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DETAILS |
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RESOURCES for: |
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BACKGROUND |
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| Frequently Asked Questions |
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If
you have a question not addressed by the following, please send it to
Scot.Case@GreenElectronicsCouncil.org
and allow a day or two for a response. 3.
Which electronic products does EPEAT cover?
4.
Will EPEAT expand to include additional product categories? 5.
Will EPEAT designated products cost more? 6.
Will EPEAT designated computers offer the same product performance? 7.
Why is a "green" procurement tool for electronics needed?
8.
Why should government and other institutional purchasers use EPEAT?
9.
How can purchasers incorporate EPEAT into the purchasing process? 10.
Can individual consumers buy EPEAT registered
products? 11.
Why should manufacturers use EPEAT?
12.
What environmental attributes are covered by EPEAT?
13.
What principles guided the selection of criteria?
14.
How does EPEAT identify registered products?
16.
Why is EPEAT a Self-Declaration Tool? Why isn’t Certification Required?
17.
Why do environmental groups support EPEAT?
18.
Did EPEAT consider a criterion prohibiting the use
of prison labor in recycling programs? 20.
Did EPEAT consider criteria to specifically address worker health and safety?
21.
Who are the key EPEAT contacts?
1.
What is EPEAT? The
Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) is a procurement tool
to help large volume purchasers in the public and private sectors evaluate,
compare, and select desktop computers, notebooks, and monitors based on their
environmental attributes. EPEAT also provides a clear and consistent set of
performance criteria for the design of products and provides an opportunity for
manufacturers to secure market recognition for efforts to reduce the
environmental impact of their products. 2.
How does EPEAT work? EPEAT
consists of two interrelated components: (1)
A set of voluntary environmental performance criteria, which is
specified in the IEEE 1680 American National Standard for the Environmental
Assessment of Personal Computer Products standard. The standard identifies 23
required criteria and 28 optional criteria. A summary of the IEEE 1680 standard
is available
here Copies of
the full IEEE 1680 standard must be purchased from IEEE. To purchase a copy of
IEEE 1680 visit
http://shop.ieee.org/ieeestore/
Simply search for 1680.
(2)
A system for identifying and verifying products meeting the criteria.
Products meeting or exceeding all of the 23 required criteria are recognized as
EPEAT Bronze products. Products meeting all of the required criteria and at
least 14 of the optional criteria are recognized as EPEAT Silver products and
products meeting all of the required criteria and at least 21 optional criteria
are recognized as EPEAT Gold products.
Manufacturers use an online registration process to identify which criteria each of their products meets. Products are then listed on the EPEAT database at http://www.EPEAT.net. The Green Electronics Council, an independent non-profit organization that operates the EPEAT system, periodically reviews products to ensure they meet the stated criteria. The reviews can range from a thorough review of all supporting documents to a more aggressive physical disassembly of products to determine compliance. 3.
Which electronic products does EPEAT cover? EPEAT
currently covers computer desktops, laptops, and computer monitors.
4.
Will EPEAT expand to cover additional product
categories? It is
likely that EPEAT will expand to include additional electronic products at some
point in the future. When it does, the process will be similar to the
extensive, multi-stakeholder, consensus-based process used to develop the
current EPEAT standard. No timeline has yet been established. 5.
Will EPEAT designated products cost more? According to public statements made by Dell, there will not be any additional cost for EPEAT Bronze computers. It may be that EPEAT Silver and Gold computers might require small price increases much the way airbag-equipped automobiles cost slightly more. 6.
Will EPEAT designated computers offer the same product
performance? Yes. EPEAT computers will perform just as effectively as their non-EPEAT counterparts. 7.
Why is a
"green" procurement tool for electronics needed? Recognizing the environmental impacts associated with the manufacture, use, and disposal of electronic product, growing numbers of purchasers were seeking ways to buy more environmentally preferable computer products. Purchasers were beginning to ask for a standard set of environmental attributes they could use to compare products. At the same time, manufacturers were seeking clarity about how to define a “green” computer. EPEAT meets the needs of both the purchasing and manufacturing communities. It provides purchasers with a common standard, a way to evaluate continuing environmental improvements, and an easy way to determine which products meet the standard. It also clearly defines the environmental parameters for manufacturers to incorporate into their product design process. 8.
