serendipityoucity

EPEAT (US) and ECOLOGO (Canada) were featured in a Globe and Mail article today on the The greening of the computer.  The OLPC remains the most environmentally friendly computer since it is designed with:

• a liquid-crystal technology, that is is backlit with light-emitting diodes rather than tiny fluorescent tubes which is energy-efficient and more environmentally friendly because fluorescent tubes contain mercury
• "It is especially energy-efficient for uses that don’t require much processing power because its central processing unit (CPU) shuts down when not needed and wakes up again in a hundredth of a second. The screen stays on, Dr. Jepsen explains, so the computer user doesn’t notice a change, but with the CPU off, the laptop uses only about a watt of power - compared with about 20 watts for a conventional laptop."
• and it "can be powered by a hand crank, a foot pedal, a solar panel or a string-pull device, something like the handle you pull to start a lawn mower. Five minutes of hand cranking will let a child read a book from the XO’s screen for about an hour, Dr. Jepsen says. Some tasks use power faster."

EPEAT provides a list of products and grades them according to a basic list of 23 criteria that gives them "bronze" status and additional optional features can elevate a product to "silver" or "gold". The EPEAT Registry

includes products that have been declared by their manufacturers to be in conformance with the environmental performance standard for electronic products - IEEE 1680- 2006.  The standard is summarized here, and may be purchased from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.  EPEAT operates a  verification program to assure the credibility of the Registry.

ECOLOGO run by Environment Canada covers more categories of products. But unlike EPEAT, EcoLogo requires third-party testing to certify products and it seems that no computers have earned that certification yet while some peripheral devices have.  Go to the consumer products part of the list and look for the word computer to see what is there.

The EcoLogo^M Program is a Type I eco-label, as defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in its standard - "Environmental Labeling" (ISO 14024). This means, the Program compares products / services with others in the same category, develops rigorous and scientifically relevant criteria, and awards the EcoLogo^M to those that are environmentally preferable throughout their entire whole life a thorough evaluation and auditing process.

Additionally, the EcoLogo^M Program is one of only a handful of such programs internationally that has been successfully audited by the Global EcoLabelling Network (GEN) through their GENICES accreditation program to ensure compliance with ISO 14024 principles.

EcoLogo^M certification criteria documents (CCDs) are developed in an open, public and transparent process, with a broad base of stakeholder participation including user groups (e.g. procurement associations, institutional purchasers and consumer protection organizations), product producers (e.g. industry members and associations), government / regulators, general science-based representatives (e.g. academics, life cycle experts and other scientists), environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs), and other environmental advocates. The criteria address multiple environmental attributes related to human health and environmental considerations throughout the life cycle of the product. Currently, there are 122 Certification Criteria Documents addressing over 250 product types.