CALL FOR PARTICIPATIONGEC CRITERIA FOR HEALTH and WELLNESS WEARABLES
June 16, 2021
Technical Committee launching for EPEAT criteria for new Health and Wellness Wearable ElectronicDevices product category – now is your opportunity to get involved!
The Global Electronics Council (GEC) is developing criteria to improve sustainability and address the life
cycle environmental and social impacts of Health and Wellness Wearable Electronic Devices. This Call forParticipation is to notify stakeholders of the opportunity to participate on the multi-stakeholder
Technical Committee that will evaluate and reach consensus on sustainability leadership criteria toreduce these impacts, GEC is partnering with NSF International, an organization with extensive expertisein managing voluntary consensus processes, to convene and manage the Technical Committee.
Scope of Criteria
The State of Sustainability Research on Health and Wellness Wearable Electronic Devices provides thescientific basis for EPEAT criteria development. Criteria for this product category will cover the full life
cycle of these products, including GEC’s four priority impact areas of importance to large-scalepurchasers: climate change, sustainable use of resources, corporate environmental and socialgovernance, and reduction of chemicals of concern. Notably, since these devices collect sensitive data,criteria will also cover data privacy and protection.
Stakeholder Participation in the Technical Committee
The Technical Committee is the consensus body in the GEC criteria development process. The TechnicalCommittee is responsible for ensuring that proposed criteria address priority sustainability impacts
identified in the State of Sustainability Research and will move the industry and its supply chain to
innovate and adopt best practices that achieve credible, verifiable reductions in sustainability impacts
and increase transparency. This Technical Committee is expected to begin its work in September 2021
and continue for up to 6 months. Technical Committee meetings will occur monthly via teleconference.
Members are expected to review documents in advance of meetings, provide comments on criteria andactively engage in discussion (either on calls or by electronic means), and participate in the ballot
process to approve criteria and reconcile stakeholder differences.
Membership on the Technical Committee is open to all interested parties by submitting the TechnicalCommittee Application Form. The Technical Committee will include up to 21 voting members,
representing a balance of stakeholders from four categories:••

Manufacturer: Manufacturer of products or services covered by the scope of the criteria andtheir trade associations.
Other Industry: Other businesses commercially engaged with the products or services such as:− Suppliers and their trade associations.

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Recyclers, repair and refurbish companies, asset management service providers, andtheir trade associations.
− Other types of businesses commercially engaged with the product.
Sustainability Advocates and Government Policy: Individual from a public agency (local,regional, state, federal, or international) or represents a professional public/environmental
health/safety organization, data privacy and/or IT security, academia, or not-for-profit
environmental organization.
Purchasers and Ecolabel Criteria Users: An individual whose organization purchases, uses, orspecifies products or services covered in the scope of the criteria. User/consumers and theirtrade association representatives, institutional purchasers, third-party conformity assessment
bodies (e.g., testing laboratories), and retailers are included in this membership classification.

Technical Committee member applications will be reviewed and members selected by NSF using thefollowing considerations:• technical competency and qualifications of the applicant relevant to the criteria;• balance of stakeholder interests;• geographic and product representation;• date of receipt of application; and• participation in recent or concurrent processes.
If you are interested in applying to participate on the Technical Committee, please complete theTechnical Committee Application Form, and return by July 16, 2021 to Greta Baragar, Sustainability
Standards Lead, NSF International (gbaragar@nsf.org).
Questions? Please contact Greta Baragar (gbaragar@nsf.org) with any questions regarding the TechnicalCommittee application process. Please contact Patricia Dillon at the Global Electronics Council(pdillon@globalelectronicscouncil.org) about the overall GEC criteria development process andapplication in EPEAT. Additional information on the GEC criteria development process is publiclyavailable.