The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool
GEC's premiere program is the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool. EPEAT© is a tool to help governmental and institutional purchasers select environmentally preferable laptop and desktop computers and monitors. At the same time it helps manufacturers promote environmentally preferable products.
Electronics are a fast growing portion of the municipal waste stream. Approximately two million tons of used electronics, including computers and televisions, are discarded each year while only around 13% of those computers were reused or recycled. Electronic products contain a variety of hazardous constituents that pose challenging environmental management concerns.
The Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool or EPEAT rating system includes 23 required criteria and 28 optional performance criteria organized in the following product performance categories:
- reduction and elimination of environmentally sensitive materials,
- materials selection,
- design for recycling,
- product longevity,
- energy conservation,
- product take-back,
- packaging, and
- corporate performance
Products will be identified according to three rating levels:
- EPEAT Bronze is awarded for products meeting all 23 mandatory criteria.
- EPEAT Silver is awarded for products meeting all 23 mandatory criteria plus at least 14 of the optional criteria.
- EPEAT Gold is awarded for products meeting all 23 mandatory criteria plus at least 21 of the optional criteria.
The Green Electronics Council will assure that electronics entered into the system meet the criteria through regular audits and spot checks.
The GEC is creating and will maintain an online registry of products that meet the EPEAT criteria. In June, the Council will start to post registered products at http://www.epeat.net.
For more information, see http://www.epeat.net
Partial start-up funding to help bring the EPEAT system to life is being provided by the US Environmental Protection Agency under cooperative agreement number #X9-96961801.
Copyright © 2005-2006 Green Electronics Council. All rights reserved.
The Green Electronics Council is a program of the International Sustainable Development Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.