The Electronics TakeBack Coalition said the decision to drop the requirement was “extremely unfortunate”.
Barbara Kyle, national coordinator of the group, told WhoWhatWhy: “Dropping a strong green electronic standard that has been supported by the government, industry and conservationists is exactly the wrong direction to go.”
The coalition has written a letter to Federal Environmental Executive Kate Brandt, asking that the EPEAT program be revived, and has also met with Brandt and aides in person. Kyle said that while “it’s not clear what they’re going to do”, she was told that key concern for Brandt was that government standards were enforced.
In accordance with the Executive Order issued by President Obama, agencies may use “eco standards” created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or opt for the far less scrupulous “voluntary consensus” guidelines recommended by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Brandt’s umbrella organisation. WhoWhatWhy reports that “sustainability activists fear [the office is] heavily influenced by industry”.
EPEAT’s ratings are more comprehensive than EPA or OMB ones, as they take into account 52 different criteria, such as the product’s energy efficiency, its use of hazardous chemicals, and its design for recyclability.
There are plans for future standards including “social” issues like labour practices and worker health and safety, which are especially relevant to the electronics sector as it “outsources much of its work to developing nations, where employees are subjected to long hours working with hazardous chemicals”.
Green Electronics Council (GEC) CEO Robert Frisbee said that the order “in no way precludes federal purchasers from using EPEAT to identify environmentally preferable electronics,” with the council hoping that businesses will still adhere to EPEAT’s standards.
Nonetheless, WhoWhatWhy contends that the “EPEAT mandate clearly threatens the momentum of the federal sustainability effort that the President’s Executive order claims to promote”. The Recycler reported on the EPEAT legislation in April 2015, when the Electronics TakeBack Coalition and the GEC warned that the guidelines were not mentioned in the Executive Order. Kyle wrote a letter at the time to the Federal Environmental Executive arguing that EPEAT is “critical, as regulations around the world are barely scratching the surface of the hazardous chemicals problem in electronics”.