Apple goes on green offensive

Apple has responded to Greenpeace claims of a poor environmental record

Apple has issued a statement in response to growing criticism over its environmental policies. 

The statement, attributed to chief executive Steve Jobs, outlines the vendor's environmental policies and points out the shortcomings of competing PC manufacturers.

"On investigating Apple's current practices and progress towards these goals, I was surprised to learn that in many cases Apple is ahead of, or will soon be ahead of, most of its competitors in these areas," said the statement.

Apple is facing growing pressure from environmental groups and shareholders to clean up its practices after a Greenpeace study named Apple as the worst offender among major PC manufacturers.  

Jobs claimed that the report was skewed and inaccurate. "In one environmental group's recent scorecard, Dell, HP and Lenovo all scored higher than Apple because of their plans (or 'plans for releasing plans' in the case of HP)," he said. 

"In reality, Apple is ahead of all of these companies in eliminating toxic chemicals from its products."

Jobs highlighted several areas in the manufacture and disposal process in which he claimed that Apple is ahead of competing brands, including the use of hazardous materials and recycling programmes.

"A typical CRT [monitor] contains approximately 3lbs of lead. In mid-2006, Apple became the first company in the computer industry to completely eliminate CRTs," wrote Jobs. "Dell, Gateway, HP and Lenovo still ship CRTs today."

Apple also talked up its recycling programme, a favourite target of the Greenpeace campaign.

Jobs claimed that his company does not ship any of its recycled computers overseas for disposal, and that Apple expects to recycle 13 per cent of the total weight of past sales by the end of the year.

The total weight figure represents the amount of material recycled as a percentage of the total sold seven years earlier, the general point at which most PCs are considered obsolete. The system was first used to measure recycling volume by Dell.

Jobs also outlined Apple's future plans, stating that the company will eliminate the use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) by the end of 2008.

The company will also increase its recycling volume nearly threefold by 2010, a point which Jobs used to take another shot at the competition.

"The latest figures from HP and Dell are each around 10 per cent per year, and neither company has yet disclosed plans to grow this percentage in the future," he said.

"By 2010, Apple may be recycling significantly more than Dell or HP as a percentage of past sales weight."

While Jobs acknowledged that Apple will be making efforts to become more environmentally friendly, he remained unapologetic about the company's environmental policies.

"I hope you are as delighted as I was when I first learned how far along Apple actually is in removing toxic chemicals from its products and recycling its older products," he said. "We apologise for leaving you in the dark for this long."

Greenpeace took the announcement as a step in the right direction, but warned that Apple still had a long way to go.

Greenpeace said in a statement provided to vnunet.com that, by implementing the policies and plans laid out by Jobs, Apple would move from a Guide to Greener Electronics score of 2.7 to 5. 

Although the figure would put Apple ahead of Sony and Toshiba, the company would still be lagging behind Dell, Lenovo and HP. 

Rick Hind, legislative director for the Greenpeace toxics campaign, told vnunet.com that, in order to raise its score, Apple needs to continue to expand its recycling initiatives and move closer towards a "precautionary programme" for production, eliminating any potentially harmful substances from its products.

A strong sign that Apple is committed to becoming green, according to Hind, would be to have a clean Mac on the market ahead of schedule.

"The most important thing Apple could do is put a product free of PVC and BFRs in the next year," he said. "The other big step they can take is in taking back computers."

Hind explained that Apple needs to expand its recycling programme beyond parts of the world that require it.

He also stated that Apple needs to pay careful attention to the companies that handle the recycling.

Such companies can find ways to work around Apple's rule of not exporting recycled materials and send hazardous components to landfills in the developing world.

Hind also balked at the seven-year system for measuring the total amount of recycled material.

"That is an optimistic figure because computers and mobile phones have seen their life spans cut in half in the past 10 years," he noted.

"My daughter had an iBook, and it did not last her seven years. It did not even last her through college."

Hind admitted that Greenpeace is especially hard on Apple, and that the group is making an extra effort to get Apple to go green because it is seen as a trend-setter in the industry.

"We want Apple more than anyone to be a leader," he said. "We frankly think that given Apple's leadership in innovation, if it is not a leader here, it is conspicuously absent."