Energy Efficiency

The Energy Star label was originally developed by the US environmental protection agency and then adopted by the EU through an agreement (limited to office equipment) negotiated in 2000.This first deal expires and of June 2006 and will be renewed by the new agreement which sets more stringent energy consumption criteria.

It is intended that the best 25% of the market will meet those new criteria and get the label. The proportion of models which comply with today's rules approaches nearly 100% in many product classes, making the label almost useless.
The new agreement should encourage producers to develop further energy savings.

The Green's would have appreciated the "japanese approach" where only the best 10% of the products get the label, thus forcing the sector to more innovation.

The Energy Star is widely used in the USA as standard for public procurement but has been less prominent in the EU until now.

For further information go to:
EU Energy star ecolabel