Hewlett-Packard, announced today that their line of personal workstation computers has been certified to the GOLD standard by the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT). In this case, GOLD means green.
EPEAT is a voluntary industry program to help businesses easily evaluate, compare and select desktop computers, notebooks and monitors based on the products’ environmental attributes. EPEAT evaluates electronic products according to three tiers of environmental performance: Bronze, Silver and Gold. The program is sponsored by the Green Electronics Council, and its environmental criteria are defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. A third of desktop systems are rated at the GOLD level.
Key enviro-features include low energy consumption, avoiding the use of environmentally-damaging components, a reuse and recycle-friendly design and a solid representation of packaging features in the criteria.
Being measured as a green product does offer the opportunity to extract a premium in the market too. Does your industry association have initiatives like this? Sure has to be better than letting the government decide how to measure a product's greenness.