Softchoice Launches Green IT Product Database

The Toronto based company, Softchoice, has unveiled a searchable database that will allow consumers to compare various computing products and identify the most eco-friendly among them. The database contains over 350,000 products from various computing categories.

Softchoice gathered the data from CNET Networks and the Green Electronics Council's database of products that have met EPEAT standards. The Council uses EPEAT (Electronic Products Environmental Assesment Tool)to evaluate computing equipment on 23 mandatory criteria and 28 optional criteria that measure a products environmental sustainability, which includes packaging, materials selection, longevity and end of life design. Products that meet 23 criteria are awarded a bronze certificate while those that meet the mandatory 23 criteria plus half of the 28 optional criteria receive a silver certificate. Those products that meet the mandatory plus 75 percent of the optional criteria receive a gold certificate.

Softchoice combines the product information from CNET Networks and the EPEAT database. "People can compare EPEAT and non-EPEAT products to make better decisions, and also purchase EPEAT products from the site," according to Melissa Quinn, sustainability program manager for Softchoice. "We translated that into a SKU [stock keeping unit] listing and that was automatically dumped into the Softchoice web site... As products get added to and removed from the EPEAT listing it will automatically be updated on the site."

The database will be updated every few days and roughly 1,500 products in it are EPEAT certified.

[via businessGreen]