EU Mandates Energy Star
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 07.12.07
"All public-sector purchasers of office equipment in Europe will in future be obliged to buy brands that carry the Energy Star logo, the environmental quality standard agreed on by the U.S. and the European Union, following a vote in the European Parliament Tuesday. "This regulation gives us the perfect opportunity to introduce a novelty: for the first time in E.U. history, common energy efficiency specifications for public procurement will apply to all member states and the European institutions," said Nikolaos Vakalis [pictured], the member of the European Parliament who led the debate.
In addition to making the Energy Star logo obligatory for public procurements of equipment, the new law formalizes an agreement reached last December with the U.S. government to extend the Energy Star plan for another five years, with higher energy efficiency requirements than those in place now."
There was a time when many European nations (pre-Union) followed up on US government-led initiatives for the environment. From the early 1970's on, the US was far ahead of Europe on such things as limiting use of dangerous pesticides, phasing out PCB use in transformers, and even banning leaded gasoline. That leadership roll seemed to reverse beginning about 1990. So, its good to see that at least something "made in the USA" for the good of the environment is getting respect overseas. Via:: InfoWorld Image credit:: European Parliment press gallery, Nickolaos Vikalis
A while back I remember Worldchanging mentioning how Energy Star ratings are by no means the final word on efficiency. They pointed to research indicating that homes completely equipped with Energy Star appliances could still not compete with the energy savings generated by simply increasing the density of housing.
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003034.html
...Obviously I appreciate that government purchasing rarely relates to the fitting out of houses. Likewise it doesn't hurt at all to design appliances and equipment which saves on energy use and expenditure. It's nevertheless worth remembering that there are many other ways of chasing the inefficiency demons from our lives, and they don't always depend on advanced electronic design or purchasing expensive new products.