EPA Builds New Web Page to Help Consumers Shop Green

The products we buy and use can have a wide variety of public health and environmental impacts including toxic exposures, air pollution, water pollution, climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, natural resource use, waste disposal, and ecosystem damages. The EPA now hosts the greener products portal online, which makes finding environmentally friendly products easier.

By Gustavo Grad

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a new portal designed to provide easy access to information about everyday products at www.epa.gov/greenerproducts.

“By purchasing greener products, consumers can help reduce air pollution, conserve water and energy, minimize waste and protect their children and families from exposure to toxic chemicals, while also creating green jobs,” says Steve Owens, assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, in a press release. “Pollution prevention is good for our health, our environment, and our economy.”

The Web page makes it easy to find electronics and appliances with the EPA’s ENERGY STAR label or to review products that can save water and energy under the WaterSense label. In addition, you can find information about cleaning products that are safer for the environment and better for your health with the EPA Design for the Environment (DfE) label.

The new portal also helps manufacturers and institutional purchasers with information on standards and criteria for designing greener products. As part of its mission, the EPA has been working to promote the development of standards for environmentally preferable goods and services, and the site offers an explanation of what different eco-labels mean. Labels vary in whether they are standards developed by private entities, by public agencies under EPA authority, or jointly by stakeholders and experts from the public and private sectors.

Eco-labeling programs include ENERGY STAR, WaterSense, and Design for the Environment (DfE). They are good examples of government leadership in advancing energy efficiency, water conservation, and commitment to objective, fact-based decision making.

Not convinced that these labels matter? Here are the EPA’s most important reasons to follow eco-labels:

• By looking for greener products when you shop and using products in ways that respect the environment, you will be joining millions of Americans in helping protect public health and the environment. Using products in ways that respect the environment includes conserving energy, water, and materials as well as disposing of the products responsibly through recycling and reuse.

• Products can have a wide variety of public health and environmental impacts, including toxic exposures, air pollution, water pollution, climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, natural resource use (e.g., energy, water, materials), waste disposal, and ecosystem damages.

• Despite a variety of initiatives to prevent misleading claims, one cannot believe every environmental claim you see. Look for:

1. Product standards or eco-labels with published criteria for qualifying their products (e.g., published on their Web sites);
2. Product standards or eco-labels issued or supported by organizations widely respected and trusted;
3. Product standards which require verification of some type;
4. Products qualifying for EPA eco-labeling programs or meeting standards that EPA helped develop and manage; and
5. Products meeting broad-based environmental criteria such as computers and other electronics meeting the IEEE 1680 environmental performance standards, or products from businesses that have undergone SCGH’s GreenCheck® evaluation.

The bottom line is that green products can save money, prevent pollution, and protect people’s health.