“Apple on Tuesday responded to concerns that it asked to have its products removed from EPEAT, the U.S. government’s list of environmentally friendly products,” Jim Dalrymple reports for 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,’ 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.'”
“It’s important to note that in addition to not measuring toxins and other environmental areas, EPEAT also doesn’t measure smartphones or tablets. Clearly these are two areas that are vitally important for Apple and not covered by EPEAT,” Dalrymple reports. “Companies like Dell have 171 products listed on EPEAT, but yet if you look on Dell’s Web site, none of their computers are even Energy Star Compliant.”
Dalrymple reports, “By its own admission, the EPEAT certifications are old. ‘Part of it is expanding EPEAT’s global reach through the multiple certification [process]; as well as moving into new, additional products; as well as updating the EPEAT [certifications], because they’re a little long in the tooth. [Each of those] is a huge project on its own,’ Christine Ervin, an EPEAT board member told GreenBiz in March.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote yesterday in regard to The City of San Francisco’s knee-jerk reaction to Apple dumping EPEAT:
“Adhering to environmental standards when better options arise is madness. Government is notoriously slow to adapt to new ideas, especially once old ideas are codified.”
The smart and nimble have already figured out why Apple is moving forward and why the company’s approach is better for the environment. The rest are left behind, struggling to figure out why, for example, non-removable batteries coupled with free Apple recycling programs that safely dispose of them in an environmentally responsible manner are better than the old removable batteries, still loved by the EPEAT anachronism, the vast majority of which end up being dumped straight into landfills, the world’s oceans, and God only knows where else.
By the way, bring your old Mac batteries to an Apple Retail Store near you and they’ll recycle them for free.
So, it’s not difficult: You buy the Apple product, you use it up, you send it back to Apple for free, and Apple makes sure it doesn’t end up fouling the planet. A simple, clean closed loop. No other tech company comes close to Apple on protecting the environment. Period.
Yes, Apple has left EPEAT. Quick, Greenpeace, mobilize the terminally uninformed, unchain them from the renewable crops, arm them with pitchforks and torches, and peck out the press release: The march on Cupertino starts now!!!
MacDailyNews Note: To recycle your Mac, iPad, iPhone and other products — if your product has monetary value, Apple will apply that value toward an Apple Gift Card — use the Apple Recycling Program.
If all you want is to dispose of your unwanted equipment — regardless of brand — Apple Inc. will help you do that. Apple contracts with Sims Recycling Solutions to responsibly recycle computers and displays from any manufacturer. Sims Recycling Solutions feature domestic processing facilities where a zero-landfill policy and proven sustainability give you peace of mind in knowing that your electronics will be managed responsibly. Just call 800-966-4135 to receive a free prepaid shipping label. Then pack up your equipment using your own box and send it off. For more information about Sims Recycling Solutions, visit oem.srsapp.com/ApplePoweredBysims/.
More information about Apple’s extensive commitment to the environment here.
Related articles:
San Francisco to block Mac purchases citing lack of environmental EPEAT certification – July 10, 2012
Apple pulls products from U.S. gov’t-backed ‘EPEAT’ green electronics list – July 7, 2012
Why Apple’s sealed, non-user-serviceable MacBook Pro with Retina display is a very good thing – June 22, 2012
Teardown of MacBook Pro’s Retina display shows off ‘engineering marvel’ – June 19, 2012
Teardown of MacBook Pro with Retina Display reveals soldered RAM, glued-in battery – June 13, 2012
AnandTech reviews Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display: Editor’s Choice; first Mac to ever receive one – June 23, 2012
AP reviews Apple MacBook Pro with Retina display: An epiphany, makes all other screens look dull and fuzzy – June 16, 2012
Reg Hardware reviews Apple’s MacBook Pro with Retina display: Drool-worthy – June 15, 2012
USA Today reviews Apple’s MacBook Pro with Retina display: Powerfully robust, an object of desire – June 14, 2012
ABC News reviews Apple’s MacBook Pro with Retina display: If you have the money, this is the one to buy – June 14, 2012
Engadget reviews Apple’s MacBook Pro with Retina display: Redefines the professional notebook – June 13, 2012
PC Magazine reviews Apple’s MacBook Pro with Retina display: Editor’s choice – June 13, 2012
Apple debuts new TV ad for MacBook Pro with Retina display: ‘Every Dimension’ (with video) – June 13, 2012
AnandTech analyzes Apple’s new MacBook Pro Retina display: ‘Everything is ridiculously crisp’ – June 12, 2012
Hands-on with Apple’s new MacBook Pro with Retina display (with video) – June 12, 2012
Apple unveils all new MacBook Pro with stunning Retina display – June 11, 2012
A simple equation is becoming clear. Government equals bad and incredibly incompetent. Free market equals good, non-coercive, often innovative.
