EPEAT TV, Imaging Gear Standards Will Likely Take Effect By Early 2012, Says Official

Officials at the Green Electronics Council haven’t yet figured out how EPEAT could “accommodate” the new top-tier Super Star program being developed by the EPA, said Sarah O'Brien, EPEAT outreach director. The council manages the EPEAT program. Conforming to Energy Star standards is among several criteria for EPEAT qualification. The program now covers computers and monitors but specifications for TVs and imaging equipment is under development.

EPEAT standards development officials are in talks with counterparts at Energy Star about the “Super Star concept and ranking and trying to figure out how to make sure that’s accommodated or enabled within our standard,” O'Brien told us. Although she isn’t sure where the “relationship” between the Super Star ranking and EPEAT will end up, O'Brien said she believes EPEAT will continue to require Energy Star and not “Energy Star plus.” EPEAT likely would give an additional point for products that are Super Star compliant, she said. “It would be an additional criterion but most likely an optional criterion that gets an additional point,” she said. “It is also completely up to the stakeholders to decide that."

O'Brien said she expects EPEAT to “wrap up” the TV and imaging gear standards in 2011. “We certainly want the standards to go into effect by the end of the year or early 2012.” EPEAT officials will start getting the registry ready for the products this year, “working with manufacturers to educate them on the system and sign them up to list products,” she said. But the EPEAT registry for TVs and imaging gear won’t go live until the standards are published, she said. As for how EPEAT will handle the new Energy Star testing and verification rules, especially for products registered outside the U.S., O'Brien said EPEAT only requires that manufacturers provide proof that products meet the Energy Star standards, she said. There’s no “Energy Star registration requirement."

EPEAT’s plan to move into the consumer space hasn’t worked as projected earlier but “we have a strategic plan [and] are very much moving in that direction,” O'Brien said. Now focused on government and large institutional buyers, there will be a “natural progression” into the consumer arena, she said. EPEAT is now targeting small and medium sized enterprises, and “as we do that we move close to the retail environment,” she said. Amazon.com and Buy.com already highlight EPEAT products, she said. “We are also working with some retailers through our marketing team to think about how to best present EPEAT information in the bricks and mortar situation, given the short attention span of the customer and how much information they can take in."

Consumer labeling for EPEAT is “an option we are looking at,” she said. “I don’t think we anticipate moving like Energy Star to a required label, partly because products are covered with labels, many of which consumers are completely ignorant about.” Another problem with a labeling requirement is that a product could fall in the EPEAT ratings from Gold to Silver in mid-year so EPEAT administrators need the flexibility to have the manufacturer correct the product’s rating accordingly, she said. After the finalization of the TV and imaging equipment standards, EPEAT proposes to take up specifications for servers and mobile devices, O'Brien said. She expects the server standard to be developed “in close conjunction” with the proposed update in early spring of the computer standard, she said.