Greening Government ICT EPEAT – an overview Simon Redding Environment Agency

We all know why, but what? Whitehall alone has half a million computers Turning them off overnight provides the same carbon emissions reduction as taking 40,000 cars off the road Environmental impact costs money

Greening Government ICT: Overview  Cross-government initiative sponsored by Cabinet Office  Green ICT working group to advise and monitor  Chaired by Chris Chant (CIO of Government Olympic Executive) First stage: tackle the environmental footprint of ICT Second stage: use ICT to reduce environmental footprints

 Make environmental impact a key factor in ICT strategy  Build into procurement/finance decisions  Public sector should meet or exceed global best practice  Government ICT will be carbon neutral in use by 2012  It will be carbon neutral in practice by 2020  Off-setting is a last resort High level commitments

Reducing the impact of ICT  Adopt Quick Wins specifications  18 “top tips” to reduce the impact of ICT  Five key areas:  Extend lifecycles and sweat embodied carbon  Single device per employee (or less)  Active power management  Reduce printing  Make servers/storage more efficient & increase utilisation (as part of compliance with EU code of conduct on Data Centres)  Extended list of 77 potential “areas for reduction”

Greening Government ICT: Next steps  Review progress of central government against strategy  Provide recognition for public sector exemplars  Share best practice and knowledge across public sector  Review recommendations for action / top tips  Extend to cover positive ICT initiatives:  Helping to reduce travel  Helping to reduce energy use  Helping to reduce use of natural resources

Greening Government ICT Questions? Please read the strategy & other information at:

EPEAT Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool  Initiators:  US EPA  Zero Waste Alliance  Green Electronics Council  Initially scoped for desktops, laptops & monitors  Intention to build upon EnergyStar specifications to consider all environmental impacts  Transparent approach involves all stakeholder groups

EPEAT: Objectives  A tool to inform purchasers about environmental impact  Whole life cycle of of equipment from design to disposal  Providing a market advantage to compliant companies  Easy and quick to comply with  Continuous improvement in environmental performance  Produce credible, verifiable outcomes  Self-sustaining

EPEAT: Some common myths  EPEAT is an American initiative  EPEAT is an industry eco-label  EPEAT is created by government  EPEAT is a complex long-winded certification scheme  EPEAT isn’t relevant to the UK/EU

EPEAT: How it works  Global standard for global products  Based on standards with mandatory & optional criteria  Standards are developed with wide participation  EPEAT ratings relate to number of criteria met:  Bronze = just meets mandatory criteria  Silver = meets 50% of optional criteria  Gold = meets 75% of optional criteria

EPEAT: Registration & Verification Needs to be simple and not delay the market!  Suppliers self-certify their products  Periodic controlled verification  Random and market-influenced auditing There are currently 1,256 product lines on the market that meet the desktops/laptops/monitors criteria

EPEAT: What’s planned? Was just one standard, but now…  IEEE 1680: “Umbrella” standard  IEEE : Desktops, laptops, monitors  IEEE : Imaging (copiers, printers, scanners)  IEEE : Televisions  IEEE : Handhelds  IEEE : Servers

EPEAT: Government procurement  95% of US federal ICT purchasing must meet EPEAT  Challenges with EU public procurement regulations  No issues with using Quick Wins or individual criteria from EPEAT  Work ongoing to align with EU EuP Directive  Work ongoing with EPEAT to remove issues surrounding procurement regulations

EPEAT Questions? EPEAT is on the Internet at Contact me at