Why should
government and other institutional purchasers use EPEAT? EPEAT
provides manufacturers with a clear and consistent set of environmental
performance criteria. It avoids the market chaos that can result when
well-intentioned purchasers each develop their own unique standards. In
addition, EPEAT provides purchasers with the following:
9.
How can purchasers incorporate EPEAT into the
purchasing process? Purchasers
are encouraged to require that products be EPEAT registered using the following
contract language: All
desktops, laptops, and computer monitors provided under this contract are
required to have achieved Bronze registration or higher under the Electronic
Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT). EPEAT is a procurement tool
designed to help institutional purchasers evaluate, compare, and select desktop
computers, laptops, and monitors based upon their environmental attributes as
specified in the consensus-based IEEE Standard for the Environmental Assessment
of Personal Computer Products (1680). Additional
consideration will be provided for products that have achieved EPEAT Silver or
EPEAT Gold registration. The registration criteria and a list of all registered
equipment are provided at http://www.EPEAT.net.
Purchasers seeking additional information are encouraged to visit the purchasers resources page at http://www.EPEAT.net/Procurement.aspx. 10.
Can
individual consumers buy EPEAT registered products? EPEAT was designed to meet the unique needs of large volume purchasers (i.e., federal agencies, state and local governments, colleges and universities, and Fortune 1000 companies and their suppliers). Individuals wishing to buy EPEAT compliant computers can review the product list available at http://www.epeat.net/ . Individual buyers should be aware, however, that some of the environmental criteria might not be available for individual purchasers. The requirement that manufacturers take back product packaging, for example, can be very cost efficient when an organization buys dozens of computers at a time but it is not yet efficient on an individual basis. 11.
Why should manufacturers use EPEAT?
12.
What environmental attributes are
covered by EPEAT? There
are 23 required criteria and 28 optional criteria. They are divided into the
following eight categories:
For
additional details, a summary of the IEEE 1680 standard, which is the
foundation of the EPEAT system,
click here.
Copies
of the full IEEE 1680 standard must be purchased from IEEE. To purchase a copy
of IEEE 1680 visit
http://shop.ieee.org/ieeestore/.
13.
What principles guided the selection
of environmental criteria?
The
EPEAT Development Team spent a significant amount of time developing the
environmental criteria with the recognition that:
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14.
How does EPEAT identify registered
products?
EPEAT
identifies EPEAT registered products in one of three environmental performance
tiers -- Bronze, Silver or Gold.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded the three year EPEAT development process through a cooperative agreement with the Zero Waste Alliance www.zerowaste.org. EPA is also providing $375,000 in grant money over three years to the Green Electronics Council to fund the initial startup costs. By the end of the start-up phase, EPEAT will be funded by fees paid by the manufacturers based on their relative size in the market. 16.
Why is EPEAT a Self-Declaration Tool?
Why isn’t Certification Required?
Stakeholders
agreed that, due to the time-sensitive nature of electronic product
development, EPEAT should not be a tool that required a lengthy application,
review, and approval process. Instead, EPEAT adopted and refined the
self-verification process already used successfully by the U.S. federal
government’s
Energy Star program.
Before listing products on EPEAT, manufacturers must sign a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that commits them to provide accurate product and company information and that provides remedies should inaccuracies be discovered. In order to ensure that self-declarations would be credible, a rigorous validation process was developed that includes spot checks and random testing. 17.
Why do environmental groups support
EPEAT?
18.
