Apple drops from 5th to 9th in new Greenpeace rankings
After taking a lot of public criticism from Greenpeace early in the last decade, Apple has redesigned its hardware and climbed up in the environmental rankings in recent years. Last year, Apple made it all the way up to number five on Greenpeace's Greener Electronics list. Unfortunately, as in so many other aspects of a highly competitive industry, standing still is akin to moving backwards.
While Apple's score of 4.9 on the Greenpeace index is the same as it was in 2009, other companies, including HP and Samsung, have improved significantly this year and pushed Apple down from fifth last year to ninth this year. Apple is called out for failing to state a public position on the EU Restriction of Hazardous Substances in electronics directive, as well as where it stands on the trade group TechAmerica. If Apple wants further improvement, it will also need to disclose more about chemical use in its supply chain and its plans for future improvements. Apple also needs to do a better job on e-waste recycling programs to dispose of older hardware.
Apple also quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this year over the organization's stance on greenhouse gas emissions limits, but the Cupertino company has failed to publicly support mandatory reductions in emissions.
[Via Macnews.com]
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After taking a lot of public criticism from Greenpeace early in the last decade, Apple has redesigned its hardware and climbed up in the...
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Being green is good for the environment, good for your employees, good for your customers and ultimately, good for bottom line. Can Apple do more? Absolutely! They should manufacture more of their hardware in the United States of America! They should also require that their manufacturers use green practices. While China is installing wind mills and solar farms, they continue to pollute!
Kudos to Apple for quitting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce!
Microsoft: "Screw Greenpeace."
October 27 2010 at 6:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI appreciate Greenpeace ranking companies for their products, but disagree on them ranking them based on their political actions. If Apple (or any company) is making products that are environmentally friendly, they should be ranked higher than a company that's products aren't as "green," but support (or don't support) a trade union.
October 27 2010 at 1:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThis is extortion. Greenpeace's method to rank companies is likely as honest as is Chicago politics.
Apple probably refused to "donate" money to Greenpeace.
Seriously, Greenpeace again?
1. They are the most "only out for themselves" group I have ever met or heard about.
2. They wouldn't have the "pull" that they have if we just ignored them (read: Stop reporting on what they say!)
3. it is NOT " the moral equivalent to beating up your grandchild."
There are far better organization out there (World Wildlife Federation for one) that I would take more serious than GreenPeace (they rank somewhere below "Save the Spotted Owl" in list of organization that have a clue).
I will donate to TUAW if you stop reporting on Greenpeace, how is that for a trade off?
Just out of curiousity, do you have any idea how important the spotted owl clause was in protecting millions of acres of the last pacific northwest old growth forests? It's entirely feasible that we'd have no untouched forest land left in this country by now if folks hadn't stood up and leveraged the endangered species act in the early 1990's around the spotted owl. I know you might not understand the tactics involved, but in the long run the environmental movement has been hugely successful, though there's still a lot of work to be done.
October 27 2010 at 12:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replyactually I do understand the tactics all to well.
I was station there with the Coast Guard for several years, and pulling loggers
out of the forest, since we were the only Search and Rescue unit with a hoist, when the saw would hit a metal spike....split into a million flying pieces of deadly debris, and nearly killing them was the tactic.
I didn't like hosing out the helicopters to get the blood off the deck because of the "tactics"
Re-use is better than re-cycle : I wonder how much longer the typical Apple product useful lifetime is than the competitor's junk (in my experience, Macs have a much longer useful lifetime than PCs).
October 27 2010 at 12:01 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI like to think I'm an environmentally friendly person. I drive a fuel efficient car, turn off lights when I leave the room, make sure I have a full load before doing the laundry and try to buy "green" products when reasonable.
......But every time I hear about Greenpeace, it makes me want to club baby seals and dip sea birds into crude oil.
Let me see.....looks like I need to go out and buy Microsoft, Nintendo, and Toshiba products.
That's a strange reaction that certainly doesn't make any sense at all. You should find someone to talk to about your feelings.
October 27 2010 at 12:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyYou ever do something good just for the sake of doing something good? Now have you ever been pressured by outside forces to do that good thing or suffer the consequences? Doesn't exactly endear you to keep doing it. It makes perfect sense.
October 27 2010 at 1:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIt is a shame that we exploit the planet in a irreversible manner. Those calling from the desert have a irreplaceable place reminding us, that the endless murdering and digging up of earths resources has consequences, not maybe for us, but for our children.
Now Greenpeace might not be the best to do that. But someone has to do it.
Ignoring it, is the moral equivalent to beating up your grandchild.
Now we are all consumer, and I am the first to admit that, but all our actions should be conscious and deliberate not with an attitude, ah, the free market will solve the problem. I IS not.
"Apple is called out for failing to state a public position on the EU Restriction of Hazardous Substances in electronics directive, as well as where it stands on the trade group TechAmerica."
OK, so they're not dinging Apple for what it DOES, but for not making some political statements that Greenpeace wants?
Greenpeace loses two points.
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TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple.
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