Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple Corporate, Apple
How green is Apple?
Is Apple a "green" company? Today is Blog Action Day, where 15,000 blogs are publishing posts about the environment. I have always thought of Apple having an eye towards the environment, but perhaps I think this is because I remember Apple eschewing extra paper on their boxes way back in the early days. You see, to get optimal 4-color print on a shipping box you have to wrap that box in an additional layer of glossy paper. For a while, Apple was content to ship the monochrome brown box with black ink, thus saving trees and ink. The original Mac boxes were white, but didn't use the glossy stuff.A year ago you may remember Apple being taken to task regarding their recycling efforts. In fact, Apple has been taken to task on their computer take back program, their packaging and now the scary hazardous chemicals in the iPhone. Shock, horror! Yes, it is obvious Apple is determined to coat the Earth in a fine sheen of clear plastic, aluminum and bromiated compounds. Evil I tells ya, evil.
In their defense, Al Gore is on the board. OK, they have more than just Al. Steve Jobs issued a statement just a few months ago for a greener Apple. Naturally, there are still plenty of skeptics, but the site Green My Apple provides constructive criticism and a fairly healthy outlook for the future. Apple appears to have listened! Of course, they could just hire the Professor and make iPhones from coconuts, right? Given the fact that consumer electronics is about as un-green an industry as you can get, it'll be a very long road indeed before everyone is happy. Then again, as we know too well, there's no way to make everyone happy. The hope is that Apple will continue to innovate with "green" in mind. Not the back of the mind, but right up there in front where it'll do the most good.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Billy K said 5:40PM on 10-15-2007
Greenpeace will never be happy and they will continue to go after Apple simply for PR value.
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Frank said 5:45PM on 10-15-2007
i say this speaking as someone who once thought i'd end up working for greenpeace: they are being quite hypocritical, and they need to chill.
the entire computer industry is NOT green, and it will take a long time to fix it. it's just not realistic or possible to have an entirely "green" computer right now, and using apple (as the "it" computer company) as an example to drive press and hits to their site is just opportunistic.
how green are greenpeace's computers, eh? which ones do they use? they really shouldn't be throwing stones.
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Cory said 5:54PM on 10-15-2007
Exactly - they'll never be happy until Apple is no longer shipping anything.
These same people will continue to work and create articles, in their air conditioned homes, driving their vehicles and traveling around the world - all while consuming energy and blaming the produces and not themselves - the consumer -it really amazes me.
Al Gore is a hypocrite - he has three 30 inch displays and a HDTV is his home office. His carbon footprint is larger the 99% of other Americans and larger then G.W. Bush (not a fan of Bush). Gore thinks everyone should do as he says, but they better not do as he does or we'll have an energy crisis like the world has never seen before. It really amazes me how many people will blindly believe something without giving it just a common sense test - it just doesn't add up, the numbers aren't there. How many times has even Gore said that we can't stop global warming now even if we tried - WHAT!!!
Apple should do what they can, but ultimately, the consumer will decide. Producers like Apple just meet the demand - if the demand is for small colorless boxes - then that's what they'll producer.
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Jack said 5:54PM on 10-15-2007
For real! I think the Greenpeace hippies should: 1, Put the joint down! 2, take a shower hippies! you stink! 3, get real jobs and 4, Actually do SOMETHING for the environment other than whine a bunch about the conditions. No one likes a complainer!
Oh, and if you are into reading some real comedy, jump over to engadget and check the comments out on their sister article. talk about funny!
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dave said 7:35PM on 10-15-2007
They do pretty well in the IEEE's ranking system, E-Peat.
http://www.epeat.net/
Not #1, but not bad.
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Frank said 6:16PM on 10-15-2007
well, i have to chime back in to say that greenpeace HAS done some very good things in their time, especially early on. lately they seem ineffectual and hypocritical, so that is why i'm less enamored of them. they are coasting on past glories and their name recognition. lead by example, i say.
as for mr. gore, i have nothing against him. i think he's certainly doing far better things for the planet now than when he was in office. i just hope he has the good sense to stick to his current path, and NOT be lured back into the political spectrum. i DO think it's possible to have three 30" monitors and have a smaller environmental footprint than the average american, though, so judging gore by his desktop setup alone really isn't fair.
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Ryan said 6:36PM on 10-15-2007
Um, who really cares if they're green or not? As long as the still make some of the best computers on earth, no one should question it.
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Derek Daniels said 6:45PM on 10-15-2007
You people need to chill out.
No way is everything going to be 'green' and I think everyone knows that. The point is to try to do things better and both Apple and Greenpeace have done so.
And yes I'm sure everyone at Greenpeace does drive a car with air conditioning. There are things that you can and cannot do despite your best wishes. The point is to try to do things better which I think everyone can agree is not a bad thing.
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Tony said 6:56PM on 10-15-2007
The Greenpeace "report" on computer industry "green-ness" has been thoroughly and completely debunked time and time again (every time it's re-published, for example.) It's full of made up data and bogus interpretations. It's nothing more than a marketing ploy to keep their name in the news, and the news sites (not to mention blogs like this) are playing right into their hands. Knock it off! Greenpeace has lost any credibility they may have once had.
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Davi said 8:23PM on 10-15-2007
Yawn.
