Who said innovative companies are the most environmentally sound?
Apple has been ranked stone motherless last by greenpeace. The activist group reckons that Apple uses toxic chemicals, does a bad job on recycling and fails to provide much information about its environmental policies.
The Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics gives Apple a measly 2.7 out of 10, saying the company has given no timelines for eliminating PVC from its products and no commitment on phasing out flame retardants.
These chemicals are not only harmful to users. They also pollute the environment when they're dumped, usually in Asia.
Nokia, Dell and Motorola perform well on the scorecard.
For Greenpeace, Apple's environmental report isn't worth a hill of beans.
The Greenpeace statement is scathing about Apple's performance. On one hand, the company prides itself on being innovative, says Greenpeace. On the other, it's hardly a trend-setter when it comes to the environment:
"We'd expect an innovative company who takes pride in 'thinking different' to be at the top of the ranking – so we've launched the Green my Apple campaign where Mac fans can send a clear message to Apple – we love our Mac, but we wish it came in green."
Greenpeace has already been lampooning Apple with a special website.
Wow – Somebody isn’t getting their facts straight. Apple’s innerds aren’t made of anything different than Dells, HPs, Motorolas, et. al. Same stuff – period. And they sold fewer computers than Dell alone did during 2006. Is it maybe that Apple’s recall of used computers isn’t as good as some others? Consider that old Macs are statistically more often considered collector’s items than trash. What is it then? I sure can’t figure it out. Here’s some alternate reading just in case objectivity still counts: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2007/tc20070329_721408_page_2.htm
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ByteOfTheApple/blog/archives/2007/04/there_goes_gree.html
Apple needs to improve, a lot, but no more or less than the rest of the consumer electronics industry.