While I have to somewhat agree with you, Remember that ENRON and Bernie Maloff (sp) were part of the free market system. Billions lost each time, stolen from you and I.
Criminal behavior is bad, be it government (think TSA) or free market. And if you get big enough in the free market (think Microsoft in its heyday) then illegal stuff is really easy to do and makes you lots of money.
Apple has actually set a new standard. Just do great things. Make great products and provide great service. Maybe it will catch on.
Not only that, but just look at much of the world or history. When the power/money grabbers do not have controls on them, they, in general, behave very, very, very badly indeed. E.g. the tobacco company bosses who finally admitted they knew all along that their product was addictive and killed large numbers of people. (Why the whole bunch of them were not charged with mass murder is beyond my understanding.)
It’s not a question of having little or no regulations, it’s a questions of having the right effective regulations. Kent – such people do not care about you and your family. And so-called free market forces will not guard your children against being subject to countless poisons or crappy, dangerous products.
Yet the government still lets tobacco remain a legal product. Also, in the name of green energy, the government bans tried and true, safe (if inefficient) products like incandescent light bulbs, and forces toxic gas-filled, “energy-efficient”, sub-par light bulbs on the population, padding the pockets of GE, and creating an environmental nightmare as the bulbs find their way to landfills around the country. All so someone can pretend to be environmentally heroic.
Kent, like eldernorm I have to “somewhat” agree with you. As a libertarian-leaning Republican, I believe that it’s the job of government to set basic rules, analogous to the fence of a corral. Within that fence, the market should be completely free. It’s when government attempts to get involved with every little decision (like what level of heath care should be imposed on everyone) where the whole thing starts falling apart.
Sounds great, until you realize that it is the special interest groups that heavily influence where the “fence posts” are to be set. There is no honor in being an American today.
Citizens are renouncing citizenship to avoid paying taxes. Yet it is under the very liberty and freedom that only the USA has been willing to spend money and lives to protect that they were able to make their gains. Taxes are for other people to pay.
Note the VW press release in it’s purchase of the remaining shares of Porsche. They talk about making a stronger “German” company. American companies are leaving in droves (biggest drop in Fortune 500 companies) and write tax rules that allow them to reduce or eliminate US taxes.
Nationalism lives throughout the world, everywhere except USA. Much as I hate to say it, our end is in sight and it won’t be pretty, and neither Obama nor Romney are willing, prepared or able to deal with it.
See: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-hole-in-the-bucket-drains-the-recovery-2012-07-11
Of course government is inherently bad, but it is still necessary. I think you should reread Common Sense by Thomas Paine.
I was a sub contractor to government dept:
whenever I suggested better solutions to how things were being done, the officers in charge although agreeing my solution was better will always refuse and bring out the ‘Rule Book’ and say “this process has been mandated”.
