Greening Federal Electronic Assets

According to estimates, the federal government buys roughly 7 percent of the electronics sold globally, having spent more than $50 billion last year alone for equipment and services. Most of the 1.8 million federal government employees have a personal computer. Given an average three-year replacement rate, the government discards nearly 10,000 computers weekly.

The MOU is expected to save the federal government millions of dollars annually through reduced and avoided waste management costs and recovered investments in electronic assets.

As part of this MOU, participating agencies automatically become partners in the Federal Electronics Challenge (FEC), a voluntary partnership program that encourages federal facilities and agencies to purchase greener electronic products, reduce impacts of electronic products during use and manage obsolete electronics in an environmentally safe way.

“As part of their stewardship efforts, federal agencies across the country have a responsibility to reduce the environmental impacts of their electronics assets, and the MOU and Federal Electronics Challenge provide the right tools and resources to help,” Edwin Pinero, the Federal Environmental Executive, says.

The following federal facilities will be recognized during the event for their efforts during the pilot phase of the FEC: Bonneville Power Administration, Portland, Ore.; EPA Region 10, Seattle, Wash.; U.S. Army – Fort Lewis, Fort Lewis, Wash.; General Services Administration, Chicago and Cincinnati; Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Livermore, Calif.; National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Moffett Field, Calif.; and National Park Service, Denver, Colo.

More information on the FEC is available online at www.federalelectronicschallenge.net.