About us

Topten is a consumer-oriented online search tool, which presents the best appliances in various categories of products. The key criteria are energy efficiency, impact on the environment, health and quality. As a communication tool it helps to show how our energy consumption causes climate change and what we can do personally to reduce our impact. It is also a powerful instrument to influence manufacturers.

Topten was launched in 2000 in Switzerland. Since then, sixteen other national Topten sites went online fourteen European sites thanks to the European IEE-projects Euro-Topten and Euro-Topten Plus (Intelligent Energy Europe), plus Topten China and Topten USA in October 2010. Each Topten website provides a selection of best appliances from the energy point of view. The Topten team is coordinated by the Topten International Group. More information can be found on the fact sheet and the EEDAL paper on Topten.info (June 2009).

Topten information on national sites targets consumers (pictures, functions, price, no complex calculation, for products available locally in their country) and large buyers. Topten is rigorous and transparent (the selection methodology is explained online), independent from producers and commercial distributors. Topten relies on neutral tests and analysis of independent institutions, labels and on standardized declarations of manufacturers (e.g. EU-directives for household appliances). www.topten.info serves as a portal to reach all national Topten sites of participating countries.

Initially Topten was concentrating on technical issues in order to raise consumer awareness on potential energy savings. Thanks to its growth, it can now consolidate its political impact by establishing “Best of Europe” on topten.eu. This concept identifies the most energy efficient products in Europe, stating countries where they are marketed. It makes explicit and transparent the status quo of efficient technologies on the European market and can thus serve as the European reference on energy efficiency to further negotiate with government and manufacturers. Thanks to professional dissemination activities, this Topten reference will be used as a basis for environmental policy design, labelling strategies, dissemination programmes, minimal efficiency requirements and specifications for multinational buyers. Manufacturers are thinking worldwide: "Best of Europe" and the Topten International Group association offer the opportunity to coordinate a common understanding and empower decision makers to launch new initiatives promoting efficient products.

Sophie Attali, Paris, France: sophie.attali(at)topten.info

Conrad U. Brunner, Zurich, Switzerland: cub(at)cub.ch

Dr. Eric Bush, Felsberg, Switzerland: info(at)topten.info

Arianna Vitali, Brussels, Belgium: avitali(at)wwfepo.org

Norman Dean, Washington DC, USA: norm(at)toptenusa.org

Disclaimer

The sole responsibility for the content of this webpage lies with the Association Topten International Group (TIG), Paris France. It does not represent the opinion of the partners. The partners are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.