Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 69.95
Liaison John Alejandro
Submission Date March 11, 2014
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.2

University of San Diego
OP-10: Computer Purchasing

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 2.00 / 2.00 Liza Peterson-Gary
Budget & Operations Manager
IT Services
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Does the institution have an institution-wide stated preference to purchase EPEAT Silver or higher computers and monitors?:
Yes

The website URL where the EPEAT policy, directive, or guidelines are posted :
A brief description of steps the institution has taken to ensure that the purchasing policy, directives, or guidelines are followed :

The university offers six different computers available for purchase including Dell, Apple, and HP. Five out of the six have EPEAT Gold rating and the sixth is an Apple iMac which was removed from EPEAT ratings in July 2012 (these are considered specialty computers and have their own environmental standards, which in some cases go beyond EPEAT requirements). The university’s standard is to purchase EPEAT Gold rated computers.


Does the institution wish to pursue points for Part 2 of this credit (expenditures on EPEAT computers)?:
Yes

Expenditures on EPEAT Gold desktop and laptop computers and monitors :
642,707 US/Canadian $

Expenditures on EPEAT Silver desktop and laptop computers and monitors :
0 US/Canadian $

Total expenditures on desktop and laptop computers and monitors :
642,707 US/Canadian $

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

The total expenditure stated is for PCs only and do not include expenditure on Macs, as they are considered specialty computers. Up to July 2012 Mac products purchased met EPEAT Gold standards, and these products themselves have not radically changed since then. Apple withdrew from EPEAT in July 2012. However in terms of the underlying purpose of EPEAT, they are likely to remain equivalent to any other EPEAT Gold computer. Thus it is believed that an institution should not be penalized for using Apple products that are just as environmentally friendly. Therefore expenditure on Apple computers were not included in either the EPEAT Gold expenditures or the total expenditures In FY2012 USD spent $370,000 on iMac computers, which would be in addition to the total expenditure on PCs stated above.


The total expenditure stated is for PCs only and do not include expenditure on Macs, as they are considered specialty computers. Up to July 2012 Mac products purchased met EPEAT Gold standards, and these products themselves have not radically changed since then. Apple withdrew from EPEAT in July 2012. However in terms of the underlying purpose of EPEAT, they are likely to remain equivalent to any other EPEAT Gold computer. Thus it is believed that an institution should not be penalized for using Apple products that are just as environmentally friendly. Therefore expenditure on Apple computers were not included in either the EPEAT Gold expenditures or the total expenditures In FY2012 USD spent $370,000 on iMac computers, which would be in addition to the total expenditure on PCs stated above.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.