Do you’re feeling a bit misplaced when folks consult with sure environmental sustainability matters and aren’t positive the place to begin in relation to studying extra? Sustainability 101 is a weblog sequence which you could flip to for details about completely 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 corresponding to net primarily based.

In line with the U.S. Environmental Safety Company (EPA), ecolabels might help shoppers and institutional purchasers shortly and simply determine these merchandise that meet particular environmental efficiency standards and are due to this fact deemed “environmentally preferable”. Ecolabels could be owned or managed by authorities businesses, nonprofit environmental advocacy organizations, or personal sector entities

Various kinds of ecolabels

In line with Ecolabel Index, there are over 450 ecolabels obtainable worldwide, overlaying completely 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 Kind I, Kind II, or Kind III, as follows:

• Kind 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.
• Kind II (ISO 14021): This class covers self-declared ecolabels, primarily based on goal requirements, that will cowl environmental claims.
  • i.e.: I say my product has sustainability advantages.
• Kind III (ISO 14025): The third class covers self-declared conformance to predetermined classes of parameters primarily based on ISO 14040, however with out conclusions on whether or not that conformity means the product has sustainability qualities.
  • i.e.: Listed here are my outcomes, it’s as much as YOU to evaluate if my product has sustainability advantages.

Kind I ecolabels are thought of complete and impressive. They’re usually assigned to merchandise that transcend regulatory necessities, together with within the areas of power effectivity, useful resource consumption or greenhouse fuel (GHG) emissions. These Kind I ecolabels determine and promote merchandise with diminished adversarial impacts.

Ecolabels are to not be confused with an “power” label, which is used to point the power effectivity of a shopper product. Within the European Union (EU), this power label is obligatory for sure merchandise corresponding to fridges, washing machines or televisions and makes use of a scale from G (least environment friendly) to A+++ (best) to point the power effectivity of a product.

Ecolabels for digital B2B gear

Related ecolabels for digital B2B gear fluctuate from specializing in power 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 forth.).

1. 80 PLUS: A voluntary Kind I certification program launched in 2004, supposed to advertise environment friendly power use in energy provide models (PSUs). The certification measures the power 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 Kind II scheme that can be utilized by corporations to declare if and which environmental attributes (corresponding to recycling, discount of hazardous substances, and power consumption) are met and to point out which measurement strategies had been utilized for info and communication know-how (ICT) and shopper electronics in keeping with recognized requirements, pointers, and at the moment 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 power consumption of merchandise utilizing standardized strategies. It goals to assist prospects get monetary savings on their power payments and cut back greenhouse fuel emissions. There are ENERGY STAR packages obtainable for, amongst different, enterprise servers, massive networking gear (LNE), small networking gear (SNE) and Voice over Web Protocol (VoIP) Telephones.

4. EPEAT: A Kind I ecolabel which is managed by the International Electronics Council (GEC) primarily based 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 consists of each social and environmental facets and helps buying organizations and the IT trade tackle a very powerful sustainability challenges related to electronics, corresponding to local weather, circularity, hazardous substances, and provide chain duty. All standards are obligatory and compliance with all standards is independently verified by accredited consultants.

6. EU Ecolabel: The European Union’s (EU) ecolabel, managed by the European Fee and EU Member States, is a voluntary EU-wide Kind I ecolabelling scheme. It covers many sorts of non-food merchandise. The one product group overlaying electronics is digital shows, and consists of televisions, pc screens, and signage shows.

7. Environmental Product Declaration (EPD): An EPD is a doc that’s primarily based on ISO 14025 (Kind 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 primarily based 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. Because of Inexperienced Public Procurement guidelines, many authorities establishments prioritize procurement, the place relevant, of merchandise that meet particular sustainability necessities corresponding to ENERGY STAR or EPEAT.

Ecolabels are additionally turning into extra vital given the worldwide pattern towards higher taxonomy frameworks and regulation concerning sustainability-related actions and Inexperienced Claims.

Lastly, beneath sure circumstances, ecolabels might doubtlessly be leveraged by stakeholders as a sound method for self-regulation.

The place does Cisco stand concerning ecolabels?

At Cisco, we apply Round Design Rules and try to enhance the power effectivity of our merchandise to cut back our environmental footprint. Ecolabels are one strategy to share among the outcomes of those efforts.

Ecolabels don’t apply to the whole lot Cisco sells, however — the place relevant — Cisco’s merchandise are evaluated towards the next Kind I ecolabels: ENERGY STAR, EPEAT and 80 PLUS.

Cisco at the moment has merchandise licensed to the ENERGY STAR commonplace beneath the Enterprise Server and Telephones classes. We even have EPEAT-registered merchandise beneath 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. Nearly all 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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