Climate Action 2011-2012

a reality check for all parties. Stakeholder processes can be
contentious, and open standards development takes much
longer than a development process ruled by a small group
of experts. But, where successful, a stakeholder consensus
process can ensure wide support and broad participation.
Tiered ratings. Establishing a tiered rating system that
awards credit at a baseline for leadership, then rewards
higher performance with additional recognition, achieves
several crucial goals – it creates competitive pressure for
producers to score higher than rivals, yet maintains flexibility
for manufacturers to innovate and select their own path to
higher ratings. It also supports the participation of smaller
manufacturers in the system – significantly improving the
environmental performance of their products compared with
conventional products, even if they can only qualify for the
entry level ranking. This is a crucial point if we want green
procurement to promote green development and innovation
on the part of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
that make up the bulk of the emerging economies. And
finally – tiered ratings with optional criteria enable inclusion
of forward-looking requirements that promise reward for
attributes that may not be attainable by any manufacturer at
the time the standard goes into effect, further encouraging
environmental innovation.
Variable, comprehensive fees. Tiered ratings give room
for smaller regional manufacturers to participate in the
system; so does a fee structure based on size or revenues
of participating companies. Further, fees that are not
charged on a per product basis but assessed on an annual
or other general basis can help encourage the registration
of as many qualified products as possible. EPEAT has
encountered significant financial constraints due to its
annual, sliding scale fee structure, but nearly half the
participating manufacturers are smaller regional companies.
It is vitally important that green ratings systems should not
privilege only sophisticated global producers, but also offer
incentive to smaller manufacturers by enabling them to win
recognition for their environmental design initiatives, and
that their fiscal structure should encourage proliferation of
environmentally friendly purchasing choices rather than
making addition of products economically unfeasible.
Centralised product registry. Providing a central, online,
publicly accessible product registry enables purchasers and
the general public to compare product and manufacturer
performance head to head – by simply identifying products
available at a given rating tier, or drilling down to highly
detailed reporting on the specific optional criteria each product
meets. It moves the rating system from a closed list which
only identifies whether a product is in or out of the system,
to a dynamic interface between consumers and producers.
This transparency in turn spurs manufacturers to compete to
meet higher numbers of criteria and qualify products at higher
levels, since their record is visible to anyone who visits the
registry. This competition to meet additional criteria pushes
innovation and environmental excellence forward.
Integration into commerce. Delivering ratings information
to the point of purchase wherever possible is essential if
environmental ratings are to have a real impact on the vast
majority of businesses and consumers who buy through
a reseller or retailer. Ratings information needs to be
integrated into e-commerce websites, distributor databases
and OEM web portals as a natural part of the purchasing
process rather than a separate research activity. This
reduction of barriers enables purchasers and end users to
integrate environmental ratings into purchasing decisions
without add-on research.
The development of environmental ratings systems and
certifications that meet the outlined framework challenges
those of us in the green procurement world to expand our
vision – to exert ourselves in new arenas. It is not enough
in today’s world to develop criteria based on the opinions
of a small group of experts; it is outdated in today’s world
of e-commerce and e-communications to simply grant a
seal of approval and wait for a customer to research it. We
need to work with new techniques of e-commerce, lateral
communication through social media and web search, and
even partner with manufacturers, resellers and retailers
to engage in direct and indirect marketing campaigns, to
integrate our certifications into the world where money
flows to products and services. And by doing so we can
provide a business case and value for manufacturers who
see demonstrated impact on their bottom line from
environmentally rated products.
Sarah O’Brien is EPEAT Outreach Director. She was a member of
the original stakeholder development team which created the EPEAT
criteria, participating in the process as an expert on environmentally
sustainable purchasing. Her previous position was Environmentally
Preferable Purchasing Program Manager for H2E/Hospitals for a
Healthy Environment.
Jeff Omelchuck founded the Green Electronics Council (GEC) in 2005
with the vision of re-inventing society’s relationship with electronics.
Jeff is now the Executive Director of the GEC and of EPEAT. Jeff began
his career as an engineer in the electronics industry in Silicon Valley,
then founded and managed a consulting and training practice before
starting GEC.
The Green Electronics Council (GEC) was founded in 2005 to bring
focus to the special issues of electronics and sustainability, and to
find constructive paths forward. Soon after GEC’s founding we were
selected by stakeholders to manage EPEAT, the green electronics
certification and purchasing system that has created a US$60 billion
market incentive for greener laptops, desktops, and monitors. GEC is a
programme of the International Sustainable Development Foundation,
a charitable non-profit organisation.
Green Electronics Council
227 SW Pine Street, Suite 220, Portland, OR 97204, USA
Tel: +1 503 279 9383 | Email: info@greenelectronicscouncil.org
Web: www.greenelectronicscouncil.org
www.epeat.net
117 climateactionprogramme.org