PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Executive Director, executive.director@nerc.org
Date: April 14, 2017

State Electronics Challenge Receives 2017 Sustainable Purchasing Visionary Award from Green Electronics Council

The Green Electronics Council (GEC), managers of the EPEAT ecolabel, recently honored the State Electronics Challenge (www.stateelectronicschallenge.net) - a program of the Northeast Recycling Council - with its 2017 Sustainable Purchasing Visionary Award. The EPEAT Purchaser Award and Sustainable Purchasing Visionary Award winners were recognized at a ceremony in Washington DC, sponsored by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), the premier advocacy and policy organization for the world's leading innovation companies.  

The State Electronics Challenge was awarded the Sustainable Purchasing Visionary Award for its achievements spanning almost 10 years.  Since 2008, the State Electronics Challenge has enabled state, tribal, regional, and local governments, including schools and other public entities, to purchase and manage IT products in an environmentally sound manner.

In just 2016, the activities of program participants resulted in the following environmental benefits.

		Purchasing EPEAT® Products	Use		Reuse & Recycling		TOTAL BENEFITS
	Reduction In	How Much?						How Much?	Equivalent To
	Energy use	12,502,622 kWh		81,156,552 kWh		55,248,211 kWh		148,907,385 kWh	Electricity to power  13,722 U.S. households/ year
	Greenhouse gas emissions	15,183 metric tons of carbon equivalents		198,124  metric tons of carbon equivalents		5,891 metric tons of carbon equivalent		219,198 metric tons of carbon equivalents	Removing 171,006 cars from the road/year
	Toxic materials, including lead & mercury	56 lbs.		7 lbs.		32 lbs.		95 lbs.	Weight of 21 bricks
	Municipal solid waste	245,237 lbs.		1,584,415  lbs.		2,349,840  lbs.		4,179,492  lbs.	Waste generated by 1,007 households annually
	Hazardous waste	66,002 lbs.		30,673 lbs.		504,429 lbs.		601,104 lbs.	Weight of 2,120 refrigerators

Currently, the program has 167 partner organizations who purchase EPEAT-registered IT products, as well as implementing power and paper usage conservation strategies, and ensuring the responsible recycling of electronics at the end-of-life.