Newsmakers: Robert Frisbee finds high-growth heaven at EPEAT

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Robert Frisbee is the new CEO for EPEAT, a nonprofit green electronics registry.

In March, the green electronics nonprofit EPEAT announced that Robert Frisbee would leave his gig raising money for the Oregon Sustainability Center and take the helm of the growing organization, which is dedicated to getting gadget makers to be more environmentally responsible.

Since taking over at EPEAT, Frisbee has been in high gear, striking partnerships with global organizations.

At six years old, EPEAT, a spinoff from the Zero Waste Alliance, had already grown to 50 member manufacturers who list more than 3,200 electronic products — including PCs and laptops — that have been verified across a number of factors as environmentally friendly.

Last week, representatives from four certification and testing organizations — DERKA, Intertek, UL Environment and VDE — were in town to work on a new partnership with EPEAT to extend the reach of its environmental product registry.

We caught up with Frisbee to find out more about these partnerships, what else we should know about EPEAT — and we got him to weigh in on the Oregon Sustainability Center's future.

Sustainable Business Oregon: What attracted you to the opportunity to lead EPEAT?

Robert Frisbee: My professional "sweet spot" has always been organizations experiencing phase change — rapid growth based on big ideas. Here we have a small organization —EPEAT — that was built through innovation, great staff, hard work and a big idea into a green industry leader. I was looking for a role that gave me a chance to contribute to a better environment for my kids and the rest of the world to live in. EPEAT was looking for someone to lead organizational growth and market innovation. This is entrepreneurial heaven — a combination of a big idea, a great team and a global mission.