Case study – EPEAT Ecolabels & SPP

With more than 4000 EPEAT-registered products available in 40 countries around the world, EPEAT is a leading global ecolabel for electronic products. EPEAT is owned and managed by the Global Electronics Council (GEC), a mission-driven non-profit that leverages the power of purchasers to create a world where only sustainable technology is bought and sold.

As an ecolabel originally established in 2006 to meet institutional purchaser needs in the United States, the reach of EPEAT has grown considerably—in 2022, over 70 organizations ranging from state and national governments to universities and hospitals, reported spending $2.6B USD on EPEAT-registered products. This information is based on data voluntarily submitted by purchasers applying for an EPEAT Purchaser Award and certainly doesn’t represent the total scale of EPEAT purchases—however it conveys an encouraging trend.

EPEAT is increasingly being specified by purchasers in a wide range of countries and organisations including the United States, Canada, Paraguay, Colombia, Brazil, Scotland, and a variety of European Union (EU) countries including Spain, in addition to institutions such as the World Bank, Yale University, Kaiser Permanente, and the US General Services Administration. In the United States as an example, the Federal Acquisition Regulation requires federal agencies to purchase EPEAT- registered electronic products —and in 2021 alone, the US Federal Government reported purchasing over 43 million EPEAT- registered products which resulted in estimated cost savings of almost $2 billion USD.

GEC has spent almost two decades helping purchasers procure more sustainable electronic products and to this end, has made a series of resources available to do so, including sustainability impact overviews, State of Sustainability Research, purchaser guides, training, and sample contract language. Perhaps more importantly, purchasers can search the publicly available EPEAT Registry to find EPEAT-registered products that meet their needs across a variety of product categories, including computers and displays, imaging equipment, mobile phones, network equipment, photovoltaic modules and inverters, servers, and televisions.