Uh oh. Apple withdrew its products from a green list compiled in the US last week, and now comes news that government agencies in San Francisco won’t be allowed to buy Mac computers.
Could this be Apple’s undoing?
The list compiled by EPEAT in the US guarantees certain standards to ensure products are environmentally friendly. It was thought Apple pulled out because its MacBook Pro with retina display is practically impossible to disassemble, and hence hard to recycle.
Now Apple has gone on the record and stated exactly why it wants no further dealings with EPEAT.
Apparently it’s due to different measurements. Apple worries about removal of toxic materials, for example, while EPEAT focusses on just the hardware recycling.
An Apple spokesperson told The Loop: “Apple takes a comprehensive approach to measuring our environmental impact and all of our products meet the strictest energy efficiency standards backed by the US government, Energy Star 5.2. We also lead the industry by reporting each product’s greenhouse gas emissions on our website, and Apple products are superior in other important environmental areas not measured by EPEAT, such as removal of toxic materials.”
Still, that’s not good enough for San Fran. City officials want to block local government agencies buying new Mac computers. And according to the CIO Journal, city officials spent nearly £30,000 on Apple equipment in 2010.
So could this be the start of a trend? Or will Apple reconsider? Watch this space…