Did EPEAT
consider a criterion prohibiting the use of prison labor in recycling programs? The
EPEAT Development Team (DT) and the Criteria Subgroup had several discussions
about the prison labor issue, developed an issue paper, and voted on a proposal
to include such a criterion. The DT decided against including this criterion. A
primary consideration was that federal agency representatives reported that if
this criterion was included, it would make it difficult, or perhaps impossible,
for federal agencies to use the EPEAT tool for purchasing. Prison labor is a
federally sponsored program. The Federal Prison Industries was created by an
Act of Congress (Pub. L. No. 73-461, 48 Stat. 1211), on June 23, 1934. On
December 11, 1934, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6917, which
formally created Federal Prison Industries (trade name UNICOR). Subpart 8.6,
item (e) of the Federal Acquisition Regulations states that “Agencies are
encouraged to purchase FPI supplies and services to the maximum extent
practicable.” Banning the use of prison labor for recycling of EPEAT- qualified
products would thus seriously impair the ability of federal purchasers to use
the EPEAT tool. This would undermine one of the central purposes and strengths
of the tool, which is to enable federal government purchasers to move the
electronics market toward environmentally preferable products through exercise
of their tremendous buying power.
The DT noted that prison labor in recycling programs may be considered for future EPEAT versions. 19.
Did EPEAT
consider a criterion prohibiting export of electronic recycling materials to
non-OECD countries? This
was an issue of considerable discussion during the development of the EPEAT
criteria. Several options were considered, an issue paper was developed,
advocates of export restrictions made presentations to the Development Team
(DT), and the DT voted on a proposal to address export related issues. The DT
decided to address export issues via the parameters put forward in the
EPA Plug-In To eCycling Guidelines for Materials Management. The DT further decided to adopt the EPA’s Plug-In To eCycling Guidelines for Materials Management as the required criterion for end-of-life management services. These Guidelines prescribe processing requirements and restrictions on exports as summarized on the website as follows:
In
addition, EPA’s Guidelines explicitly
restrict the export of batteries, mercury- or PCB-containing materials, circuit
boards, and CRTs and CRT glass. Under the guidelines, these materials may only
be exported to OECD countries where the exporter has regularly monitored
controls to ensure disassembly will occur within the OECD country. An
additional concern that some purchasing authorities would wish to have all
exports prohibited was expressed. Interviews suggested that purchasing
officials also have mixed opinions on the issue. Since
the Plug-In To eCycling Guidelines for
Materials Management was still in the process of revision during the
development of the EPEAT standard, the DT decided to send a letter to EPA
asking for clarification on export issues in the
Guidelines, specifically: 1. That the definition of hazardous wastes be clarified
to ensure that potential exporters understood they must comply with importing
countries’ definitions, not simply with US definitions; and 2.
That EPA provide clarification to recyclers about how
importing countries that are signatories to the Basel Convention and OECD
agreements may place restrictions on the importation of hazardous wastes. The DT noted that further addressing export issues around hazardous waste definitions and restrictions may be considered for future EPEAT versions. 20.
Did EPEAT
consider criteria to specifically address worker health and safety? EPEAT’s
environmentally sensitive materials criteria addresses many of the toxic
constituents that may pose a health risk to manufacturing workers, users, and
recycling workers. Also the requirement that manufacturers have an
Environmental Management System in place will tend to reduce worker exposures.
A
proposal was made to the Development Team (DT) that an optional criterion be
added to the end-of-life handling criteria that would require that all
recyclers, including downstream recyclers, comply with
OHSAS 18000
– an international occupational health and safety management system
specification.
Though
this would not eliminate export, it would be protective of workers in foreign
countries. Concerns over the cost of certification, difficulty of verification,
and as a result exclusion of smaller recyclers were raised. Finally, the
proposal to include OHSAS certification in EPEAT was made during the very last
phase of the decision-making process. The Development Team members (even those
who supported the idea) felt that a more thorough review and assessment of the
various international labor safety standards would be needed to credibly
address this issue. As a result, the DT decided not to include the OHSAS
standard in the current criteria.
The DT noted that additional health and safety criteria may be considered for future EPEAT versions. 21. Who are the key EPEAT contacts?
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