We have been covering EPEAT - America's global registration program for green ICT gear - since 2008. EPEAT is referenced in ~40 posts on this site. A policy change by United States government recently threatened the program's roll in Federal purchasing. That policy has now been reversed.

The effort to reverse the anti-EPEAT policy was led by the Electronics TakeBack Coalition, which announced a successful outcome after just three months. Even better, the changes include "Raising the requirement for purchasing products meeting the recommended standard from 95% to 100% of electronics purchases."

Original post

The challenge comes from language buried in an otherwise enivromentally-positive Executive Order recently issued by President Barack Obama. The order is dense with government bureaucrat-speak, so I'll refer you to detailed analysis from the Electronics Takeback Coalition. The bottom line: "..some seemingly harmless legal jargon, that if left unchanged, will result in the death of the federal EPEAT program for purchasing greener electronics."

EPEAT is not without its critics - we've covered those issues - but it represents a significant resource for green ICT purchasing in ~20 countries. Almost all major electronics manufacturers register products with EPEAT - there are thousands in the US registry, alone. You can see EPEAT results in may of our "Greenest" listings to the right of this post. It is discouraging that the Coalition's analysis includes the history of one industry group that has been trying to weaken EPEAT, since that group is sponsored by the very companies who register EPEAT products*.

The Coalition's analysis includes a specific call-to-action to get the Obama administration to change it's policy. Consider contributining your voice.

* Specificaly, the Coalition examines the anti-EPEAT lobbying of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI). How does ITI membership test out against EPEAT registrants? We turned to our most recent look at EPEAT's gold (highest) rating for notebooks and our EPEAT Gold printers.

Image courtesy of EPEAT