On June 24th, the Global Electronics Council announced the winners of its inaugural EPEAT Purchaser Awards, a program recognizing excellence in the green procurement of electronics. The combined efforts of the 2015 EPEAT Purchaser Award winners resulted in enough energy savings to power more than 6,500 U.S. households for one year, a reduction of more than 350,000 kg of hazardous waste, the elimination of enough mercury to fill more than 5,000 mercury fever thermometers, and carbon reductions equal to removing more than 11,000 passenger cars from the road for a year. The 17 winners of the first-annual Awards were recognized for their procurement efforts in up to three categories: PCs and Displays, Imaging Equipment, and Televisions. Award winners earned one star for each category in which they committed to purchasing environmentally preferable electronics registered in the EPEAT green-rating system.
Measurable benefits for the environment Hundreds of purchasers worldwide have trusted EPEAT for nearly a decade, achieving significant environmental benefits in the process. Over their lifetime, compared to products that do not meet EPEAT criteria, the nearly 500,000 EPEAT-registered computers and displays purchased by the 17 entities recognized with a 2015 EPEAT Purchaser Award will:
- Reduce use of primary materials by 30,486 metric tons, equivalent to the weight of 840 tractor-trailer 18-wheelers
- Reduce use of toxic materials, including mercury, by 10,832 kg, including enough mercury to fill more than 5,000 household mercury fever thermometers
- Avoid the disposal of 351,075 kg of hazardous waste, equivalent to the weight of 2,854 refrigerators
- Eliminate the equivalent of 738 U.S. households’ annual solid waste—1,379 metric tons
Energy-Related Savings EPEAT’s requirement that registered products meet the latest ENERGY STAR specifications means these products will consume less energy throughout their useful life, resulting in:
- Savings of over 83 million kWh of electricity—enough to power 6,544 U.S. homes for a year
- Avoidance of nearly 160 thousand kilograms of water pollutant emissions
- Reduction of more than 16,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions— equivalent to taking more than 11,500 million average U.S. passenger cars off the road for a year
The 2015 Winners:
Three-Star EPEAT Purchaser Award Winners
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
- Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, U.S. Department of Energy
- Y-12 National Security Complex, U.S. Department of Energy
- Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy
- Oak Ridge Associated Universities
Two-Star EPEAT Purchaser Award Winners
- Kaiser Permanente
- Sandia National Laboratories, U.S. Department of Energy
- Legacy Management, U.S. Department of Energy
- City of Keene, New Hampshire
One-Star EPEAT Purchaser Award Winners
- Shared Services Canada
- East Tennessee Technology Park, U.S. Department of Energy
- Loyola University Chicago
- Bowdoin College
