Technical Committee launching for Corporate ESG Performance criteria for EPEAT ecolabel – now is your opportunity to get involved!
The Global Electronics Council (GEC) is developing criteria to address corporate ESG performance throughout the life cycle of electronic products. These criteria will be leveraged across all EPEAT product categories, including computers and displays, mobile phones, imaging equipment, servers, and televisions. This Call for Participation is to notify stakeholders of the opportunity to participate on the multi-stakeholder Technical Committee that will evaluate and reach consensus on sustainability leadership criteria to reduce climate change impacts, GEC is partnering with NSF International, an organization with extensive expertise in managing voluntary consensus processes, to convene and manage the Technical Committee.
Scope of Corporate ESG Performance Criteria
The State of Sustainability Research on Corporate ESG Performance provides the basis for EPEAT criteria development. The criteria will address best practices for mitigating social and environmental risks, inclusive of criteria addressing labor and occupational health and safety, social supplier audits and transparency, responsible mineral sourcing, and corporate environmental management systems.
These Corporate ESG Performance criteria are one of four criteria modules being developed by GEC for application across its EPEAT product categories. Criteria are also being developed for Climate Change Mitigation, Sustainable Use of Resources and Reduction of Chemicals of Concern.
Stakeholder Participation in the Technical Committee
The Technical Committee is the consensus body in the GEC criteria development process. The Technical Committee is responsible for ensuring that proposed criteria address priority sustainability impacts identified in the State of Sustainability Research and will move the industry and its supply chain to innovate and adopt best practices that achieve credible, verifiable reductions in sustainability impacts and increase transparency. This Technical Committee is expected to begin its work in September 2022 and continue for up to 6 months. Technical Committee meetings will occur monthly via teleconference. Members are expected to review documents in advance of meetings, provide comments on criteria and actively engage in discussion (either on calls or by electronic means), and participate in the ballot process to approve criteria and reconcile stakeholder differences.
Membership on the Technical Committee is open to all interested parties by submitting the Technical Committee Application Form. The Technical Committee will include up to 21 voting members, representing a balance of stakeholders from four categories:
- Manufacturer: Manufacturer of products or services covered by the scope of the criteria and their trade associations.
- Other Industry: Other businesses commercially engaged with the products or services such as:
- Suppliers and their trade associations.
- Recyclers, repair and refurbish companies, asset management service providers, and their trade associations.
- Other types of businesses commercially engaged with the product.
- Sustainability Advocates and Government Policy: Individual from a public agency (local, regional, state, federal, or international) or represents a professional public/environmental health/safety organization, data privacy and/or IT security, academia, or not-for-profit environmental organization.
- Purchasers and Ecolabel Criteria Users: An individual whose organization purchases, uses, or specifies products or services covered in the scope of the criteria. User/consumers and their trade association representatives, institutional purchasers, third-party conformity assessment bodies (e.g., testing laboratories), and retailers are included in this membership classification.
Technical Committee member applications will be reviewed and members selected by NSF using the following considerations:
- Technical competency and qualifications of the applicant relevant to the criteria;
- Balance of stakeholder interests;
- Geographic and product representation;
- Date of receipt of application; and
- Participation in recent or concurrent processes.
If you are interested in applying to participate on the Technical Committee, please complete the Technical Committee Application Form, and return it by August 31, 2022, to Greta Baragar, Sustainability Standards Lead, NSF International (gbaragar@nsf.org).
Technical Committee Observer Status
It is also possible to apply for Technical Committee observer status. Observer status allows individuals to attend Technical Committee meetings and receive documents provided to the Technical Committee, such as meeting agendas and updates to the Full Draft Criteria Document. Technical Committee Observers may only observe meeting discussions, unless invited by the Technical Committee Chair to contribute to the meeting, either verbally or electronically. Technical Committee Observers are limited to one representative from an organization. Organizations that have a representative with Technical Committee Member status are not eligible to have a Technical Committee Observer. All Observers must complete a Technical Committee Observer Application form, which includes signing an Observer Agreement before receiving Technical Committee documents or attending meetings. The names and affiliations of all Technical Committee Observers are publicly available.
If you are interested in applying for Technical Committee Observer status, please complete the Technical Committee Observer Application Form, and return it by August 31, 2022, to Greta Baragar, Sustainability Standards Lead, NSF International (gbaragar@nsf.org).
Questions? Please contact Greta Baragar (gbaragar@nsf.org) with any questions regarding the Technical Committee application process. Please contact Patricia Dillon at the Global Electronics Council (pdillon@gec.org) about the overall GEC criteria development process and application in EPEAT. Additional information on the GEC criteria development process is publicly available.
