EPEAT green IT label saves three million tonnes of carbon

The booming demand for green IT products has been underlined with the release of new figures showing sales of PCs and laptops carrying the EPEAT environmental label more than doubled during 2007 to 109 million units.

The data was released last week by the Green Electronics Council, a US led environmental body which manages the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT). It showed that EPEAT qualified products saw their market share soar from 10 per cent of shipments worldwide in 2006 to 22 per cent in 2007.

The EPEAT ranking system is widely regarded as one of the most comprehensive green accreditation schemes operating in the IT industry. It assesses IT products based on 23 mandatory criteria and 28 optional criteria covering a wide range of areas, including the product's energy efficiency, take back scheme, ease of recycling and use of hazardous components and chemicals. Products are then awarded bronze, silver or gold labels based on the number of optional criteria they meet.

The Green Electronics Council said that the shift in the global sales mix towards products that had gained EPEAT accreditation meant that the use of primary materials was reduced by 75.5 metric tons, the quantity of toxic materials found in IT products fell by 3,220 metric tons, and the disposal of 124,000 metric tons of eWaste was avoided.

In addition, because EPEAT registered products have to meet the US government's Energy Star energy efficiency specifications, the council said that the sold products will reduce energy use by 42.2 billion kWh, resulting in a reduction in carbon emissions of 3.31 million metric tons.