Environment Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

iPhone 5, 4S are Apple's greenest phones yet

by Kelly Hodgkins (Oct 3rd, 2012)

Apple says it makes the "the most environmentally responsible products in our industry," and an independent study has backed up this claim. iFixit and Healthystuff.org dissected 36 smartphones and analyzed their chemical composition using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The study graded the ...

Apple reverses course on EPEAT environmental standard, eligible products once again included

by Michael Rose (Jul 13th, 2012)

Apple has posted a letter from retiring senior VP of hardware engineering Bob Mansfield to its website, walking back the company's abandonment of the EPEAT certification for its eligible products. Per the letter: We've recently heard from many loyal Apple customers who were disappointed to ...

Greenpeace boosts Apple's rating, but barely

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jul 12th, 2012)

Greenpeace recently released an environmental report on Apple and upgraded the company's score from an F to a D, says a report in Wired. Greenpeace pointed to Apple's commitment to use alternative power at its North Carolina and Oregon data centers as the reason for this small boost in score, ...

Apple responds to EPEAT move

by Kelly Hodgkins (Jul 11th, 2012)

Apple responded to the controversy surrounding its request to remove its products from the EPEAT green electronics registry. In a statement provided to The Loop, Apple representative Kristin Huguet confirmed the Cupertino company's commitment to the highest environmental standards and pointed ...

Apple removes EPEAT green certification, could lose government customers

by Steven Sande (Jul 9th, 2012)

Apple has done an increasingly good job of creating environmentally-friendly products, but the company did something the other day that probably has both environmentalists and some customers scratching their heads. The company has removed the EPEAT green electronics certification from its ...

Apple receives regulatory approval for solar farm in North Carolina

by Kelly Hodgkins (May 18th, 2012)

As noticed by AppleInsider, the North Carolina Utilities Commission approved Apple's application to build a 20-megawatt solar farm on land adjacent to its Maiden, North Carolina data center. The proposal was filed on February 15 and publicly announced at the end of March. It received no ...

Greenpeace's math is wrong, according to Apple

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Apr 18th, 2012)

Rich Miller at Data Center Knowledge has a good rundown of how Greenpeace's math is a bit wonky in a report called "How Clean is Your Cloud?" For one, Greenpeace estimates Apple will use 100 megawatts of power at the Maiden, NC plant, but Apple states it will be 20 megawatts at full ...

Greenpeace: Apple falling short of sourcing clean power

by Mike Schramm (Apr 17th, 2012)

Environmental reports can be all over the place these days -- at times, it seems like these reports tend to be more about politics than the environment. But while Apple has always said it's leading the charge on being environmentally friendly, Greenpeace apparently isn't so sure. The group has ...

Apple, Chinese environmental group will audit factory for pollution concerns

by Michael Grothaus (Apr 16th, 2012)

ComputerWorld notes that Apple and a Chinese environmental group plan to jointly audit one of its factories in China. The audit, which is just a pilot project for the time being, will be completed by the end of April. It will be done at one of the factories that manufacture printed circuit ...

Amazon data center guru questions logic of Apple's solar farm

by Kelly Hodgkins (Mar 23rd, 2012)

James Hamilton is a former datacenter architect for Microsoft and the current datacenter guy for Amazon. In a recent blog post, he examines solar-powered data centers which he says are "really somewhere between a bad idea and pure marketing, where the environmental impact is purely optical." As ...

Apple touts solar array at North Carolina Data Center

by Steven Sande (Feb 20th, 2012)

Apple has updated its Apple and the Environment web page with information about the huge new data center in Maiden, North Carolina. This US$1 billion, 500,000 square foot facility is the home of Siri and part of the backbone of iCloud. Not only has the facility already earned a LEED (Leadership in ...

Apple, China groups meet to discuss environmental concerns

by Kelly Hodgkins (Nov 16th, 2011)

Environmental concerns continue to plague Apple and its suppliers in China. Earlier this year, Apple was singled out in an environmental report called "The Other Side of Apple," which detailed health, environment and safety issues at Chinese manufacturing facilities. Apple met with some of its ...

Eco-friendly iPhone case made from trash

by Michael Grothaus (Nov 3rd, 2011)

For those of you who are eco-conscious and are looking for an iPhone case, you may want to check out the Re-case. The Re-case is made from rice agricultural waste that is added to post-consumer thermo-plastics resulting in a case that is literally made from trash. Besides its environmentally ...

Apple to build a solar farm next to North Carolina data center

by Kelly Hodgkins (Oct 26th, 2011)

Apple is reportedly building a solar farm to provide energy for its North Carolina data center. An erosion permit granted by Catawba County, North Carolina gives Apple permission to transform 171 acres of vacant land across from the data center into a solar farm. The area will be resloped and ...

Apple holds talks with Chinese environmental group

by Kelly Hodgkins (Sep 26th, 2011)

Apple is a socially responsible company and holds its suppliers and manufacturers accountable for their environmental practices. Despite these efforts, a Beijing-based environmental group continues to accuse the company of using suppliers that are polluting the environment in China. Apple ...