Apple pulls products from U.S. gov’t-backed ‘EPEAT’ green electronics list

14 years ago

“Apple has pulled its products off the U.S. government-backed registration of environmentally friendly electronics,” Joel Schectman reports for The Wall Street Journal.

“Apple asked EPEAT, the electronics standards setting group, to pull its 39 certified desktop computers, monitors and laptops, which included past versions of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, off the list of green products late last month, Robert Frisbee, CEO of EPEAT told CIO Journal,” Schectman reports. “EPEAT, created through funding by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and manufacturers, awards products a seal to certify they are recyclable and designed to maximize energy efficiency and minimize environmental harm.”

Schectman reports, “Frisbee says an Apple staff member told him at the end of June that the company no longer wanted Apple computers to be listed as EPEAT certified. ‘They said their design direction was no longer consistent with the EPEAT requirements,’ Frisbee said. The company did not elaborate, Frisbee said. ‘They were important supporters and we are disappointed that they don’t want their products measured by this standard anymore.’ …Apple was putting design first in an effort to make products smaller and have batteries last longer, said Shaw Wu an analyst at Sterne Agee. ‘They are not trying to purposely make it hard to open, they are just trying to pack as much as they can into a small space–it’s a design decision,’ Wu said.”

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