Green Procurement of Electronics

Promoting Source Reduction & Increasing the Use of Recycled Materials through the Green Procurement of Electronics

NERC has received funding from EPA New England and Region 3 to promote source reduction and increase the use of recycled materials through the environmentally preferable purchasing of computers by public and private sector institutional purchasers. NERC will accomplish this by promoting the use of the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT™) by institutional purchasers in New England, Pennsylvania, and Delaware through outreach and education, technical assistance, and demonstrating the environmental benefits of purchasing EPEAT™-qualified products.

EPEAT™ is a project that was spearheaded by the U.S. EPA to help public and private sector institutional purchasers evaluate, compare, and select desktop computers, laptops, and monitors based on environmental attributes.  EPEAT™ will be the first-available environmentally preferable purchasing tool for computers and will rate product environmental performance based on multiple environmental criteria.  EPEAT™ is being implemented by the Green Electronics Council.

This project will also quantify the environmental benefits of green electronics procurement by applying the EPA-funded Electronics Environmental Benefits Calculator (the EEBC), currently being developed by the University of Tennessee, which will be available in April 2006, to provide the first-ever demonstration of the environmental benefit of actual and projected purchases of EPEAT™-qualified products by states and an EPA Region. The calculation of environmental benefits will include reduction in toxic materials, energy use, CO2/greenhouse gas emissions, municipal and hazardous solid waste generation; and increase in use of post-consumer content recycled materials. 

The project includes three specific objectives:

1. Outreach to institutional purchasers to promote the use of EPEAT™. We will provide, outreach, education and directed technical assistance for using EPEAT™, including developing and distributing model procurement language and educational tools, convening teleconferences with web-based support, promoting EPEAT™ through procurement networks such as state procurement associations and NERC’s EPPnet. 

2. Demonstrate the environmental benefits of purchasing EPEAT™-qualified products by the EEBC to provide the first-ever demonstration of the environmental benefit of actual and projected purchases of EPEAT™-qualified products by states. The calculation of environmental benefits will include reduction in toxic materials, energy use, CO2/greenhouse gas emissions, municipal and hazardous solid waste generation; and increase in use of post-consumer content recycled materials. 

3. Transfer materials and results to other EPA regions to promote national scale-up of EPEAT™ and use of the EEBC and replication of the project in other states and regions.

For more information, contact Lynn Rubinstein.

For more information on EPEAT™, please visit http://www.EPEAT™.net