Environmental Leader

Retailers Wal-Mart and Best Buy, together with electronics suppliers Dell, HP, Intel and Toshiba, have banded together to create a system to help consumers identify “green” electronics, according to a press release.

Acting under the umbrella of The Sustainability Consortium, the companies are working with Arizona State University and the University of Arkansas, the same two universities that Wal-Mart is working with on its Sustainability Index.

The consortium is developing sustainability standards based on lifecycle environmental and social impacts of products.

The new electronics label was criticized by TreeHugger for its duplicity, considering the pre-existing EPEAT and UL Environment third-party rating systems.

But the consortium says it will work to coordinate its ratings with EPEAT and Energy Star.

Initial results of the green electronics label are expected to be unveiled in the third quarter of 2010, with an emphasis on laptops, desktops and monitors.

“We plan to expand the project to a broader set of electronic goods later in the year, when additional manufacturers and suppliers will be recruited to the project,” said Kevin Dooley of the Sustainability Consortium and a professor in the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

For a full list of Sustainability Consortium members, click here.

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