The previous post about the new EPEAT international product registry noted the disparity in product availability among registry countries. Why is a product registered as EPEAT-compliant in one country not automatically compliant in all? The answer lies in the fact that EPEAT includes life-cycle criteria. EPEAT Communications Director Sarah O'Brien explained to me:

"Registration by country: Products are registered in all covered countries according to the same standard – the IEEE 1680 Standard for the Environmental Assessment of Personal Computer Products, which underlies EPEAT. They must meet all required criteria in every country where they are registered, and a majority of the criteria declared (whether optional or required) must be met not only where the products are registered but (according to the explicit terms of the EPEAT standard) everywhere the product is sold.”

" There are a very few criteria that may be declared independently in different countries. Our stakeholder Board of Advisors, and subsequently a stakeholder standards development workgroup of the IEEE, decided that it was important to encourage compliance with such advanced criteria as provision of reusable packaging, or a renewable energy accessory, so they allowed them to be declared where companies could achieve them, and to not be declared elsewhere. (Otherwise a company would have been unable to declare one of these criteria until they were met in every covered country – limiting awareness/availability in many countries because they weren’t met in all …) There are 5 such criteria – all optional – out of 51 total criteria."

"Importing EPEAT registered products – Because EPEAT involves service and company performance criteria – required takeback and recycling of batteries and products, optional takeback and recycling of packaging or reusable packaging, etc – a declaration made in one place is not universally applicable everywhere. So if purchasing a product that is EPEAT registered in one location, a purchaser must explicitly walk through all declared criteria with the supplier to make sure they are met in their specific location. Products may not be promoted or sold as EPEAT registered outside the current country list – though purchaser and suppliers may certainly go over products’ compliance with the individual criteria of the IEEE 1680 standard point by point and come to a purchase/sales agreement based on that review, that does not constitute EPEAT registration of the product in a geography not covered by the system."