Oct. 2, 2007 HMO heavyweight Kaiser Permanente and Fortune 500 health services company McKesson are the corporate recipients of this year's Green Electronics Champion awards for their use of EPEAT, a tool that helps companies evaluate and purchase greener computers. The City of San Jose, the City of Phoenix, and the California Integrated Waste Management Board and Department of General Services round out this year's honorees.

Through their purchase of EPEAT computers, the five awardees saved a combined total of $5 million and more than 2,000 pounds of greenhouse gases, according to the U.S. EPA and the nonprofit Green Electronics Council, which sponsored the awards. The companies collectively bought more than 150,000 EPEAT-certified desktop computers and notebooks and 80,000 monitors.

Its fitting that here in the heart of Silicon Valley, we are recognizing organizations that are leading the way in purchasing green computer products, said EPA regional administrator Wayne Nastri during the awards ceremony at San Jose City Hall. These champions are putting their environmental values into action targeting their dollars to help protect the environment, and in turn greening their bottom line.

By requiring EPEAT-registered products, the organizations recognized today are giving manufacturers a market-based reason to build greener products, added Jeff Omelchuck of the Green Electronics Council.