Greener Apple: New Macs, iPods aim for efficiency, cleaner environment

Through methods ranging from blog jottings by Apple CEO Steve Jobs some time in 2008 to press releases issued just this week, Apple is rather suddenly playing up the environmental friendliness of its PCs. In a product announcement this week for its latest consumer line-up, Apple contended that the Mac mini is "the world's most energy efficient desktop, drawing less than 13 watts of power when idle."

Announcements for Apple's new MacBook Pro, mini, and iMac also suggested that the PCs are well ahead of the curve in terms of compliance with Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) and federal Energy Star guidelines.

The three new PCs meet the requirements not just of Energy Star 4.0 but of the tougher Energy Star 5.0 spec. They have all garnered "gold" -- as opposed to lowlier "silver" or "bronze" -- status with EPEAT, a system designed to help purchasers in the public and private sectors evaluate computers, notebooks and monitors based on their environmental attributes.

"Both iMac and Mac mini exceed current Energy Star 4.0 requirements and are leading the industry as early adopters of the more stringent Energy Star 5.0 requirements which will become effective later this year. Both iMac and Mac mini use PVC-free internal components and cables and contain no brominated flame retardants," according to one of Apple's press releases.

"Both iMac and Mac mini feature material-efficient system and packaging designs and use highly recyclable materials. Apple's new desktop lineup joins its recently introduced aluminum unibody MacBook family in achieving EPEAT Gold status."

Meanwhile, other PC makers, including Dell and Lenovo, have also announced they have met Energy Star 5.0 requirements ahead of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s mid-2009 deadline. The updated Energy Star standard raises minimum internal power supply efficiency to 85% and AC adapter efficiency to 87%. Energy Star 5.0 also defines lower energy consumption limits.

From a look at EPEAT's Web site, it's clear that most other major PC manufacturers also make products ranking at "gold" status, including Dell, Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, Toshiba, Asustek, and NEC.

Apple, though, has been trying to make a quick turnaround on environmental issues since January 2007, when company co-founder Steve Jobs dismissed Greenpeace activists gathered outside Macworld by suggesting that they "get out of the computer business [and] go save some whales," according to an account in Wired. That triggered a public relations debacle for Apple that culminated in Jobs publishing an 1,800-word open letter online about the company's environmental activities. Jobs cited criticism from environmental groups as his reason for instituting a more open policy in this area.

"Apple plans to completely eliminate the use of PVC [polyvinyl chloride] and BFRs [brominated flame retardants] in its products by the end of 2008," Jobs wrote at that time. The vinyl chloride on which PVC is chemically based is a known human carcinogen; and dust from BFRs is a known indoor air pollutant, where it settles on other household objects to create possible new contaminants.

As Greenpeace responded on its Web site, "For the first time, we know that Apple is serious about removing PVC and BFRs completely, thanks to Steve's announcement of a timeline. Sadly, in Apple's current product range, only accessories and packaging are completely free of PVC, while Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson already have mobiles that are free of PVC and BFRs, on the market. We hope the much awaited iPhone will be Apple's first product free of these hazardous chemicals!"

That wasn't the case, at least not at first -- the initial iPhone model disappointed Greenpeace and other environmental advocates. But with last September's announcement of revamped iPods, iPod nanos, and iPod Touch models, Jobs announced his factories would no longer be using PVCs or BFRs, along with other chemicals such as mercury and arsenic.

That led to Greenpeace campaigner Casey Harrell issuing the following response at the time: "Greenpeace congratulates Apple for phasing out harmful chemicals like PVC and BFRs in its new, much greener iPods. But we know that Jobs and his team can go even further, and truly take a lead in greening the electronics industry. We hope that this is only a teaser of what is to come, and that we will see more of the same with all future product announcements, from iPhones to Macs."

Since then, Apple recently updated the main 'Environment' page on its Web site with information about how it calculates the carbon footprints of its products.

"No other electronics company reports this information at the product level, so it's impossible to compare the carbon footprint for each of our new products with those of our competitors. If other manufacturers were to provide the same data, we are confident that Apple's products would stack up very well," according to a statement by Apple.

The page also contains a link to a page called "Apple 2008 Environmental Update" written by Jobs, who has been out on a medical leave of absence since mid-January of this year.

Although the page does not carry a date, Jobs announced that all of Apple's new product designs were then "on track to meeting the year-end goal" of eliminating PVC and BFRs from Apple products by the end of 2008.

[Scott M. Fulton, III contributed some background information to this report.]