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The Problem: Because ICT equipment is complex, has numerous serious environmental impacts, and is manufactured and recycled globally it is a difficult product category to address through green purchasing initiatives. IT managers and purchasers may not really know what they mean when they ask for ‘green ICT’ hardware– apart from energy efficiency, which is an easy sell because it saves money while giving companies environmental cachet. This lack of clarity leads to an unfortunate dependence by purchasers on supplier claims, and prevents many from undertaking ‘green IT’ initiatives. The lack of consensus about which attributes are most crucial to environmental performance also challenges manufacturers trying to anticipate trends in environmental product design. Even environmental labels may lag behind the newest developments in technology, endorsing the best of the status quo but failing to create momentum for progress.
EPEATTM (The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) -- an environmental rating system for electronics, offers a way out of this difficulty. The EPEAT standard and system were developed and are managed by stakeholder consensus processes and the standard is designed to continually update as the market moves towards ‘greener’ alternatives.
What is EPEAT?
EPEAT consists of product standards (currently covering desktop and laptop computers and monitors), a product registration and verification system and an environmental benefits calculator. The EPEAT system was developed in a three year stakeholder process supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that included private and public purchasers, manufacturers, environmental advocates, recyclers, technology researchers and environmental agency representatives. The draft standard was balloted through the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) in a process accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), becoming IEEE 1680-2006 Standard for Environmental Assessment of Personal Computer Products, Including Laptop & Desktop Computers & Monitors.
Criteria: The EPEAT standard contains 23 mandatory criteria for entry level product registration (Bronze), and 28 optional criteria which qualify products for higher registration tiers (Silver and Gold). The criteria address eight areas:
· Reduction of toxic materials
· Materials selection – including recycled and biobased content
· Design for end of life to assist with recycling
· Product longevity – upgrades and spare parts to increase useful life
· Energy Conservation
· End of life management through the OEM
· Corporate environmental performance
· Environmentally preferable packaging (reduced, reusable, recycled content)
Each of these categories contains multiple required and optional criteria. Among the baseline requirements, all registered products must comply with the EU’s Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, meet the current Energy Star standard, and have a takeback and responsible recycling option available through the manufacturer. Optional attributes can be straightforward – such as elimination of mercury, or percentages of recycled resin content -- or “stretch” criteria such as provision of a renewable energy accessory. The standard’s criteria may be viewed in brief at www.epeat.net/criteria.aspx.
EPEAT is a highly flexible system. Manufacturers are free to choose according to their own priorities and organizational capacity which additional criteria they meet to achieve higher rankings. Purchasers can view the individual criteria declared for any product, or search on specific criteria, to ensure that the product’s environmental attributes are consistent with their organization’s priorities. This flexibility has been a key factor in the rapid adoption of EPEAT by both communities over its two years of existence.
Verification: Manufacturers register products in EPEAT through a self-declaration system. An independent group of contracted Technical Verifiers carries out randomly timed verification investigations on targeted criteria, reporting to a Product Verification Committee (PVC) of experts on ICT product engineering and environmental impacts. The PVC reviews investigation results, determines conformance or nonconformance and can require manufacturers to “undeclare” any criterion lacking appropriate verification evidence. Verification investigations range from confirmation that a document (e.g. a letter attesting to postconsumer recycled content levels) is on file, to disassembly and testing of components (e.g. verifying cadmium does not exceed the threshold specified in the ‘beyond-RoHS’ criterion). Verification results are published on the web.
Benefits Calculator: The EPEAT system’s third component is an “Environmental Benefits Calculator” that allows users to estimate the environmental benefits of buying EPEAT-qualified computers over conventional products, in terms of reductions in:
· Energy use,
· Greenhouse gas emissions,
· Toxic materials content,
· Overall virgin materials use,
· Use of persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs) like mercury and lead,
· Hazardous waste generation,
· MSW generation,
· Air and water emissions, and
· Costs to the manufacturer and purchaser
The calculator and an Environmental Benefits Report which uses it to calculate the overall benefits of 2007 EPEAT purchasing, are accessible through the EPEAT website at http://www.epeat.net/FastBenefits.aspx
Future Direction: The existing IEEE 1680 environmental performance criteria are designed to encourage innovation, by including some environmental performance goals not currently met by any products on the market, In addition, the standard will consistently increase its stringency by creating new benchmarks on a regular basis in a fashion similar to Energy Star. The first standard update process will begin in 2009. In addition, EPEAT will expand to incorporate standards for printers and imaging devices, televisions, servers and mobile devices (cell phones, PDAs) developed through multiple stakeholder processes beginning in 2008. And the EPEAT registry is currently under revision to display product numbers by country of purchase, so that purchasers in many countries can use the system more easily.