The ‘rule books’ are often conceived by politicians who have no idea about the dept. For example a top guy (politician) would be transferred running ‘Fisheries’ one week to running ‘social Services’ the next. Most are lawyers whose greatest aim in the ‘Rule Books’ is “Protect your ass” even if inefficient (for example approvals needed to go through all kinds of channels and hands — ‘buck passing’ so ‘asses are protected’ )
Government managers know the way to survive to the ‘golden pension’ is follow the rule book no matter how out of date or stupid it is.
Years later I found a junior govt. officer I dealth with… a complete moron… but one who followed the ‘mandate’ to the ‘T’ even if the process was stupid or even downright dangerous was the senior manager running the department. He will retire with a big fat pension.
Not to mention how the federal government seems intent on bankrupting the US Postal Service by forcing it to fund pensions of thousands of employees it doesn’t even have. Politicians never seem to understand that conditions change, and organizations (government or private) need to be able to respond to new conditions.
As I wrote yesterday 😉
“It’s likely the end of EPEAT. Something about this whole thing just SCREAMS Adobe Flash. Maybe Apple already realizes that in 5 years anyone wanting to compete against them will have to leave EPEAT for the same reasons…
Either EPEAT will alter their stance to take into account what Apple’s doing with their hardware, or they’ll be rendered mostly inert.”
… strong a word. As I commented yesterday, Apple has made it clear that it is time to REVISE the EPEAT rules. Well past time, actually. If the government will not do that, then the standard DESERVES to end. Which would not be good for you OR me.
What if they decided to toss the Constitution rather than add the Bill of Rights? Just about everything requires regular “maintenance”, occasional fixing, to stay at the top of its form.
+1, Let EPEAT know.
Sarah O’Brien
EPEAT Director of Outreach and Communications
sarah.obrien@greenelectronicscouncil.org
I think it’s obvious that Apple saw EPEAT as antiquated and no longer felt obliged to prop it up. I think Apple has proven themselves more environmentally friendly than most tech companies out there, MDN was right for levying the SF/Greenpeace knocks. Kudos, MDN.
Government is manned by hacks from the top down making the worst kinds of ill-thought out decisions on scanty evidence thinking they know better when they don’t know squat. Knee jerk reactions instead of of reasoned out policy is the law of the land. Cheap political theatrics that you hope will bite them hard in the ass and make them look foolish in the end.
Government is not manned by hacks. Your own knee jerk reaction without letting the full story play out shows that your own understanding of policy is clouded by the same government. is evil rants of idiots controlled by people with agendas that you simply don’t understand. In a civilized society both good and bad policy is discussed, debated and argued until a fair and useful settlement is achieved for the good of the majority with respect to the rights of the minority. Bureaucracies are not bad. In the private sector they are called departments.
‘Government is not manned by hacks.’ Riiiigghhtt!
‘In a civilized society both good and bad policy is discussed, debated and argued until a fair and useful settlement is achieved for the good of the majority with respect to the rights of the minority.’
Or in the current administration – things are BS’d to death – then decided for a certain minority.
Spoken like a true inbred. Get laid.
Obama’s 2012 election strategy is to pit Americans against each other by dividing them into groups and inciting class warfare, envy, and highlighting their differences rather than their shared citizenship.
Obama is making a play for the homosexual vote via lip service (his policy remains unchanged), the Hispanic vote (via an ill-considered plan that many law-abiding Hispanic-Americans actually despise), the “poor” vote via the “promise” of continued subsistence living support and by demagoguing the “rich.”
Obama is one of, if not the most divisive U.S. President in history.
If his goal is to destroy the country (that enslaved some of his ancestors) by dividing it into pieces and pitting those pieces against each other while spending the nation into oblivion, he’s doing a wonderful job.
Yes, Obama’s “strategy” is blatant, transparent, and sad.
He either hates this country or he’s unfit to be president.
The Right’s 2012 election strategy is to pit Americans against each other by dividing them into groups and inciting class warfare, envy, and highlighting their differences rather than their shared citizenship.
