The Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) or the Environmental Assessment Tool for Electronic Products is a method for consumers to evaluate the effect of an electronic product on the environment. Environmental product lifecycle valuation of the product and ranking products such as gold, silver or bronze based on environmental performance criteria.
It is run by the Green Electronics Council, also a program of the International Sustainability Development Foundation (ISDF), the Foundation for International Sustainable Development, which envisions a world where trade in communities and nature prosper in harmony. To qualify products to the standards of the IEEE 1680 family of green electronics and identify products such as EPEAT Bronze, EPEAT silver and EPEAT gold the organization assigns a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with a team of technicians and environmental assessment organizations.
The Council evaluates on the basis of 51 criteria, of which 23 are required and 28 are optional, which measure product efficiency and its sustainability. Products are classified as Gold, Silver and Bronze depending on how many optional criteria they have.
In January 2010, Amazon.com started using EPEAT ratings to identify the greenest electronic products on its site.
In July 2012, Apple will no longer evaluate its products with the EPEAT certification system. Some suggest that its latest tablet and mobile devices could no longer comply with dismantling and recyclability criteria. A few days later, Apple's hardware designer, Bob Mansfield, in a letter, admits that leaving the EPEAT was a mistake. From that letter, all Apple products are again conforming to EPEAT. Links externalize the wikitesto
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