Greening Government ICT

EPEAT – an overview

Simon ReddingEnvironment Agency

We all know why, but what?

Whitehall alone has half a million computers

Turning them off overnight provides the same carbon emissions reduction as taking 40,000 cars off the road

Environmental impact costs money

Greening Government ICT:Overview

Cross-government initiative sponsored by Cabinet Office Green ICT working group to advise and monitor Chaired by Chris Chant (CIO of Government Olympic Executive)

First stage: tackle the environmental footprint of ICT Second stage: use ICT to reduce environmental footprints

Make environmental impact a key factor in ICT strategy Build into procurement/finance decisions Public sector should meet or exceed global best practice Government ICT will be carbon neutral in use by 2012 It will be carbon neutral in practice by 2020 Off-setting is a last resort

High level commitments

Reducing the impact of ICT Adopt Quick Wins specifications 18 “top tips” to reduce the impact of ICT Five key areas:

Extend lifecycles and sweat embodied carbon Single device per employee (or less) Active power management Reduce printing Make servers/storage more efficient & increase utilisation

(as part of compliance with EU code of conduct on Data Centres)

Extended list of 77 potential “areas for reduction”

Greening Government ICT:Next steps

Review progress of central government against strategy Provide recognition for public sector exemplars Share best practice and knowledge across public sector Review recommendations for action / top tips Extend to cover positive ICT initiatives:

Helping to reduce travel Helping to reduce energy use Helping to reduce use of natural resources

Greening Government ICT

Questions?

Please read the strategy & other information at:http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/cio/greening_government_ict.aspx

EPEAT

Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool

Initiators: US EPA Zero Waste Alliance Green Electronics Council

Initially scoped for desktops, laptops & monitors Intention to build upon EnergyStar specifications to

consider all environmental impacts Transparent approach involves all stakeholder groups

EPEAT: Objectives A tool to inform purchasers about environmental impact Whole life cycle of of equipment from design to disposal Providing a market advantage to compliant companies Easy and quick to comply with Continuous improvement in environmental performance Produce credible, verifiable outcomes Self-sustaining

EPEAT: Some common myths EPEAT is an American initiative EPEAT is an industry eco-label EPEAT is created by government EPEAT is a complex long-winded certification scheme EPEAT isn’t relevant to the UK/EU

EPEAT: How it works Global standard for global products Based on standards with mandatory & optional criteria Standards are developed with wide participation EPEAT ratings relate to number of criteria met:

Bronze = just meets mandatory criteria Silver = meets 50% of optional criteria Gold = meets 75% of optional criteria

EPEAT: Registration & VerificationNeeds to be simple and not delay the market!

Suppliers self-certify their products Periodic controlled verification Random and market-influenced auditing

There are currently 1,256 product lines on the market that meet the desktops/laptops/monitors criteria

EPEAT: What’s planned?Was just one standard, but now…

IEEE 1680: “Umbrella” standard IEEE 1680.1: Desktops, laptops, monitors

IEEE 1680.2: Imaging (copiers, printers, scanners) IEEE 1680.3: Televisions

IEEE 1680.4: Handhelds IEEE 1680.5: Servers

EPEAT: Government procurement

95% of US federal ICT purchasing must meet EPEAT Challenges with EU public procurement regulations No issues with using Quick Wins or individual criteria

from EPEAT

Work ongoing to align with EU EuP Directive Work ongoing with EPEAT to remove issues

surrounding procurement regulations

EPEAT

Questions?

EPEAT is on the Internet at http://www.epeat.net/

Contact me at simon.redding@environment-agency.gov.uk