Federal Green Challenge
Federal Green Challenge - Electronics
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Federal Green Challenge Electronics Goals
The Federal Electronics Challenge (FEC) 
is an EPA voluntary partnership
program dedicated to helping federal facilities purchase greener electronic
products, reduce the impacts of electronics products during use, and
manage obsolete electronics in an environmentally safe way. If a facility
participates in EPA's FEC, it counts as participation in the Federal
Green Challenge's Electronics target area. Please report your electronics goals and results to the FEC program ; the Federal Green Challenge Team
will retrieve them from the FEC program.
Relative to your baseline, increase the following by 5% or more:
- Purchase/lease of Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) products;
- Number of electronic equipment in use with power management enabled;
- Responsible recycling through 3rd party certified electronics recyclers/donation of electronic equipment; and
- Average life span of electronics
Reducing Your Electronics Footprint
Purchase
- Purchase/lease EPEAT-registered
- Purchase/lease Energy Star Certified Equipment
- Share electronics and streamline networking to decrease quantity of electronics purchased
Executive Order 13514
By 2020, relative to your fiscal year 2008 baseline, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by promoting electronics stewardship. Specific actions to undertake include:
- Ensure procurement preference for EPEAT-registered products;
- Establish and implement policies to enable power management, duplex printing, and other energy-efficiency or environmental preferable features on all eligible agency electronic products;
- Employ environmentally sound practices with respect to the agencys disposition of all agency excess or surplus electronic products;
- Ensure the procurement of Energy Star and FEMP designation electronic equipment; and
- Implement best management practices for energy-efficient management of services and Federal data centers.
- Learn more about Executive Order 13514
Operation & Maintenance
- Enable power management settings on electronics to reduce energy usage.
Fact: Activating monitor power management can save $10-$35+ per monitor annually.
End-of-Life
- Decrease turnover of electronic equipment.
- Donate still functional electronics through programs such as Computers for Learning.
- Recycle electronics at end of life only through 3rd party certified electronics recyclers.
- Achieve 100% recycling of electronics through 3rd party certified electronics recyclers within three years.
Fact: In 2007, about 414,000 tons of electronics were collected in the US for recycling. This prevented the release of greenhouse gases equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 178,000 cars.
Measurement
- Federal Electronics Challenge baseline survey (PDF) (4 pp, 58K)
- Electronics Environmental Benefits Calculator
- Energy Star Computer Power Management Savings Calculator (.xls) (.xls spreadsheet format, 64K)
Recognition
Case Studies
- The U.S. Air Force has successfully integrated EPEAT and EnergyStar into their electronics procurement and implemented power management policies. These changes are expected to save $15 million annually and reduce power plant carbon dioxide emissions by over 100,000 tons per year. Read more about the Air Force's computer purchasing and power management policies (PDF). (2 pp, 314K)
- The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) is implementing comprehensive
power management policies for the agency's computers and printers while
promoting reuse of surplus devices. Desktops, laptops, and monitors
are set to time out after inactivity, reducing power consumption by
an estimated 8,383 BTUs per year. Read
more about GSA's electronics stewardship program.