HOME COMPUTING: EPEAT makes finding eco-friendly home computers easy

October 27, 2007

Your home computers may get an overhaul during your remodel. How do you pick a greener more-eco-friendly product? One way to approach the purchase is by quickly visiting the Electronic Product Environment Assessement Tool (EPEAT).

EPEAT logo EPEAT is a system to help homeowners evaluate, compare, and select desktop computers, notebooks, and monitors based on their environmental attributes. EPEAT provides a product “registry” on their website. The EPEAT Registry includes products that have been declared by their manufacturers to be in conformance with specific environmental standards. EPEAT also operates a verification program to assure the credibility of this Registry.

Computer products are rated in (3) categories based on green criteria that they meet. Below we provide you with the levels (listed from best to worst below):

EPEAT Gold Product meets all required criteria plus at least 75% of the optional criteria that apply to the product type being registered.

silver EPEAT Product meets all criteria plus at least 50% of the optional criteria that apply to the product type being registered.

EPEAT Bronze Product meets required criteria

The Top 10 Manufacturers on the EPEAT list today include (in order of most products listed, not by most Gold):

Sony Electronics Inc. (182 products listed) - only Silver category
Dell, Inc. (96) - some GOLD level products (GetWithGreen thumbs up!)
Lenovo (91) - some GOLD level products (GetWithGreen thumbs up!)
Hewlett Packard (72) - some Gold products
Gateway, Inc. (57) - only Bronze category
Samsung Electronics America (51) - only Silver products
NEC Display Solutions, Inc. (50) - only Silver products
Viewsonic Corporation (31) - only Silver products
Apple (26) - only Silver products
Toshiba (24) - some GOLD level products (GetWithGreen thumbs up!)

viewsonic EPEAT For these manufacturers, EPEAT provides 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. EPEAT is a program offered by the Green Electronics Council.

It should be noted that earlier this year President Bush issued Executive Order 13423, requiring that all Federal Agencies making computing purchases, must purchase at least 95% of those products off of the EPEAT list. This means that manufacturers are scrambling to make their products compliant and get them on the list, or face loosing large amounts of sales to our Federal Government.

How do you find an EPEAT product, and buy it?

Visit the EPEAT product registry
Find the product(s) you are interested in (and look for products which meet Gold standards!!)
Write down the model number
Read EPEAT’s note to homeowners
Visit that company’s website to purchase (in most cases the website is listed next to the manufacturer on the EPEAT website)

The EPEAT registry will continue to grow rapidly which is great news for all of us, and our environment! Please take a look before making your next home computing purchase!

One final note in closing…GetWithGreen.com wants to give visibility to the other manufacturers on the EPEAT list that didn’t make the present EPEAT Top 10 most products. Those manufacturers are:

Fujitsu Computer Systems Corporation (18)
Panasonic (13)
MPC Computers, LLC (13)
Philips Electronics, Ltd (12)
LG Electronics USA, Inc. (10)
Hyundai IT America Corporation (9)
Prosys Tech Corp. (5)
CTL Corporation (4)
CIARA-TECH (3)
Northern Micro Inc. (3)
Enano Computers (1)
One Laptop Per Child (1)
Zonbu - PConRails LLC (1)