Energy Star 5.0 Debunked

The Ecological Standards

All of the ecological standards below require Energy Star as a minimum criteria, however many of them are based upon legacy applications under energy star 4.0. When buying equipment you should check the energy star qualification is to version 5.0. EPEAT for example will not remove non-energy star 5.0 qualified products until January 2010.

EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool)

EPEAT is a US standard, organised by the green electronics council. EPEAT is currently (at the time of writing) not available to any organisations who do not have an office in the US and should not currently be used for EU public sector procurement for this reason.

EPEAT is a multi-tiered standard, which awards Bronze for a number of criteria (most of which are a legal requirement in the EU anyway), Silver and Gold are awarded for a number of optional criteria.

However, it should be noted that these optional criteria include areas which the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) regards as key in its minimum specification for green procurement, meaning that an EPEAT Gold product might not meet the minimum standard outlined by DEFRA!

Many of the optional criteria are quite gimmicky, allowing manufacturers to score points for “Own Brand Solar Cell Accessories” instead of carcinogenic fire retardants identified by the EU and DEFRA.

Blue Angel

Blue Angel is a German standard for the certification of ecological content of IT equipment. As you would expect from Germany, where environmental issues are taken very seriously, the standard is well thought out, methodical and detailed.

Blue Angel includes many of the serious optional requirements of EPEAT and lines up nicely with DEFRA’s recommendations. If a product has a Blue Angel label, all you need to do is ensure that the manual is printed on recycled paper and it meets the DEFRA recommendations.

Blue Angel is available to all computer makers that sell in the EU, but uptake with manufacturers is low.

Quick Wins

Quick Wins is the formal name for DEFRA’s recommendations for ecological procurement and it is updated annually. For desktop PCs in 2009 it is split into three categories; Minimum Standard, Best Practice and Class Leader. Each category has escalating criteria for sustainability, Quick Wins is the definitive standard for green procurement in the UK.

Green Ticks

Green Ticks are a mark issued by The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) that exactly follows DEFRA’s recommendations outlined in Quick Wins. The Minimum Standard is marked with a tick and Best Practice is marked with a tick and a plus. To date no-one has achieved Class Leader so we don’t know how Green Ticks will commend a product that does.

Eco Flower

Yet to be released, Eco Flower is otherwise referred to as the “Common European eco-mark”. Eco Flower is an EU mark aimed at solidifying elements of Quick Wins and Blue Angel in a common European standard.

Peter Hopton is managing director of veryPC