US launches green IT strategy

The Obama administration has unveiled a new green IT strategy, National Strategy for Electronics Stewardship, meant to increase the energy efficiency of the government’s IT estate and to make the federal government the country’s “most responsible consumer of electronics”. The strategy stated: “As one of the largest consumers of electronics, the Federal Government has the particular opportunity and responsibility to purchase, use, and recycle its electronics with the goals of: protecting public health and the environment; creating new and strengthening existing markets for reused, refurbished, and recycled electronic equipment and materials; expanding opportunities for domestic job creation; improving electronics design and management practices; and safeguarding data.” In this regard, the US General Services Administration (GSA), which manages federal procurement, will remove IT products that do not comply with demanding energy efficiency and environmental performance standards from its list of approved purchase contracts.
All government departments will be required to properly recycle or reuse IT equipment. Federal IT equipment will also be tracked throughout its lifecycle with data sets posted on data.gov and other publicly accessible websites. GSA will issue, through interagency collaboration and with public input, a revised Federal Electronics Stewardship Policy to bring Federal management of used electronics in line with current best practices; these include:
- Division of functional and nonfunctional equipment into distinct streams, where functional equipment is directed through the government’s current hierarchy of reuse opportunities and non-functional equipment is directed to third-party certified recyclers or refurbishers, or to manufacturer take-back programs that use certified recyclers;
- Consistent practices to wipe hard drives and other storage devices, in order to protect sensitive data and maximize reuse potential by using least-destructive sanitisation procedures wherever appropriate;
- Prohibition of sale of non-functional equipment through public auctions, except to certified recyclers or refurbishers; and
- A landfill ban on used Federal electronics.

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