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ziggybopper said 8:31PM on 10-15-2007
TUAW, I suppose it's easy to repeat headline grabbing stories without doing any analysis. Helps with the hits. But as an Apple related blog, won't a little analysis about the charges you repeat be in order?
It's not hard to find rebuttals to Greenpeace's past accusations. They give high ratings to Apple's rivals based on policies on a web page and then take apart and analyze Macs in GP's own labs (Who knew GP had it's own labs? What's their reliability?). They accuse Apple of using dangerous chemicals when the chemicals in use are below published standards or haven't been evaluated by standards boards.
Would a bit of doubt about these accusations really hurt your hits?
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Carl Trimble said 8:45PM on 10-15-2007
Who throws the boxes away? I keep all of my apple boxes and display them proudly. I am not even joking. I save all the boxes and pass them on to the next owner of my machine when it finally becomes their machine.
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Todd said 9:09PM on 10-15-2007
They (Greenpeace) should be happy. Apple has Nobel Prize winner ALGORE on the board. A true embarrassment - both for the prize and as a shareholder for the fact that this nitwit hypocrite is associated with Apple. Well at least he used Keynote for his slideshow, I mean, "movie".
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David said 10:35PM on 10-15-2007
As a PR Guerilla Tactic, I have to give Greny peace my their 10 chocolates, they pulled a very good point, also this might be a rehearsed attacked by a major Greenpeace Sponsor like Nokia, and other European mobile makers. Simply put a game on the corporative communications strategies anything is valid, as long as the truth comes out.
I most admit, I am disappointed with the hazardous content on my iPhone, thus is not more damaging than the radiation or the risk of the ion battery going ballistic.
You make the guess.
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brad c said 10:42PM on 10-15-2007
Live life the way you want. I could care less about a box.
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Andrew Winder said 9:51PM on 10-16-2007
Alright, because the gore bashing needs to stop because its downright conservative character assassination...
Gore buys his energy through a special program offered by his power company. The energy comes from completely renewable power sources, such as wind and solar. This costs him more than it would from the standard, but hey, sometimes people do genuinely believe in their messages, and as Gore has campaigned for the environment for over 20 years, maybe, just maybe, hes not doing it for political gains. Bush Sr. called him an environmental nutjub back in 1991...what did Gore have to gain then, he was trying to influence policy from the inside.
Secondly, the carbon footprint and power usage figures are inaccurate and inflated, and came from a political thinktank thats heavily conservative and funded by big oil. The straight facts from the power company: Gore purchases all his power through the renewable energy sources program, and his power usage, while high, is not unheard of, and smaller houses on their grid use the same amount of power, if not more, than Gore.
Also take into account that Gore runs his and his wifes offices out of the house, and that this also saves from using fossil fuels on a daily basis. Bottom line, the criticisms are not only petty, they are factually inaccurate. Gore spent the greater part of his life pushing for environmental reform, even before it was popular. He is genuinely concerned about the environment. And to hate on an American for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, one of the greatest world awards, is indicative of the poor state of political discourse in this country today. The single fact that an American won the Nobel Peace Prize, and all that you can do is naysay and dig up erroneous figures, well, all I have to say is Bush did a damn fine job as a "Great Uniter".
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RobW said 12:30AM on 10-16-2007
I agree that Al Gore bashing is not appropriate here. That he is a discredited lying hypocrite has been established elsewhere.
The Greenies have not added one iotas worth of science to this debate. Apple may still be doing better than the rest of the industry for all we know.
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Cory said 1:53AM on 10-16-2007
Gullible or what - Al owns the company he gets the credits from to offset his carbon footprint, and he wants to sell you credits as well.
So remind me how buying credits - credits created in China by faking emission reductions helps the environment. Also remind me how reducing at best the 6% (being ultra conservative here) man made CO2 by 20% will have any impact at all (20% of 6% = 1.2%). And explain to me how reducing the emissions here and transporting the manufacturing over to China (and therefore the pollution to a country with lower emission standards) will help the environment.
Let me help you - it won't and Gore et al agrees with that. So tell me what were planning on spending Trillions on - another war on drugs or will be just lining Gore and friends pockets. What a great plan, really, I wish I could have pulled it off. A fool and his money will soon be parted. At best those trillions will delay global warming by five years at the end of the century - that's if every country reduces by the targets under Kyoto and not excluding any country.
Also - it's not about the 3 30" monitors - he does have a BIGGER carbon footprint then most Americans, some environmentalist. It also doesn't matter where you energy comes from - if you reduce, that clean energy will be available to others - it's one big grid, it's all connected.
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pscs said 1:49PM on 10-16-2007
damn, i was going to put a picture of a "green apple" when i wanted to reply this :P too bad you guys put it right at the top already.
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Jacob said 2:44PM on 10-16-2007
Greenpeace are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing. I think it is fair to question why some electronics companies use hazardous chemicals when others do fine without them. Greenpeace are pushing Apple to be better environmentally, so why not let them? You have to start somewhere if you want to make some changes in the manufacturing industry and apple is a very high profile company. I like Jobs, but I am also an environmentalist and I don't like it when he says that the new iPods are designed to be plastic-free when both the shuffle and nano come packaged in nothing but plastic...
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