Per Erik Boivie


Per Erik Boivie is a Swedish trade union innovator and entrepreneur who founded TCO Certified, a global user- and sustainability certification of IT equipment.

Education

Boivie grew up in Sollentuna, a suburb of Stockholm. He is a construction engineer educated at the Stockholm Technical Institute, he also holds a bachelor's degree in pedagogy, psychology and sociology from Stockholm University and an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University.

Background

He began his professional career in 1955 at the age of 17, as a carpentry apprentice. He went on to become a construction supervisor and later training instructor. In 1973 he embarked on what was to become a 25-year union career, starting out as the health and safety ombudsman in the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees K section. In 1976 he became ombudsman for worker participation and IT development, and from 1992 to 1998 he was head of TCO Development Unit at TCO. Since then he has run his own business as a consultant and author, focusing on sustainable production and consumption patterns.

Global user and sustainability certification of IT products

For 25 years, TCO Certified has been a global leading brand in sustainability certification of IT products. Hundreds of millions of people around the world work with TCO Certified IT tools from leading brands such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Samsung, Sony, Eizo and Lenovo. But most IT users are unaware that these products were developed in a dialogue with a Swedish trade union organization and its partners, researchers and experts. TCO Certified developed into a Swedish innovation on a par with other Swedish IT successes such as Skype, Spotify and Gapminder.
The TCO Certified initiative was new in two respects:
The first generation of TCO Certified was launched globally in Berlin in 1992, by Boivie at TCO's development unit, along with representatives of its partners: the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Nutek, now Vinnova, and ETL SEMKO. In December 2018, the eighth generation of TCO Certified was launched in Brussels by TCO Development.

Background and development stages of the TCO Certified initiative

The early 1980s saw more and more computers introduced into industry, offices and commerce. Computer terminals were mainly cathode ray monitors with green or white lettering on a black background, which caused health issues for the users. The longer they spent in front of the screen, the more eye strain problems they had, as well as strain injuries in their backs, shoulders and arms. Poor image quality was a main contributing factor. In addition, the screens generated electrical, electrostatic and magnetic fields. Scientists disagreed as to whether these fields could negatively impact computer users’ health; some even suggested they could cause pregnancy complications. A raging debate arose about these issues, including electromagnetic hypersensitivity. Trade unions tried to limit screen time through collective bargaining agreements—the traditional union tool for solving workplace problems.
But the core problem was the design of the technology, and this could only change if the manufacturers/suppliers were motivated to develop more user-adapted technology. Wanting to put pressure on IT companies globally, TCO mobilized its computer-using members to share their experiences of the technology and give feedback directly to the suppliers. To this end, Boivie headed a team that developed the Screen Checker. — a fold-out sheet with facts and illustrations of 22 ergonomic qualities of monitors and keyboards. Each described quality was followed by a question to the user, which they answered on a separate answer form. There was also a supplier report, which was to be sent directly to the supplier with the filled-in user checklist. The initiative was a global success, and the Screen Checker was translated from the original Swedish into English, German, French, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish and Japanese, and was distributed to workplaces around the world. This gave the suppliers feedback on how their products were perceived in workplaces worldwide.
After Screen Checker, more and more technology buyers, union representatives and above all suppliers began demanding more in-depth information on the technology and how it should be developed to prevent occupational health issues. To achieve this, Boivie enlisted a team of experts for a long-term development project over many years. The experts came from institutions such as Chalmers University of Technology, the Swedish National Defence Research Institute, the Work Environment Institute and the State Occupational Health Services and contributed knowledge about visual ergonomics, noise and emissions. The result was Screen Facts, a richly illustrated informational booklet that was released in 1991 and translated into English and German. Suppliers received large shipments of the booklet and spread them further at IT trade shows, such as the annual CeBIT expo in Hannover.
In the autumn of 1991, environmental and climate issues increasingly came into the spotlight as the date of the 1992 United Nations´ conference on Sustainable Development in Rio, Earth Summit, approached. Boivie was inspired by this, and by the SSNC, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation’s environmental labelling of consumer products, Bra Miljöval. TCO entered into a long-term collaboration with SSNC to create a special TCO label that integrated both occupational health and environmental requirements.

Success factors

One key success factor for TCO Certified was getting affected parties involved in the development process. The suppliers who developed products that met the TCO´92 requirements were invited to join the Front Group to develop the next generation—TCO ’95. Other suppliers were dubious: “Why is a trade union federation doing this?” But it soon became clear that TCO represented a potential 1.3 million users who depended on good IT support in their work. In addition, TCO Certified monitors were claiming more and more of the global market share. Another motivator was the TCO Information Center, which opened in Chicago 1994. The center contributed to the launch of an English-language website, which TCO's development unit launched in 1996. A Wall Street Journal article called Making IT Friendly, on June 27, 1994, highlighted the fact that a Swedish union organization had gained a foothold in the United States. Volunteers in Germany and Austria for the TCO development division contributed to making its impact global.

Spinoff effects of the TCO Certified initiative

To establish credibility for the TCO development division's message, Boivie turned his attentions in 1995 to making the unit into a workplace that “practiced what it preached”—a shining example for others to take after. Health-and-safety committees, companies and other organizations were welcome to visit this model of a sustainable office. The ergonomic and environmental adaptations were developed in collaboration with a wide range of experts and suppliers who wanted to showcase their products in this context. Thousands of visitors were guided around the office in the following years.
After the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, Boivie developed a concept for certifying companies and organizations in the spirit of the summit. The result was the 6E model. This kicked off extensive development under the leadership of Boivie's coworker Bodil Ekström, who fleshed out the model and made it attractive for businesses. In 1997, a special session of the United Nations General Assembly held up 6E as an ideal to emulate. By the end of 1999, about 40 companies were following 6E. When the UN invited TCO to present the model at a three-day conference in Toronto in March 1999, Boivie represented the organization, showing twelve examples of voluntary sustainability initiatives from around the world.
In 1995, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm established its Centre for User Oriented IT Design, CID. Its funding application was based on a proposal for user-driven IT research, the brainchild of Boivie and a representative from a British IT company. The program was funded by the Swedish innovation agency Vinnova, some 30 stakeholders and the EU framework program for research, a total of SEK 220 million over a 10-year period. CID became a meeting place for industry, user organizations, government agencies and scientists, to discuss research issues and fields of interest in IT design.
Inspired by the success of TCO, the Swedish Trade Union Confederation took the initiative to pursue its own IT development concerns. LO wanted to see if they could certify software in the same way that TCO did with hardware, with the support of current research in human-computer interaction. The confederation started a wholly owned company, UsersAward, that teamed up with researchers at CID-KTH, Uppsala University and Gävle University College to develop a set of criteria and a procedure for certifying software. UsersAward also designated a jury, with Boivie's help, that bestowed an award at its annual Users Day event, to the company that was best at ordering, implementing and adapting software in a way that both users and management felt improved the organization's working environment and its competitive edge. Since 2007, UsersAward's quality criteria have been used in the regular satisfaction surveys conducted by several trade unions.

Awards