Global Electronics Council Significantly Raises Sustainability Standards for Electronics

PORTLAND, Ore., February 24, 2025 /3BL/ - The Global Electronics Council^® (GEC) is proud to announce the completion and release of its updated EPEAT^® criteria. This milestone completes a multi-year effort to advance sustainability across the lifecycle of electronic products. It cements EPEAT as the definitive global electronics ecolabel, helping thousands of purchasers significantly reduce costs while safeguarding human and environmental well-being.

The criteria—which spans a comprehensive range of material topics including Climate, Circularity, Chemicals and Responsible Supply Chains —are set to take effect November 1, 2025. Electronics brands and their customers will now have an improved market signal to credibly move sustainability forward in the electronics industry. This builds on years of tangible impacts. Since its 2006 inception EPEAT has contributed to diversions of over 341 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalents,800 thousand gigawatt hours of energy savings, and $34 billion in lifetime product savings.

"With the completion of the updated EPEAT criteria, we are providing the most comprehensive approach yet to accelerate the international market for sustainable electronics," said Bob Mitchell, CEO of GEC. "These criteria address critical environmental and social challenges, from emissions reduction to supply chain labor practices, empowering both the industry and purchasers to make informed, responsible choices that benefit all stakeholders."

A Comprehensive Approach to Sustainable Electronics

The updated criteria represent a significant step forward in aligning the operations, supply chains and products of the global electronics sector with leading sustainability and ethical sourcing practices, including:

• Climate: Contributes to reduced greenhouse gas emissions and cost savings through supply chain decarbonization, product energy efficiency and establishment of science-based targets.
• Circularity: Prioritizes sustainable use of resources by promoting recycled materials, repairability, and responsible end-of-life management​.
• Chemicals: Reduces hazardous substances in electronics and improves supply chain transparency​.
• Responsible Supply Chains: Strengthens labor & human rights protections, environmental management, and responsible mineral sourcing in international electronics supply chains.

These criteria, developed through a multi-stakeholder voluntary consensus process, align with international sustainability goals and support institutional purchasers in identifying electronics that meet the highest sustainability benchmarks.

“We are excited to have the possibility of purchasing electronics that meet these newly released criteria as soon as they can be listed on the EPEAT registry” said Paul Chamberland, McGill University’s Chief Information Officer. “As McGill seeks to track and manage some of the key environmental and social impacts through its supply chain, we are proud to have contributed to background work leading to these new criteria and appreciate the value of this framework to help us source more responsibly made electronics.”

For more information or media inquiries, please contact:

Erik Fessler 
Senior Manager, Global Communications 
+1 971-380-4088 
[email protected]