June 26, 2010

IEEE Medal - EPEAT is Change Agent

The International Sustainable Development Foundation is pleased to announce that Larry Chalfan, Founder of the Zero Waste Alliance, Wayne Rifer of the Green Electronics Council and Viccy Salazar of the US Environmental Protection Agency were honored by IEEE with the 2010 IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies. IEEE is the world’s largest professional association advancing technology for humanity.

The medal, sponsored by Toyota Motor Corporation, recognizes Chalfan, Rifer and Salazar for developing and bringing into operation EPEAT, the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool, which measures the environmental performance of electronic products based on IEEE standard 1680. The award was presented on June 26, 2010 at the IEEE Honors Ceremony in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The EPEAT program is now managed by ISDF’s Green Electronics Council.

Quoting from the award recognition: “Three years in the making, the EPEAT program was launched in 2006 as the culmination of over 100 stakeholders representing diverse backgrounds working together to create a system for identifying laptop and desktop computers and monitors that are environmentally friendly. Chalfan, Salazar and Rifer played central roles in the development of EPEAT and overcame the immense challenge of guiding the group of electronics manufacturers and purchasers, environmental advocacy groups, researchers, recyclers, state and local governments, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to a consensus. Their leadership and commitment was crucial to reaching agreements on the environmental criteria, considering prior attempts to reach common ground among these groups were unsuccessful. This work also resulted in the creation of IEEE Standard 1680, which became the technical basis for the EPEAT certification system.”

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