Case Study: State of California Draft Guidelines for the Procurement, Use and End-of-Life Management of Electronic Equipment

To help California state agencies reduce the environmental and human health impacts of electronic equipment, Green Seal and the Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies have developed guidelines for the procurement, use and end-of-life management practices of electronic equipment. By providing specific criteria addressing three broad environmental attributes, energy efficiency, materials efficiency, and toxics reduction, state agencies will not only be able improve the environmental health impacts of electronic equipment, but they will also reduce operating and management expenses.

The procurement stage is where the state has the greatest ability to influence and improve the environmental and cost performances of the other two operational phases, use and end-of-life management. Once a product is bought, it is impossible to make it more energy efficient or reduce its toxicity levels. As such, it is critical to develop purchasing specs, which give preference to manufacturers who design cleaner electronic products that are taken back by the manufacturer at the end of life, to be reused and recycled in a cradle-to-cradle system.

The recommended checklist below for the State of California provides businesses with a good place to start in terms of developing comprehensive purchasing specs that will demand electronic products that are cleaner throughout their life cycle.

Recommended Checklist for the Procurement of Electronic Equipment

Promote Energy Efficiency

• Purchase Energy Star® compliant equipment
• Purchase equipment with Energy Star® modes active upon delivery
• Network equipment such as printers, scanners, copiers, fax machines, and other multifunction devices whenever possible to reduce energy use

Promote Materials Efficiency

• Require the manufacturer to send equipment with a minimum of packaging and with recycled packaging
• Check to see if the supplier will take back the packaging for reuse or recycling
• Look for design features that support upgrade, repair, and remanufacture
• Choose the right capacity for copiers (e.g., duplex copy speed and monthly volume) and make sure that recycled paper is compatible
• Purchase ergonomically designed equipment (to help extend product life)
• Lease equipment or include takeback clauses to eliminate the need for future surplus management

Promote Toxics Reduction

• Purchase equipment with preference for those that do not contain toxic hazardous constitutes (e.g., chlorinated or brominated flame retardants, PVC plastics, CFC or HCFC compounds stipulated in the Montreal Protocol, mercury, cadmium)
• Purchase laser printers and copiers with low indoor air pollutant emissions (e.g., low output copiers with ozone filters)
• Require that the vendor collect or refill or recycle toner cartridges
• Require recycled content materials in electronic equipment
• Purchase remanufactured toner cartridges (e.g., Canon, Brother, and Ricoh) for printer and fax machine toner cartridges
• Require features that will save ink and toner in printers and copiers (e.g., draft printing capacity, refillable toner, and separate ink cartridges on inkjet printers)
• Purchase from companies that use manufacturing processes without chlorinated solvents or other toxic materials
• Require copiers and laser printers to have low ozone emission specifications and/or come with an activated carbon filter
• Purchase from companies demonstrating corporate environmental responsibility (e.g., that promote the use of ISO 14000 or who have favorable ratings by The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition)

It is quite possible that there might not be products on the market today that meet all of the criteria outlined in the above guidelines, particularly in regards to the reduction of toxic substances. At minimum, manufacturers should provide full disclosure about the toxic materials in their products, in addition to commitments and timelines of when these materials will be substituted for safer alternatives. What every manufacturer can do today, however, is take back their products at the end of life and invest in research and development strategies that will lead to products that are free of persistent bioaccumulative substances and other harmful materials. State procurement programs, along with other large-scale buyers, such as universities, hospitals, and major corporations have the ability to shift the market for cleaner electronic products through environmentally friendly procurement programs that build on the criteria established by Green Seal and University of Tennessee for the State of California.

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