Softchoice debuts green IT product list

Canadian IT reseller Softchoice has introduced a searchable database of green computing products, designed to help customers identify the most environmentally sustainable machines from different product categories.

The Toronto-based company has combined information from two third parties with its database of 350,000 products to flag up the most environmentally-friendly IT products it can offer.

CNET Networks provided the product information, while Softchoice drew environmental data from the Green Electronics Council's database of products that have been certified to the EPEAT standard.

Launched in 2006, EPEAT is a certification scheme for environmentally friendly electronic products. Also ratified as the IEEE 1680 standard, it uses a set of 23 mandatory criteria to verify products as compliant with its basic bronze standard.

Products that meet the mandatory criteria plus half of the remaining 28 optional criteria receive silver certification, while those meeting 75 per cent of the optional criteria get the gold certificate. Areas covered by the criteria include packaging, design for end of life, energy conservation, materials selection and product longevity.

"People can compare EPEAT and non-EPEAT products to make better decisions, and also purchase EPEAT products from the site," said Melissa Quinn, sustainability program manager for Softchoice.

The company takes its product information from IT website CNET, and combines it with the EPEAT database, which lists certified products by title. "We translated that into a SKU [stock keeping unit] listing and that was automatically dumped into the Softchoice web site," said Quinn, adding that the list will now be updated every few days. "As products get added to and removed from the EPEAT listing it will automatically be updated on the site."

The company said that roughly 1,500 products, or around 0.5 per cent, of the products in the Softchoice database are EPEAT certified.