U.S. EPEAT Electronic Product Environmental Certification: The Legal Basis for Federal Procurement Mandates and 2026 Program Expansion

EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) is a voluntary Type 1 ecolabel program that evaluates the entire lifecycle of electronic products—design, manufacturing, packaging, energy use, and end-of-life design—and is administered by the Global Electronics Council (GEC), a nongovernmental third-party organization. In federal procurement, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 23.7 requires federal agencies to procure EPEAT-registered and ENERGY STAR-certified products for covered electronic product categories such as computers and workstations. This legal basis traces back to Executive Order 14057 of 2021 (Executive Order on Federal Sustainability), under which EPA had continuously recommended expanding the EPEAT procurement categories (adding solar modules, power purchase agreements, energy savings performance contracts, networking equipment, and other categories). While Executive Order 14057 itself was rescinded by the Trump administration in January 2025 (see us-federal-buy-clean-initiative-full), because the legal basis for the EPEAT procurement mandate is also grounded in the separate regulation FAR Subpart 23.7, the federal procurement mandate for EPEAT-registered products itself remains in effect as of August 2026. This point supports GRI's Level 2 assessment ("no change"). The program itself continues to expand in 2026. In 2026, GEC conducted a 60-day public comment period (closing June 21, 2026) on a proposal to introduce a new category, "EPEAT Renew," covering reused and refurbished electronics (such as laptops). GEC also solicited public comment between January and March 2026 on the GEC Criteria Development Process (P74) and Product Category Selection (P75)—foundational documents governing program operations—and has published revised versions. Furthermore, "EPEAT Climate+," a higher-tier certification imposing additional greenhouse gas emissions and supply chain transparency criteria on top of EPEAT's highest tier, "EPEAT Gold," is also increasingly being incorporated into federal agency procurement specifications.