Sustainability is no longer a side consideration in federal IT procurement. Federal agencies are subject to mandatory sustainable acquisition requirements under FAR Subpart 23.7, and Executive Order 14057 has pushed agencies toward increasingly ambitious environmental targets on the path to net-zero emissions across federal operations by 2050. For procurement officers evaluating computing hardware, understanding what EPEAT and ENERGY STAR certifications actually require, and which one applies where, is now a practical procurement necessity.
FAR Subpart 23.7 requires federal agencies to procure environmentally preferable products and services, including electronics that meet EPEAT registration requirements where EPEAT standards exist for the product category. Executive Order 14057, Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability, directs agencies toward net-zero emissions across federal operations, including procurement, by 2050, with interim milestones that are already shaping how agencies evaluate IT hardware purchases.
For procurement officers, this means sustainability certifications are increasingly a required or heavily weighted evaluation criterion, not an optional preference.
EPEAT, the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool, is a global rating system that evaluates electronic products against a set of environmental criteria spanning the full product lifecycle, including material selection, energy conservation, design for end of life, and corporate performance. Products are rated Bronze, Silver, or Gold depending on how many optional criteria they meet beyond the required baseline.
EPEAT registration is the standard most directly referenced in FAR Subpart 23.7, and agencies procuring desktops, workstations, and other covered electronics should confirm EPEAT registration status as a standard part of the vendor evaluation process.
EPEAT Climate+ builds on the EPEAT Gold tier with additional criteria focused specifically on greenhouse gas emissions reduction and supply chain transparency. It represents a more rigorous sustainability standard than baseline EPEAT registration, and it is increasingly being incorporated into federal agency procurement specifications as sustainability requirements mature beyond the FAR Subpart 23.7 baseline.
For agencies with aggressive internal sustainability targets, or those in program areas subject to heightened environmental scrutiny, EPEAT Climate+ certification provides a documented, third-party verified standard that goes beyond what baseline EPEAT registration requires.
Ace Computers holds EPEAT Climate+ certification across our desktop and workstation product lines, providing federal procurement officers with documentation that satisfies both the FAR Subpart 23.7 baseline and the more rigorous emissions and supply chain transparency criteria that EPEAT Climate+ adds.
ENERGY STAR certification, administered jointly by the EPA and Department of Energy, evaluates products specifically against energy efficiency criteria. While EPEAT covers a broader set of lifecycle environmental factors, ENERGY STAR focuses specifically on power consumption during operation, standby, and sleep states.
ENERGY STAR Version 9.0 represents the current generation of computer and workstation energy efficiency requirements, and federal agencies procuring desktop and workstation hardware should confirm ENERGY STAR certification as a standard evaluation criterion alongside EPEAT registration, since the two certifications evaluate different, complementary aspects of environmental performance.
Ace Computers holds EPEAT Gold, EPEAT Climate+, and ENERGY STAR Version 9.0 certifications across our desktop and workstation product lines. These certifications are documented and available to federal procurement officers evaluating sustainable IT acquisitions, supporting both FAR Subpart 23.7 compliance and agency-level sustainability reporting under Executive Order 14057.
Our manufacturing facility in Des Plaines, Illinois operates under ISO 9001 quality management standards, providing the documentation transparency that increasingly rigorous sustainability and supply chain criteria require.
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FAR Subpart 23.7 requires federal agencies to procure environmentally preferable products, including EPEAT-registered electronics where EPEAT standards exist for the applicable product category. Procurement officers should treat EPEAT registration as a required evaluation criterion for covered products rather than an optional preference.
EPEAT Gold is the highest tier within the standard EPEAT rating system, awarded to products meeting the required baseline criteria plus a high number of optional criteria. EPEAT Climate+ builds on the EPEAT Gold tier with additional, more rigorous criteria specifically focused on greenhouse gas emissions reduction and supply chain transparency, representing a higher sustainability bar than EPEAT Gold alone.
Yes. Ace Computers holds EPEAT Gold, EPEAT Climate+, and ENERGY STAR Version 9.0 certifications across our desktop and workstation lines, and can provide certification documentation to support federal procurement and sustainability reporting requirements.
