Feds grade themselves on EPEAT commitment

As many of you know, the federal government has made buying IT equipment that meets the screening requirements of the EPEAT list a priority. (But not a mandate. Yet.) According to reports submitted with the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive, 13 out of the 22 federal agencies met the goal of buying at least 95 percent of their IT products in 2008 from products off the EPEAT tool.

The folks who manage the EPEAT rating system (the Greener Electronics Council) report that federal agencies that bought off the list in 2008 procured more than 500,000 desktops, laptops and monitors covered by EPEAT.

For example, ALL of the 290,623 Dell desktops and monitors leased by the Department of Veteran Affairs meet either gold or silver levels. The Department of Energy managed 96 percent compliance, with more than 50,000 computers and monitors purchased in 2008. (Um, why not 100 percent guys?) The other agencies doing their part were the Department of the Treasury, the Social Security Administration, the Department of the Interior, the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, NASA, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Office of Personnel Management, the General Services Administration, and the Department of Labor.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency now specifies EPEAT-registered products whenever available, and it reports that 99 percent of purchases last year were in compliance. In FY2009, it will provision more than 12,000 EPEAT-registered computers.

Right now, the EPEAT ratings are limited only to desktops, monitors and integrated systems. However, work to include imaging devices is under way and development is starting to handle televisions, servers and mobile devices.