Following on from the success of its Voluntary Retailer Initiative (VRI) on TVs earlier this year, the Energy Saving Trust is now launching its second VRI scheme which focuses on IT equipment – laptops, PC, monitors, and printers. The aim of the scheme is to ask retailers to commit to promote the most energy efficient products and to remove the least efficient models from their range.
At the moment there is no compulsory energy labelling on desktops, displays or laptops to help consumers identify those that are the most energy efficient. The Energy Saving Trust is asking retailers to sign a voluntary agreement that will commit them to:
• Ensure their ranges include a certain percentage of the most energy efficient products on the market, and;
• Use the Energy Saving Trust Recommended logo to highlight to customers which products will save them the most energy.
Recent research commissioned by the Energy Saving Trust, shows that over three quarters of UK consumers think energy labelling on IT products is important. And with 80% of UK households owning a computer and over 13% of the household electricity bill being spent on computing, energy efficiency for the IT product sector has never been more important.