The Right is making a play for the anti-homosexual vote via anti-gay marriage legislation, the anti-Hispanic vote via ill-considered immigration legislation, the anti-“poor” vote via the promise of continued “entitlement” cuts, and by demagoguing the “lazy poor.”
This Republican Congress is one of, if not the most divisive U.S. Congresses in history.
If their goal is to destroy the country (that welcomed some of their immigrant ancestors) by dividing it into pieces and pitting those pieces against each other while spending the nation into oblivion supporting two foreign wars, and abandoning those who’ve worked hard all their lives for their “entitlements” they’re doing a wonderful job.
“I find little satisfaction in making a soberly negative assessment of President Obama’s choices in office,” said Quayle. “But I find even less at the prospect of living under them.”
My my, your cut ‘n paste logic is impressive!
If it weren’t for the simple fact you’re flat out wrong on several points (not to mention that we’re at war because attacks were made against Americans on American soil), you’d have at least carried a modicum of credibility.
You’re so caught up in political hacktivism you can’t see the forest for the trees.
Sixvodkas, you must have been on your seventh shot when you wrote that post. Iraq did not attack Americans on U.S. soil. That was Al Quaeda based out of Afghanistan. But we put that war on the back burner to jump into Iraq because the Bush administration just had to go there. Bush (Cheney?) pushed so very hard to initiate that war in defiance of the sentiments in most other countries. Mission Accomplished???
The fact is, both sides have promoted some level of divisiveness.
TBone’s comments are the most lucid that I have read in this forum for quite a while. Anyone who issue a blanket statement like that of peterblood71 is clueless and wrong. There are a lot of great people working for local, state, and federal governments in the U.S. There are also some pretty sorry people working for the government. But that is no reason to paint everyone with the same brush of contempt. I guess that it must make you feel better to blame someone, peterblood71.
Yes… and no. While we see big government doing bad things… remember that the local fire department and police are part of the local government. Government was designed to allow us to come together and help each other. We all pay in to have a full time fire department so when we need it, its there. This is a good thing. THis is how it is meant to be.
Can you imagine a commercial fire department.
You have a house fire. You call the fire department. They answer.
You have to give them a credit card and it needs to be approved.
You negotiate a price.
You select different options, extra fast response, extra water, high quality work or regular… etc.
They finally get to your house and its totally burned to the ground. But you get a discount cause you selected the extra fast response option.
Yea, somethings work better as local government and not free market. LOL
+1. And some things, like national defense, work better as “big” government and not free market. Just not nearly as many as we have.
Your example is ridiculous. There are private ambulance services in many cities and they do a great job.
And, if you want to talk about the fire company waiting for a credit card payment before putting out the fire…. that has never happened. However, this DID happen.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/07/9272989-firefighters-let-home-burn-over-75-fee-again?lite
i actually RTFA and the most important part?
“Bell and her boyfriend said they were aware of the policy, (75 dollar fee for fire service) but thought a fire would never happen to them.”
“It can never happen to me and I should be free to make my own decisions and live (or die) with the outcome.” And there, exactly, is why voluntary insurance coverage, be it health or fire fighting, will never work. Sometimes mandates are necessary.
Great until you pay the ambulance bill. Can cost thousands just to drive you less than a mile.
It will be interesting to see if the “cutting-edge” City of San Fran will backpedal from their recent stance on Apple products, or if they will continue to support archaic standards.
Yes, it will be interesting to see if they do. I didn’t realize that Dell didn’t have any computers that were EnergyStar compliant (it appears that only their monitors are).
For San Fran to not purchase Apple computers because they left EPEAT and then buy a Dell computer that isn’t even EnergyStar compliant would be laughable.
Apple has decided to do more than just the minimum required to meet the aging EPEAT cert. I think that this move will either kill EPEAT, or force it to update its certification.
My question is what has Frisbee and company been doing while time and technology has been moving on?
“Laughable” would be par for the course for the city of SF.
