EPEAT™ Standards Development Roadmap

Background

EPEAT's broad acceptance by purchasers (over $40 billion of IT budgets) and manufacturers (over 300 products from nearly all major manufacturers) has shown the success of using environmental standards in the electronic products industry. It has also established a model for standards that could be developed for other products as well.

The Zero Waste Alliance (ZWA) was contracted to carry out a national project to engage stakeholders in the development of a roadmap for future standards like IEEE 1680, the EPEAT Standard. This project was called the EPEAT Standards Development Roadmap (EPEAT-SDR) and was being conducted during the first half of 2007.

EPEAT-Standards Development Roadmap Project Overview

Convening Assessment: During January and February 2007, a convening assessment was conducted through telephone calls to selected stakeholders. The purpose was to gather very preliminary information about the major issues to aid in the design of the project and the stakeholder input process and key individuals that should be involved.

Project Purpose: The purpose of this project was to create a roadmap for developing future electronic product environmental standards consistent with IEEE 1680.  The roadmap goals included:

• Clearly defined categories of product recommendations and a list of considered products not in the roadmap
• Sequencing and/or timing recommendations and prioritization of products/categories
• Back-up information on the selection/identification of product categories (market share, environmental impacts, interest, other standards, etc)
• Potential areas of concern that were identified via this process
• Interested stakeholders list including any identified key stakeholders for specific products/categories
• Identified potential funding sources for future standards development (not the responsibility of this process to secure funding)
• Recommendations on how 1680 revisions fit into the overall roadmap
• Recommendations on possible implementation issues (e.g. standards development coordination by single entity; focus on environmental criteria not overall structure of EPEAT; identification of an SDO)

Future activities for the development of electronic standards for EPEAT are expected to follow the recommendations of this roadmap and to honor the intentions of the stakeholders. The roadmap document, however, does not imply a commitment by any of the stakeholders.

EPEAT Standards Development Roadmap Project Timeline

Feb-Mar 2007	Prepared a summary of considerations for identified products including an environmental and energy profile, product volume, ease of standard development, upcoming product developments and market drivers, etc.
Apr 12 & 16	Two national open-to-all conference calls were held to present the information.
Apr 12 - Apr 30	First public comment period for stakeholder feedback on the draft Background and Discussion Document. Comments were entered on the EPEAT SDR collaboration site: http://zerowaste.org/epeat_collab/
June 4	First draft of the Standards Development Roadmap Recommendations document and revised Background and Discussion Document for stakeholder review posted on the web site (http://zerowaste.org/epeat_collab/).
June 4-June 18	Comment period #1 for Standards Development Roadmap Recommendations document stakeholder feedback.
June 19- July 9	Revised Roadmap document with comments incorporated posted on web site for review.
July 9 - July 21	Comment period #2 for Standards Development Roadmap Recommendations document stakeholder feedback.
July 24 & July 25	Final national open-to-all conference calls were held to ask, “Did we get it right?”
August 2007	Posted final Standards Development Roadmap Recommendations document.

The results of the standards development roadmap process were presented to all the stakeholders, the Green Electronics Council, the EPEAT Board of Advisors, the EPA, and other interested parties as a recommended approach for establishing new standards. It included recommendations regarding the timing for developing additional standards, environmental and other considerations that should be included in the standard setting process, and stakeholders who should be included.

In addition the project team explored and made recommendations on the method of funding the standard development process. EPA is prepared to provide some support, but other partners will be essential.

Following completion of the roadmap, EPA has indicated the intent to:

• Convene a workgroup meeting to discuss roadmap implementation with potential funder and workgroup leaders
• Oversee the first steps of the convening process for standards development based on the results of the SDR process and the roadmap implementation meeting
• Allocate financial resources to partially support the development of the first standard(s) based on the recommendations of the SDR process and the roadmap implementation meeting

Potential Products

Stakeholders contacted during the convening assessment identified several products as being of highest interest including cell phones and PDAs, imaging devices including printers, copiers, faxes, scanners and multi-functional devices, servers and televisions and other display devices. Other products identified by stakeholders included gaming devices, set top boxes, home entertainment electronics (VCRs, stereos, DVD players, etc..), communications and cabling, telecom, telephones and software.

As the full stakeholder process is just beginning, all products are still being considered, including:

• Audio/Video equipment (receivers, VCR, DVR, speakers, etc.)
• Boomboxes
• Cameras
• Cell phone network infrastructure equipment
• Cell phones
• Computer peripherals (external hard drives, etc…)
• Copiers
• Data center equipment (large disc & tape drives, routers, switches, UPS, etc.)
• Fax machines
• Hand-held portable game players
• Home computer networking equipment (home WiFi, routers, cable/DSL modems, etc.)
• Internet routers, etc.
• Mainframe computers
• MP3 players
• Multi-function devices
• PDAs
• Printers
• Scanners
• Servers
• Telephone switches
• Televisions
• Project Funding

Project Outcomes

Final project documents and comments prepared during the development of the EPEAT Standards Development Recommendations report are available on the Documents Archive Page.

This project was funded by the US EPA through a broader grant to the Green Electronics Council who has contracted this work to the Zero Waste Alliance.

For more information or to receive notifications please contact...

Pamela Brody-Heine, project manager, pbrodyheine@zerowaste.org or
Larry Chalfan, project director, lchalfan@zerowaste.org