What is it?
EPEAT is an
environmental procurement tool designed to help institutional purchasers
in the public and private sectors evaluate, compare and select desktop
computers, notebook computers and monitors based on their environmental
attributes. At the same time it helps manufacturers promote
environmentally preferable products. EPEAT is the implementation of the
IEEE 1680 Standard for Environmental Assessment of Personal Computer
products (including laptop and desktop computers, and monitors).
Why is it important?
Electronic
products are a part of everyday life, and continued and expanded use of
electronic information and communications technologies is likely a key
to achieving global sustainability. However, with our current industrial
technology and infrastructure electronic products also have unacceptably
high social and environmental impacts. Electronic products often:
a. Are very resource intensive to manufacture;
b.
Contain significant amounts of toxic and environmentally sensitive
materials;
c. Use electricity inefficiently;
d. Have a
relatively short useable lifespan;
e. Are inefficiently and/or
ineffectively recovered and recycled.
To help alleviate these problems, many organizations are
striving to purchase environmentally preferable products and they are
using their purchasing power to make products greener. However, until
recently it has been very difficult for most purchasers to determine
what products are environmentally better than others. EPEAT is an
easy-to-use system to help purchasers deal with the technical
complexities of determining which products are actually preferable.
How Can I find an EPEAT product?
A
searchable listing of EPEAT registered products is maintained on a
Product Registry. See http://www.epeat.net/
More information?
EPEAT is a project
of the Green Electronics Council. For more information, contact
the Green Electronics Council.