Want to make sure that your next IT or computer purchase is environmentally friendly? Unfortunately, there's no equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for making sure that your hardware is as green as possible.

However, there are some organizations that rate PCs, laptops, and printers for how environmentally friendly they are. Follow their advice, and you'll go a long way for buying hardware that's as green as possible. In the long run it will pay off -- not just for the environment, but for the bottom line as well, because the greener your hardware, the less power you'll use.

Whether you're buying hardware for a large corporation, a medium or small business, or your home, here's where to go for helping make sure the hardware you buy is environmentally friendly.

Finding products through EPEAT

If you're looking to make sure you buy green hardware, probably the best place to start is with the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) website. EPEAT, which is run by the Green Electronics Council, registers products whose manufacturers conform to an environmental standard for electronics products, called IEEE 1680-2006. The standard uses a comprehensive set of 51 environmental criteria, including the reduction or elimination of environmentally sensitive materials, energy conservation, packaging and much more. The standards are quite detailed: For example, they cover mercury and other hazardous materials, energy efficiency, how recyclable hardware is and so on. You can get more details about the standard on the EPEAT website.

EPEAT offers three levels of compliance. Hardware that meets a basic 23 criteria is rated as bronze. Hardware that meets the basic 23 criteria plus 50 percent of 28 optional criteria is rated as silver. And hardware that meets all of the basic 23 criteria plus 75 percent of the 28 optional criteria is rated as gold.

For now, EPEAT covers only desktops, monitors, notebooks, and what it calls "integrated systems," which are desktops and monitors integrated into one product. So you won't be able to use it to check out much IT gear, such as servers, storage equipment and routers. Still, it's a great tool for checking out computers and monitors. The criteria are quite strict, so not much hardware manages to meet even the bronze standard. As of this writing, 39 pieces of hardware meet the bronze standard, 398 meet the silver, and 39 meet the gold.

If you're looking to buy EPEAT-compliant hardware, head to the site and use the EPEAT Registered Products Search Tool to search for products. You'll get not just a listing of which products meet which standard, but also a great deal of detail about each individual product, including how it rates for reduction/elimination of environmentally sensitive materials; materials selection; design for end of life; product longevity/life cycle extension; energy conservation; end of life management; corporate performance (how well the manufacturer overall meets green criteria; and packaging.

Checking out Energy Star

The most widely used green stamp of approval for hardware at the moment is Energy Star, a set of energy-use requirements that ensures the hardware uses as little electricity as possible. Most Energy Star-compliant hardware includes a label on the packaging, on the online site, or as part of bidding specifications.

If you want to find Energy Star-compliant hardware, head to this Energy Star pagewhere you can use a simple search form to find Energy Star-compliant PCs, printers, and laptops. You can also download the entire product list [.xls].

How much money and energy can you save by buying Energy Star equipment? That depends how you use them. A key requirement for gaining Energy Star approval is having power management features that include sleep mode. Energy Star claims that using sleep mode, hibernation, and similar technologies can save from $25 to $75 per computer annually. In addition, because each PC generate less heat, less air conditioning is required, saving from $5 to $25 per PC. That means you can save a total of from $30 to $100 per PC each year, which can add up to substantial savings in a large enterprise. Even at home, it's not chump change.

The best way to estimate much you can save is to download the Energy Star savings calculator [.xls], which calculates not just how much money you can save, but also how much CO2 you will save, and the equivalent acres of trees planted, or cars removed from use.

More Efficient Power Supplies

One of the components of the Energy Star requirements are more efficient power supplies that meet the standards set by a program called 80 Plus. If you buy a computer that meets the newest Energy Star specs (currently 4.0), it meets the 80 Plus standards.

But what if you're buying a power supply on its own? And what about computers that don't meet Energy Star standards, but do conform to the 80 Plus standard? You can find out, before buying, whether it meets the 80 Plus specifications by going to this list of certified power supplies and manufacturers.

Using efficient power supplies can save a surprising amount of money and energy, and do more good for the environment than you might imagine. Head over to the 80 Plus calculator, enter the number of servers and desktops you have, and see the results. For example, if you've got 140 desktops and 40 servers, and they meet the 80 Plus standard, you'll save more than $8,300 over the life of the equipment. As for the carbon dioxide equivalents you'll save, it will be as if 170,763 car miles were not driven, saving nearly 7,500 gallons of gas.

Canada's EcoLogo Program

The Canadian government is well ahead of the U.S. government when it comes to environmental certifications. It has an EcoLogo program that sets environmental standards for a wide variety of products in more than 120 categories.

Most aren't applicable to computers and IT, unfortunately. However, a few are, including printers, print cartridges, and, oddly enough, keyboards and mice. Go to the EcoBuyer Green Products Database, and expand the Consumer Products and Office Furniture, Equipment & Business Products categories, and you'll be able to browse through a list of certified products. You can even have the site put together a list for you in Excel or PDF formats. Check the boxes next to each product you're interested in, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click either Export to PDF, or Export to Excel.

Looking to the Future

The big missing ingredient in all this are the higher-level IT hardware, not just desktop, laptops and printers. For the moment, there's no place to go if you want third-party validation of whether servers, routers, storage, and other equipment meets environmental standards. That's changing, although rather slowly. EPEAT, for example, will eventually get around to putting together standards for servers, and 80 Plus has begun doing the same thing. (For details about the 80 Plus work on server power supplies, and to get copies of its draft testing protocols, head to the 80 Plus Data Center Server Research Project.

What else to do? Check out GreenerComputing in the coming months for more help on how to buy green servers and other IT equipment.

Preston Gralla is the editor at large for GreenerComputing. Send tips and suggestions to preston@greenerworldmedia.com.