Late last week, Apple pulled its products from the environmental group Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registry and won’t submit products to be tested by the organization. It’s not necessarily because they hate polar bears and want all plants to die (can’t guarantee they DON’T, mind you). An Apple spokesperson tells the Guardian: “Apple takes a comprehensive approach to measuring our environmental impact and all of our products meet the strictest energy efficiency standards backed by the US government, energy star 5.2.”
But you have to pay to be registered by EPEAT and Apple doesn’t want to.
The move is being painted in some circles as Apple being anti-green and now the city of San Francisco plans to buy city offices from buying Apple products. It’s no biggie in terms of dollars since San Fran only spent about $45,000 on Apple products and Apple had profits of $11 billion.
Now comes word that Apple is working on a refresh of environmental standards.
According to Sarah O’Brien, a spokesperson for the Vermont-based Green Electronics Council that administers the EPEAT program, the IEEE 1680.1 standard that underlies EPEAT is undergoing a “refresh” and that Apple is participating in the process. She writes:
“Four study groups – including representation from Apple and other manufacturer participants as well as a wide array of other stakeholders and with research assistance from the Rochester Institute of Technology – have just delivered reports on a number of preliminary questions which will inform the IEEE 1680.1 standard refresh process, expected to launch shortly.”
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