EPEAT's green tech certification helpers
The organization behind the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (aka EPEAT) is looking to a network on certification, testing and standards group to help qualify technologies and electronics being listed under the rating system.
The move should help accelerate the pace at which various products are tested and listed on the EPEAT registry, which currently includes more than 3,200 products from 45 different manufacturers, across 41 different countries (which is good for you IT sorts dealing with multinational technology procurement, deployment and management). EPEAT is used by the federal government to vet technologies for their environment credentials (everything from materials used to asset disposal policies), and there are three levels: Bronze, Silver or Gold.
Here's the rationale for this move, as expressed by EPEAT Executive Director Jeff Omelchuck in the press release announcing the global relationships:
"This system builds on the remarkable strength of EPEAT -- rating based on consensus-based public standards, tiered rankings that encourage competition and continuous improvement, declaration accompanied by ongoing independent verification, and easy access to a single registry of qualified products. Yet it also opens the system to multiple participants who will work with us to broaden and strength the registration services available to manufacturers worldwide."
Those who have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with EPEAT include:
- Intertek
- Environment and Development Foundation
- VDE Testing and Certification Institute
- China Electronic Standardization Institute
- China Environmental United Certification Center
- Industrial Technology Research Institute/Beautiful Life Education Foundation
For me, the biggest hole in the EPEAT rating system is the fact that it doesn't accommodate either server hardware OR imaging peripherals, which are obviously vitally important for corporate IT environments. Right now, the database is limited to desktops, displays, integrated desktop computers, notebooks, thin clients, workstation desktops and workstation notebooks. But maybe the creation of this worldwide network of green technology vetters will help change that, as well.