February 25, 2002—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that energy efficient cordless telephones, answering machines and combination units may now earn the Energy Star label. Energy Star is a government/industry partnership designed to help businesses and consumers to save money and protect the environment by using energy-efficienct appliances
Nearly 90 percent of the energy used to power these telephones is expended while they are not in use. EPA has established performance specifications that require phone products earning the label to use about one-third the energy of standard models. If all cordless phones, answering machines and combination units sold in the United States in the next 10 years earn the Energy Star, Americans would save approximately $4 billion on their electricity bills and 66 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions—equivalent to the emissions of more than one million cars—would be removed from our air. Panasonic, RadioShack Corp., TT Systems LLC (PhoneMate), Uniden America Corp. and VTech Communications Inc. are charter partners with EPA in this effort. For more information about ENERGY STAR, call 888/STAR-YES.
