Department of Veterans Affairs, ITOPS

Purchaser Profile

Purchaser Name

Department of Veterans Affairs IT Operations & Services

EPEAT Purchasing Categories

Mobile Phones

Purchaser Type

US Federal Agency

Awards

2019 EPEAT Purchaser Award Winner – 1 Star

Environmental Benefits

Over their lifetime, compared to products that do not meet EPEAT criteria, the 2,449 EPEAT-registered IT products purchased by the Department of Veterans Affairs, ITOPS will result in environmental impact reductions including:

Conservation of 304 kg of materials, equal to the weight of 3 refrigerators
58,152 liters of water savings, enough to fill 189 bathtubs

Energy-Related Savings
EPEAT’s requirement that registered products meet, and often exceed, the latest ENERGY STAR specifications means these products will consume less energy throughout their useful life, resulting in:

Savings of 64.5 MWh of electricity—enough to power 5 U.S. households for a year
Greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 14 metric tons of CO2 equivalents—equal to taking 3 average U.S. passenger cars off the road for a year
$811 in lifetime cost savings

EPEAT Language

BECCA HAWKINS

ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEMS SPECIALIST

Becca provides administrative support to the internal processes for Green Electronics Council and the EPEAT program. She divides her time between supporting the financial processes and the EPEAT conformity assurance program.
Becca has over five years of experience working in the non-profit sphere. Prior to joining GEC, Becca worked as a bookkeeper at Susan Matlack Jones & Associates (SMJ), specializing in non-profit financial statements. At SMJ she was responsible for the creation of monthly financial statements for several local non-profits.
Prior to working at SMJ, Becca has worked at various non-profits helping them streamline their processes and procedures. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and History from University of California, Santa Cruz. In her spare time, Becca enjoys hiking, exploring Portland and volunteering.

LinkedIn Profile

Jean-François Barsoum

Senior Managing Consultant, Smarter Cities, Water and Transportation, Innovation, Research & Development at IBM

Jean-François Barsoum has over 20 years of experience at IBM where his focus is on understanding and communicating the societal and environmental impacts of technology. He was part of the core team that built the smart city concepts in the early 2000s.

Currently, his main objective is to communicate and popularise climate change solutions, smart city innovations, and the potential impacts of autonomous vehicles.

In 2008, he was selected by Al Gore's Climate Project to be trained by the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He later joined the board of directors of the Canadian branch of Mr. Gore's Foundation for Climate change education.

He regularly advises startups in incubators and accelerators, and is collaborating on large research collaborations with several Canadian universities.

He chairs the disruptive technology committee of the Montreal Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Quebec Smart Transportation experts’ committee; is a director at the Canadian Water Network, and has advised the Canadian government on cleantech programs. He is also part of the committee overseeing the application of the Quebec Policy on Sustainable Mobility.