WA12B Certification, Benchmarking and Environmental Management Systems
C123
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Wednesday
() EPEAT Electronic Products Environmental Life Cycle Purchasing in the USA.
Rifer, W1, Young, S2, 1 Rifer Environmental, Portland, OR, USA2 SB Young Consulting Limited, Guelph, ON, Canada
ABSTRACT- EPEAT is a multi-stakeholder process to design a system that uses the marketplace (specifically institutional purchasing of electronic equipment) to improve the environmental life-cycle performance of electronic products. The mission is to develop an assessment tool for electronic products and services, and to actively disseminate a system that supports informed institutional purchasing. The analytical tool will use a life-cycle approach to evaluate product environmental performance, material and energy use, and end-of-life. The final system will provide a certified level of performance for specific electronic products relative to determined benchmarks and other criteria. EPEAT is being created by a development team of expert stakeholders to a) Promote continual improvement in the environmental performance without stifling, and while encouraging, innovation, b) Address the life cycle of electronic products including, but not limited to, design, procurement, use, and end-of-life implications, c) Inform purchasing decisions by institutional buyers regarding the environmental attributes of electronic products, d) Provide a market advantage for companies that provide products and services that achieve improved environmental performance, e) Operate at low cost, in a manner that is user friendly, and causes minimal delay in time to market, f) Produce credible, verifiable outcomes that are accepted by relevant stakeholders, and g) Provide sufficient value in the marketplace to sustain itself. Now running for more than one-year, EPEAT has produced outcomes and draft results. Stakeholders have been engaged, including broad national cross-section of private and institutional purchasers, manufacturers and product designers, non-profit/activists, government policy professionals, and academics. Also, frameworks have been drafted for both an implementation plan and the initial set of environmental criteria (including areas for resources, energy, waste management and recycling). The development team is investigating potential parent organizations to house the technical resources and manage product applications. The assessment tool has progressed, as it intends to provide practical yet meaningful environmental guidelines and procedures for institutional procurement purposes.
Key words: life cycle management, electronics, purchasing, recycling