The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the deployment of a new product finder system for providing consumers, partners, and interested third parties with greater access to ENERGY STAR products. This product finder system is built off of existing ENERGY STAR information, providing consumers with an easily-accessible, user-friendly search tool, as well as providing utilities, retailers and others with advanced search capabilities. The first phase of this launch includes clothes washers and cordless phones.
The backbone of this system is a database that is populated with product information provided by EPA-recognized certification bodies (CBs) via an XML-based transfer. The new system will display the same product attributes as appear on the current qualified product lists, but it will allow manufacturers to provide additional identifying information for models such as SKUs, UPC codes, and retail model numbers. These can be provided by CBs to make it easier for consumers to find ENERGY STAR products. In addition, this system allows EPA to update lists of products nearly daily, providing information in a more timely manner to all parties.
The basic search tool for ENERGY STAR products is designed for consumers and provides the ability to easily filter products based on key attributes, such as product type, brand, and size. This tool also allows consumers to compare products, sort by energy efficiency, and share search results. More advanced users who are focused on promoting ENERGY STAR products can access the detailed datasets (qualified product lists) directly at http://data.energystar.gov, sign up for a user account, and take advantage of filter and advanced export options best suited to their needs. This advanced view also has capabilities for creating graphs and charts and setting up an API to allow automated updates to ENERGY STAR information.
EPA plans to have the new product finder up and running for all product categories by mid-2013.
