Late last week, we noted that Apple had pulled all of its qualifying Mac products from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registry for environmental ratings.
The move, which is said to have been related to Apple’s design decisions that will disqualify its new and upcoming products from the registry, has the potential to impact Apple’s presence in governmental and institutional purchasing. The city of San Francisco is among the first entities to act on Apple’s withdrawal, announcing that it will bar most municipal Mac purchases.
Apple has now issued a statement to The Loop addressing its environmental outlook and its commitment to continue meeting other modern standards like Energy Star.
“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,” Apple representative Kristin Huguet, told The Loop. “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.”
The Loop‘s Jim Dalrymple notes that even EPEAT acknowledges that many of its standards are outdated, with Apple apparently believing that those criteria have become too restrictive and do not address the full gamut of the company’s environmental commitments.
Hmmm, thats a pretty good point there.
It still doesn’t excuse making it harder for an average consumer to tear apart the device to take it in for recycling.
Although I imagine that was more useful at a time when there were fewer places you could take whole old devices to recycle.
The average consumer would GO TO THE NEAREST APPLE STORE AND TAKE THEIR DEVICE FOR RECYCLING AND GET A GIFT CARD FOR DOING SO..if there are no Apple Store nearby, the average consumer will get Apple to ship it for free to recycle their old device and get a gift card for doing so.
P.S. I got a $163 for recycling my old ass almost dead iMac..
http://www.apple.com/recycling/
1) People attacking San Francisco because Apple products no longer fit their policy (if they bend the policy, what is the point of the policy?) or saying their tax dollars shouldn’t be wasted on Macs (despite 1-2% of all computer being Macs) or the fact that it’s a hippie town (what does that have to do with anything?)
2) People attacking Apple for no longer caring about the environment when there is evidence in the past for the exact opposite.
3) People attacking EPEAT for having outdated standards (though I don’t think most people even know what those standards are), though Apple proudly touted their logo for the last 5 years. You cannot have your cake and eat it too.
Honestly, I wish people would act rationally about discussing this topic instead of ad hominem attacks against people. I’d rather have the following:
1) Cities and governments commit to green initiatives that they’ve already put into place.
2) Apple to describe what it is doing to environmentally dispose of products like the iPad and Retina MacBook Pro where glue is used.
3) EPEAT to update its standards where necessary and work with Apple to update them (Apple did help with the guidelines when EPEAT was founded).
The amount of vitriol around this issue is unproductive at best and idiotic at worst. People need to work on issues and stop mindlessly attacking each other (I don’t expect corporations and our government to act any better than the people work there).
It still doesn’t excuse making it harder for an average consumer to tear apart the device to take it in for recycling.
Honestly, how many consumers tear apart their computers on their own? Most people that don’t just trash their computers or sell them as is on ebay are taking them as is to the local trash company and pay to dispose them in with other computers. They don’t tear them down themselves.
Heck our company pays somebody to dispose computers without discrimination and we are EPEAT Gold.
I have admit there are certain things the EPEAT can do to make their standards better. (If they so believe they are outdated).
I’ll take “San Francisco thinking” over most of the “red state thinking” any day.
Wait – does using “red state” and “thinking” in the same sentence constitute an oxymoron? I think that it does….
So you’ll hand a blank check over to your governor so that he can build a high speed rail between those bustling metropolises of Bakersfield and Fresno?
San Francisco is being shortsighted. They are buying PCs based on the label, rather than any specifics. Apple will still take back their old Macs for recycling, and a few years from now would take back their new Macs. But because it doesn’t have a sticker on it saying they meet some arbitrary standard, they won’t buy one. No wonder the state is broke, despite having the 9th largest economy in the world.
While I don’t assume that everything Apple does is a good thing. I also don’t assume everything Apple does is a bad thing. Each policy decision needs to be looked at objectively. It appears you think Apple made a bad decision regarding EPEAT. Am I correct? I am not familiar with the EPEAT guidelines. Could you explain the process and guidelines, also how and why Apple withdrawing from EPEAT will adversely affect the environment? It will be very enlightening for everyone. Thanks in advance.
Everyone is enlightened. If Apple does it, it’s good. Even when it’s not. Replace Apple here with Samsung, Microsoft, Google, etc and it would be a terrible thing. No explanations would be needed, would they? :rolleyes:
Hmmm, thats a pretty good point there.
It still doesn’t excuse making it harder for an average consumer to tear apart the device to take it in for recycling.
Although I imagine that was more useful at a time when there were fewer places you could take whole old devices to recycle.
I don’t think the average consumer is tearing things apart at home to decide which components different recycling companies are able to process.
The value of EPEAT (though it may need to be updated to allow progress in device construction) would be more to the recycling companies themselves.
But, if a lot of people take their old Macs to places other than Apple for recycling, then those places will adapt and learn to take them apart—EPEAT or no EPEAT.
Meanwhile, I hope most people just take the Mac back to Apple.
Not that I have ever known an old Mac to stop working and need recycling! I’m thinking of all my own Macs, my friends, and my family. All those Macs, dating back to the 90s, still run to my knowledge. I even accepted way too many of them as hand me downs, thinking I’d want to play old games or work in Director :rolleyes: Good grief, I just counted: I have 12 miscellaneous Macs, Pods and iOS devices cluttering up the joint! Many have been brutalized for years… none have failed.
Reduce – Reuse – Recycle: recycling is the last resort and the least environmentally friendly of those 3 principles! And Apple is outstanding at all 3, whether they’re able to follow a specific outdated rule set or not.
I don’t know anyone who breaks their computers down in order to recycle them. Hell, even my company simply donates their outdated equipment to various charities (and trust me, we are talking incredibly old stuff).
If the computer is energy efficient and there are available recycling programs in place, that’s good enough for me. I don’t give a damn if it takes a screwdriver or a sledgehammer to pull the thing apart.
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