This is a good point. It would be interesting if someone goes back to the city and investigates whether the computers the city current purchases meets Energy Star standards. Could be a good reason to switch to Macs.
As far as Apple, they could have done a better job in explaining why they were leaving EPEAT in the first place. They created a controversy for no good reason IMO.
The question I haven’t seen answered yet is, how much does it cost to have products listed on EPEAT? It screams of (quasi)government extortion.
As for San Fransocialism banning the purchase of Apple products, that just shows that they are more about government than environment. Essentially what they did was agree to buy only products that are MORE damaging to the environment, simply because Apple won’t be on the EPEAT list.
I’d almost believe that Frisco truly is concerned about the environment, if it weren’t for two things.
They would have studied the issue properly before issuing knee-jerk, attention-grabbing proclamations.
They would show concern about their own immediate environment by cleaning up the streets infested with bums and their disgusting detritus.
Amen! Oops – Is it OK to say that tiny prayer on this site?
Sure it is, JP, although I don’t believe that Jesus would approve of the context in which your prayer was issued.
Kent, you took one example and made a generalization about it. That is a tactic used frequently now days to support shaky ideas. Government, big or small, has it’s faults but consider your use of what it brings into your life. Not everything we use is provided by the “free-market.” Just give it some thought.
The entire population of SF didn’t decide to ban Apple products. Nor was it the entire SF government. It was a small minority that reacted and didn’t research the issue. I’m sure they do the same thing in their personal lives also. Overreact and spout off with silliness being the result. I predict that Apple products will be available soon in SF.
OK – I will give you a couple more examples. Our Federal Govt decided to initiate a program to give high end automatic rifles to drug cartels, to see what happened. Two US Govt agents were killed, along with scores of Mexicans. To this day, the giving of automatic weapons to drug cartels is being defended by Obama admin. To a layman (non Govt expert) it seems like a dumb idea.
Another example, Jon Corzine, former US Senator, steals $2 billion dollars of private account funds while CEO at now defunct MF Global. Much worse that Enron. So far, no indictment. Corzine, big Obama contributor, says he does not know how the funds were taken from the private accounts. He was the CEO of Goldman Sachs. The US Justice Department, under Eric Holder, has decided not to prosecute Corzine, the big Obama contributor.
Three – the US government in 2009 and 2010 decided to nationalize the US health care system with ObamaCare. The 2500 page law was not read by anyone before it was voted on. That law now has over 13,000 pages of added regulations, controlling the entire health care industry by government dictates that no citizen is yet ware of. To a normal person, a 2500 page law voted on with no public hearings taking over one of the most vital industries and freedoms we have, seems stupid. And it is. Unless you simply love slavery. Which is where we are.
Energy Star has to do with power consumption alome. EPEAT the design and manufacturing, something Energy Star does not do. EPEAT just got in the way of the shiny Planned Obsolescence boxes Apple is pushing.
And, of course, the Fanbois licked it up like cream.
You must be retired or shirking for the government.
Me – I am retired thanks to the USA and myself.
That expains it…years of pent up frustration and penis envy.
No, I am fully employed in the private sector, but served 8 years in uniform. I work weekends full time these days.
As to retirement, I plan on retiring an expatriate when the time comes.
You are obviously neither smart nor nimble:
“The smart and nimble have already figured out why Apple is moving forward and why the company’s approach is better for the environment. The rest are left behind, struggling to figure out why, for example, non-removable batteries coupled with free Apple recycling programs that safely dispose of them in an environmentally responsible manner are better than the old removable batteries, still loved by the EPEAT anachronism, the vast majority of which end up being dumped straight into landfills, the world’s oceans, and God only knows where else.”
The new Apple way is that the entire device gets dumped instead of a Lithium battery which more than likely will be recycled. That’s a huge step backward.
read some of these comments here and it seems some don’t really have a clue what EPEAT is. research about EPEAT first before putting up some opinion. This institution may have some flaws but its not a joke.