Do you’re feeling a bit misplaced when individuals discuss with sure environmental sustainability matters and aren’t positive the place to begin relating to studying extra? Sustainability 101 is a weblog sequence which you can flip to for details about totally different environmental phrases that will come up at work, throughout discussions with buddies, and even at your annual vacation gathering.
Many corporations need to present how they’re making their merchandise extra sustainable. That’s the place ecolabels are available. Ecolabels are marks indicating that the merchandise meet goal environmental and sustainability standards. Ecolabels are positioned on product packaging, on the product itself, accompanying documentation, or on different means similar to internet based mostly.
In keeping with the U.S. Environmental Safety Company (EPA), ecolabels might help customers and institutional purchasers shortly and simply determine these merchandise that meet particular environmental efficiency standards and are subsequently deemed “environmentally preferable”. Ecolabels may be owned or managed by authorities businesses, nonprofit environmental advocacy organizations, or personal sector entities
Various kinds of ecolabels
In keeping with Ecolabel Index, there are over 450 ecolabels accessible worldwide, masking totally different trade sectors (together with carpets, cosmetics, and even espresso beans) and geographies. The Worldwide Group for Standardization (ISO) has a sequence of worldwide requirements for environmental administration that apply to ecolabels and divides them into classes. ISO 14020 classifies ecolabels as Sort I, Sort II, or Sort III, as follows:
- Sort I (ISO 14024), generally often known as ecolabelling schemes: This class covers third-party certification processes to confirm services or products compliance with a pre-selected set of standards.
- i.e.: THEY say my product has sustainability advantages.
- Sort II (ISO 14021): This class covers self-declared ecolabels, based mostly on goal requirements, that will cowl environmental claims.
- i.e.: I say my product has sustainability advantages.
- Sort III (ISO 14025): The third class covers self-declared conformance to predetermined classes of parameters based mostly on ISO 14040, however with out conclusions on whether or not that conformity means the product has sustainability qualities.
- i.e.: Listed below are my outcomes, it’s as much as YOU to guage if my product has sustainability advantages.
Sort I ecolabels are thought of complete and bold. They’re typically assigned to merchandise that transcend regulatory necessities, together with within the areas of vitality effectivity, useful resource consumption or greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions. These Sort I ecolabels determine and promote merchandise with diminished hostile impacts.
Ecolabels are to not be confused with an “vitality” label, which is used to point the vitality effectivity of a shopper product. Within the European Union (EU), this vitality label is necessary for sure merchandise similar to fridges, washing machines or televisions and makes use of a scale from G (least environment friendly) to A+++ (best) to point the vitality effectivity of a product.
Ecolabels for digital B2B tools
Related ecolabels for digital B2B tools range from specializing in vitality solely (80 PLUS®, ENERGY STAR®) to others that go additional than this, by together with extra environmental and social facets (EPEAT, TCO Licensed, and so on.).
1. 80 PLUS: A voluntary Sort I certification program launched in 2004, supposed to advertise environment friendly vitality use in energy provide models (PSUs). The certification measures the vitality effectivity at 10%, 20%, 50%, and 100% of rated load and an influence issue. It affords six ranges of certification: Commonplace, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Titanium.
2. ECMA 370: A Sort II scheme that can be utilized by corporations to declare if and which environmental attributes (similar to recycling, discount of hazardous substances, and vitality consumption) are met and to point out which measurement strategies had been utilized for data and communication expertise (ICT) and shopper electronics in accordance with identified requirements, pointers, and at present accepted practices.
3. ENERGY STAR: A voluntary program that’s run and verified by the U.S. EPA and DOE. This system focuses on the vitality consumption of merchandise utilizing standardized strategies. It goals to assist clients get monetary savings on their vitality payments and cut back greenhouse fuel emissions. There are ENERGY STAR packages accessible for, amongst different, enterprise servers, giant networking tools (LNE), small networking tools (SNE) and Voice over Web Protocol (VoIP) Telephones.
4. EPEAT: A Sort I ecolabel which is managed by the International Electronics Council (GEC) based mostly on standards that evolve as sustainability evolves – measuring the social and environmental impacts of merchandise from extraction to finish of life. EPEAT certification is acknowledged by a number of governments and enormous companies of their procurement practices.
5. TCO Licensed: TCO Licensed is a worldwide sustainability certification for IT merchandise. It contains each social and environmental facets and helps buying organizations and the IT trade tackle crucial sustainability challenges linked to electronics, similar to local weather, circularity, hazardous substances, and provide chain duty. All standards are necessary and compliance with all standards is independently verified by accredited specialists.
6. EU Ecolabel: The European Union’s (EU) ecolabel, managed by the European Fee and EU Member States, is a voluntary EU-wide Sort I ecolabelling scheme. It covers many sorts of non-food merchandise. The one product group masking electronics is digital shows, and contains televisions, pc displays, and signage shows.
7. Environmental Product Declaration (EPD): An EPD is a doc that’s based mostly on ISO 14025 (Sort III). As such, it’s used to speak the environmental efficiency of a product to stakeholders and supplies quantified details about the environmental influence of a product or materials over its lifetime. It’s based mostly on the Lifecycle Evaluation (LCA) methodology, which evaluates the environmental influence of a product from uncooked materials extraction to disposal.
Why are ecolabels vital?
The general public sector additionally makes use of ecolabels to encourage behavioral change. On account of Inexperienced Public Procurement guidelines, many authorities establishments prioritize procurement, the place relevant, of merchandise that meet particular sustainability necessities similar to ENERGY STAR or EPEAT.
Ecolabels are additionally turning into extra vital given the worldwide pattern towards larger taxonomy frameworks and regulation relating to sustainability-related actions and Inexperienced Claims.
Lastly, below sure circumstances, ecolabels might doubtlessly be leveraged by stakeholders as a sound strategy for self-regulation.
The place does Cisco stand relating to ecolabels?
At Cisco, we apply Round Design Rules and try to enhance the vitality effectivity of our merchandise to cut back our environmental footprint. Ecolabels are one method to share a few of the outcomes of those efforts.
Ecolabels don’t apply to the whole lot Cisco sells, however — the place relevant — Cisco’s merchandise are evaluated in opposition to the next Sort I ecolabels: ENERGY STAR, EPEAT and 80 PLUS.
Cisco at present has merchandise licensed to the ENERGY STAR normal below the Enterprise Server and Telephones classes. We even have EPEAT-registered merchandise below the Servers class listed in EPEAT´s on-line Registry.
And Cisco has energy provide models (PSUs) licensed to 80 PLUS listed on CLEAResults’s on-line database. The vast majority of our PSUs have achieved Platinum standing, and our UCS servers are rated Titanium.
We’re constantly striving for transparency in our reporting on our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives, objectives, and progress.
Study extra about our expertise with ecolabels on our
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