boost the vending industry to big improvements in energy consumption reduction".

The EVA has asked CENELEC, the EU standardisation body for electrical and electronic equipment, to adopt its EVA-EMP as the official EU Standard for the measurement of energy consumption in vending machines, so as to create a level playing field within the industry.

http://www.vending-europe.eu/

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