{"id":1272,"date":"2012-08-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-18T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/wadds\/apple-abandons-green-certification\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T18:51:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T18:51:05","slug":"apple-abandons-green-certification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/wadds\/apple-abandons-green-certification\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple abandons green certification"},"content":{"rendered":"

(CNN)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Is hip design more important than being green?<\/p>\n

Technology giant Apple is catching heat on blogs this week for its decision to drop out of an environmental certification program for electronics, called EPEAT.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn making this move, Apple is signaling that it won\u2019t let future design decisions be governed by those seeking to uphold environmental standards,\u201d\u00a0Erica Ogg writes for the GigaOm blog network.<\/p>\n

The decision has some strong ramifications. By U.S. law, 95% of electronics purchases from U.S. federal agencies must be EPEAT-compliant, said Sarah O\u2019Brien, spokeswoman for the group. That probably means Apple desktop and laptop computers can make up a maximum of 5% of federal agencies\u2019 purchases, if they can buy them at all. EPEAT doesn\u2019t certify tablets or phones, so iPads and iPhones would be OK for the agencies to buy, O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n

San Francisco also has a rule on the books prohibiting the city from purchasing desktop and laptop computers that are not EPEAT-certified, said Christine Falvey, spokeswoman for the mayor. So the city will not be able to purchase Apple desktops and laptops unless Apple gets the green certification again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope they reconsider and get back on the EPEAT certification list,\u201d Falvey said, \u201cand we\u2019ll be reaching out to them to see how we can help understand their decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apple hasn\u2019t commented on why it removed itself from EPEAT, which is awarded to electronics that are recyclable and energy-efficient. But EPEAT\u2019s CEO, Robert Frisbee, says Apple\u2019s \u201cdesign direction\u201d may be to blame.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said their design direction was no longer consistent with the EPEAT requirements,\u201d\u00a0Frisbee told the Wall Street Journal. \u201cThey were important supporters and we are disappointed that they don\u2019t want their products measured by this standard anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s the design hangup?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s speculation that Apple\u2019s new line of \u201cretina display\u201d laptops aren\u2019t easily recyclable because their\u00a0batteries are glued to the aluminum case\u00a0on the computer.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the heart of the controversy is the company\u2019s newest MacBook Pro with Retina Display, which Apple designed in such a way that it\u2019s difficult to disassemble for the sake of repairs, upgrades, and recycling,\u201d\u00a0wrote InfoWorld.<\/p>\n

Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet issued a statement to CNN via e-mail: \u201cApple takes a comprehensive approach to measuring our environmental impact and all of our products meet the strictest energy efficiency standards backed by the U.S. government, Energy Star 5.2. We also lead the industry by reporting each product\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions on our website, and Apple products are superior in other important environmental areas not measured by EPEAT, such as removal of toxic materials.\u201d<\/p>\n

She declined to comment further.<\/p>\n

On its website,\u00a0Apple says the MacBook Pro is recyclable\u00a0(PDF):<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough ultra-efficient design and the use of highly recyclable materials, Apple has minimized material waste at the product\u2019s end of life. In addition, Apple offers and participates in various product take-back and recycling programs in 95% of the regions where Apple products are sold.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0statement posted on its website\u00a0last month, EPEAT did not elaborate on Apple\u2019s reasons for quitting the standard, which the company and other industry leaders helped create. \u201cWe regret that Apple will no longer be registering its products in EPEAT. We hope that they will decide to do so again at some point in future,\u201d the group says.<\/p>\n

Greenpeace\u00a0ranks Apple in the middle of the pack\u00a0of tech companies \u2014 behind HP and Dell but ahead of Samsung, Sony and others \u2014 in terms of its sustainability and environmental friendliness.<\/p>\n

What do you think of the decision? More important, will it affect whether you purchase Apple products?<\/p>\n

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\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Many Thanks
\nNicky<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(CNN)\u00a0\u2013 Is hip design more important than being green? Technology giant Apple is catching heat on blogs this week for its decision to drop out of an environmental certification program for electronics, called EPEAT. \u201cIn making this move, Apple is signaling that it won\u2019t let future design decisions be governed by those seeking to uphold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":412,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,2,5,6,7,8,66],"tags":[833,1280,1466],"class_list":["post-1272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beauty","category-business","category-empower-network","category-entertainment","category-food-recipes","category-health","category-how-to","category-news","tag-apple","tag-technology","tag-technology-giant-apple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/wadds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/wadds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/wadds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/wadds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/412"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/wadds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/wadds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1305,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/wadds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1272\/revisions\/1305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/wadds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/wadds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/wadds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}