Excerpted from a 12/31/06 article by Barry Rehfeld in the New York
Times:
GREEN COMPUTERS BECOMING EASIER TO FIND
The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool, or Epeat, is an
electronics rating system available free online at
http://www.epeat.net This system, now five months old, is funded by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency and is meant primarily for bulk buyers. But it is
useful for individuals, too. Electronics - only computers now, with more
products to follow - can achieve ratings of gold, silver or bronze.
Ratings are done largely on the honor system, subject to reviews by the
Green Electronics Council, a nonprofit group in Portland, Oregon, that
maintains the list. Manufacturers score their products against a set of
environmental standards, including levels of hazardous substances,
energy efficiency and ease of recycling. There are 23 requirements just
to win a bronze. More than 300 types of desktops, laptops and monitors
have received at least a bronze, and most also have a silver rating,
which means that they also meet at least half of 28 optional standards.
None of the computers have made it to gold, which means that they would
meet all the required standards as well as three-quarters of the
optional ones.
An NEC monitor made from a corn-based plastic has the top score: 42,
just two points shy of the gold standard. Dell, Apple Computer,
Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo all have at least one desktop and laptop that
qualify for silver. Epeat-rated computers are likely to save buyers
money on their electric bills. The EPA estimates that 600,000 megawatts
of energy, as well as 13 million pounds of hazardous waste, will be
saved over the next five years by the purchase of Epeat-rated computers.
Consumers seeking new environmentally-sound computers may also want to consider keeping their existing ones just a while longer, said Diganta
Das, a research scientist at the Center for Advanced Life Cycle
Engineering at the University of Maryland. There will be a much broader
selection of greener computers and other electronics by 2008 because all
manufacturers are under pressure to make their products meet
hazardous-substance standards that are as high or higher than those of
Epeat, he said.
The push is coming from new technology and government initiatives. The
most important political change came last July, when the European Union
issued its Restrictions on Hazardous Substances. This RoHS directive
essentially will require all manufacturers and retailers selling their
products in the European Union to greatly reduce the presence of six
hazards. There is nothing like those standards in the United States, but
the directive is nonetheless having an impact here. Wal-Mart Stores, for
example, said last spring that it would sell the first laptop compliant
with the European standards in the United States: a $700 Toshiba model.
Other computer makers are quickly following suit.
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Link to the new online "Electronics Reuse & Recycling Center," part of
the Consumer Reports environmental website, Greener Choices:
http://www.greenerchoices.org/electronicsrecycling/el_home.cfm
