The company's "design direction" is no longer in keeping with the requirements of a major program devoted to the fostering of environmentally responsible electronics, according to a report.
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| Meh, screw the environment. |
Apple has decided to stop participating in a major program devoted to the production of environmentally friendly products, reportedly saying that its design direction is no longer in line with the program's requirements.
Late last month, Apple told the nonprofit EPEAT group that the company would no longer submit its products for green certification from EPEAT and that it was pulling its currently certified products from the group's registry.
EPEAT , or the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool, receives funding from the Environmental Protection Agency and calls itself "the leading global environmental rating system for electronic products, connecting purchasers to environmentally preferable choices and benefiting producers who demonstrate environmental responsibility and innovation."According to The Wall Street Journal's CIO Journal site, 39 of Apple's products had received EPEAT's green stamp of approval, including laptops such as the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air .
The U.S. government requires that 95 percent of its electronics bear the EPEAT seal of approval; large companies such as Ford and Kaiser Permanente require their CIOs to buy from EPEAT-certified firms; and many of the largest universities in the U.S. prefer to buy EPEAT-friendly gear, CIO Journal reports.
Apple "said their design direction was no longer consistent with the EPEAT requirements," CIO Journal quotes EPEAT CEO Robert Frisbee as saying. "They were important supporters and we are disappointed that they don't want their products measured by this standard anymore."
Among other things, the EPEAT requirements hold that electronics must be easy to disassemble, so their components can be recycled. The iPhone , the iPad, and the new MacBook Pro with Retina display don't pass muster because of things like batteries and glass displays that are glued to casings and backings. Apple may soon introduce an alternate green standard to apply to its products, CIO Journal reports.
We've contacted Apple for comment and will update this post if and when we hear back. CIO Journal said Apple had declined to comment but had referred the site to the Environment section of Apple's Web site.
Show Apple you support their decision.
Sounds terrible, doesn't it? But what does it really mean?
ReplyDeleteApparently, some of Apple's newer products like the Retina Macbook Pro may require specialized tools and techniques to completely disassemble for recycling. That's all.
Just as Apple is able to service these machines, they can recycle them as well.
http://www.apple.com/recycling/
News flash... Apple has backpedaled a bit (no doubt because of adverse publicity). They will therefore continue to list those products that still qualify for EPEAT status (and pay the associated fees for those listings).
ReplyDeleteNothing was said about modifying their newer hardware designs to bring them into conformance. In fact Apple (who was involved in establishing the EPEAT standard originally) will likely work to have the criteria changed instead.
Ok, now Apple is claiming EPEAT Gold status of the Macbook Pro Retina despite its glued-in batteries. This IS shameful, and makes a mockery of the rating. It may be that the criteria is actually so loose that Apple can exploit a loophole here, but after abandoning EPEAT and then reversing its decision, this is downright embarrassing. What a fiasco! Haters are going to have a field day with this. Have at it.
ReplyDeletehttp://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/07/apple-gives-itself-passing-epeat-grade-for-retina-macbook-pro/
Apple made this one easy. And now I hear that Apple is trying to buy EPEAT in order to change their standards. I will wait to hear more about that. It doesn't sound far-fetched for Apple to pull a stunt like that.
ReplyDeleteThe Mac Book Pro is anything but green, being glued together. With glued-in batteries, the iAnything are all designed to purposely fail when the battery wears out. The people at iFixit did a teardown of the Mac Book Pro and gave it a repairability rating of zero. About the only eco-safe method of disposal of iJunk is to throw it into Jupiter.
ReplyDeleteApple w will recycle it safely.
Deletehttp://www.apple.com/environment/#recycling
They will even pay you in the from of a gift card.