Stanford CIS

Update: Addressing the environmental impact of electronics

By Stanford Center for Internet and Society on

Yesterday I talked about dire ecological costs associated with manufacturing each new PC. My lovely fiancée informed me that the people who brought you the Energy Star seal program for evaluating products' energy efficiency are on the case. The EPA has started a multi-stakeholder process to create a similar program for evaluating the "environmental performance of electronics products." It's called EPEAT: Electronics Products Environmental Assessment Tool Project and it's a great idea. Of course, we ought to be evaluating the environmental performance of all products, not just electronics, but electronics are a great place to start, and a particularly egregious example of a product made with absolutely no eye towards planetary concerns.

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