Greenwashing: How Eco-Friendly is Apple?
Recently, there was a lot of controversy over Apple's decision to withdraw from the non-profit organization EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool). Apple then announced that it was putting its eligible products back on the EPEAT list. Further, Apple would like to work with EPEAT to make their requirements even more stringent.
Many of us use Apple products, so I decided to do a little digging and came up with a pros and cons list of Apple's overall eco-friendliness:
Pros
- It was one of the first computer companies to phase out the use of toxic chemicals like brominated fire retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in its production process
- Apple's newer products require less material to produce, and therefore generate fewer carbon emissions in the assembly process.
- Apple works with environmentally conscious materials, like recycled plastics, recycled paper, biopolymers and vegetable-based inks
- All of Apple's products are ENERGY STAR (the US Environmental Protection Agency's guideline for energy efficiency) qualified, something no other tech company can claim
- Apple encourages recycling - its Reuse and Recycling Program allows customers to get an Apple gift card for the value of their old device. If it doesn't qualify for Reuse, Apple will recycle is responsibly for free
- Their Commute Alternatives program encourages its employees to use transit options that reduce traffic, smog and CO2 emissions, saving 30,000,000 kg of CO2 in 2011
- In 2010 Apple discovered that three supplier companies were improperly disposing of hazardous waste - in response, it required that the companies immediately stop shipping waste and hire certified vendors for future waste disposal
- Apple displays its eco footprint online for everyone to see
Cons
- By withdrawing from EPEAT, Apple lost its ability to work with the organization to define and promote environmentally-conscious standards
- Some of Apple's latest products are more difficult to disassemble, making it harder to recycle properly. Its newest Retina display Macbook Pro did not meet EPEAT's criteria for disassembly.
- Apple was named the "Least Green" tech company by Greenpeace in 2011- Greenpeace said Apple relies heavily on highly polluting coal power at the sites where its servers are, with a dependence around 54.5%
- Greenpeace also reported that Apple's investment in a new North Carolina facility triples its electricity consumptions, equivalent to the electricity demand of 80,000 average US homes. In the same report, it estimated that the facility would draw about 100 megawatts of electricity at full capacity.
Do you think Greenpeace's campaign against Shell Oil makes a difference?
*Note: Apple recently contested these claims, saying 60% of the power will be eventually delivered on-site from a solar farm and fuel-cell installation, which will each be the largest in the country, making this site the greenest data center ever built. It also stated that the facility draws about 20 megawatts of electricity at full capacity, not 100.
What do you think - is Apple as eco-friendly as it claims?
Photo credit: David Sanger
Category
Green Life
15 comments
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I don't eat or use animal products and fairly green but I will never use a non Apple product! I have been through quite a few laptops and cell phones and there's no comparison to my IPhone and MacBook pro! Trust me peeps..spend the $ now and save it later! -
No one seems to be following this thread now so I'll just mutter to myself over here :p
In the interest of some kind of disclosure and having looked into the Newsweek's list of "greenest tech companies" it appears that list is little more than a pro business "aren't we all grand" sort of list.
The ways they arrive at the ratings, the categories (like who's biggest) and the rating entities themselves probably don't stand up to scrutiny. But check it out for yourself; http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2010/10/18/newsweeks-green-rankings-what-they-mean-and-dont
if anyone accidentally stumbles onto this thread again that is.
Apple uses mercury free and arsenic free materials in their tech toys which none of the other distributors do and they're all distributors now not manufacturers.
I strongly dislike and am appalled at the labor situation in China. We do have defacto slavery in the US by virtue of immigrant workers but there's no justification to be found in that.
Singling out Apple when there's no evidence that any of the other distributors are better is absurd. -
Yes they are evil. Not only are they not environmentally sound, but the employees are locked inside the building; and have a suicide net outside of the balcony. I am a retired activist, but I still keep an eye on things, bad companies and such, i.e. Wal-Mart. Apple hires young employees and keeps them away from their family, so does Wal-Mart. Do not buy from either.
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Probably really off topic here but I can't help adding to what I already said and it is a reaction also to the idea that moving work to China is or ever was a competitive and/or economic necessity.
I was a union worker, part of the IUE working in a GE factory. Even though it was union we always had to fight for the right to be treated as human beings.
While I still employed there almost all the work was moved to non union plants within the US.
Towards the end of my time working there I was an inspector and had the opportunity to interact with management and management trainees from all over. One co-op guy told be that in the non union plants people worked through their lunches, breaks and remained past their shift when required (without any overtime pay).
They still closed those plants and moved the work outside of the US and they continued to move the work when it suits them.
It's not solely about profits and competitiveness. People eventually want some kind of humane treatment and their families see what's going on too and get outraged-no matter where the factory is located. There are plenty of stories and even documented cases of workers being upset with conditions. Governments frequently do try to suppress those.
Perhaps because of it's size and history China gets away with more than it should? But there are certainly stories of virtual slavery within the production system of China and it's not very genuine to suggest that the people working in those conditions asked for it. Many of those people are underage.
For me this is relevant to the kind life ideology because it's about how the human animal is being treated. High stakes capitalism doesn't seem to be able to survive without slavery so it's been exported. -
If you want an eco-friendly computer, you're definitely going to want a PC. Try HP, Dell or Toshiba. Check the NewsWeek list of greenest tech companies. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/10/17/greenest-tech-companies-in-the-world-google-ibm-apple-more-photos.all.html Both Dell and HP have been in the top 10 for the last several years. Meanwhile, Apple doesn't even make the top 25.
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yes, apple will change the battery for you ONCE, and yes you CAN change the battery if you are a tech guru, but apple has made it prohibitively difficult to change or purchase batteries for MOST people. -
Planned obsolesence is not eco friendly or consumer friendly. Apple is not the worst offender and are perhaps better than others as their products are high quality, in my opinion.
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I personally think apple is evil. Okay yes I have an iPod...okay and an iPhone (but that's because my dad got it for me as a birthday present) but I've never liked them. Number one: my brother in law used to work at apple in their shops selling and dealing with customers and he always had a hard time because they didn't like it of how honest he was with the customers. If the customer asked his opinion of a product, instead of buttering them up with a load of BS, he'd tell them the truth. Plus with his measly salary, he couldn't really buy any apple products even though he wanted to. He and my sister would have to save up so much money before it was able to be purchased, and even then the pieces of junk would break down. Employees should be allowed to have apple products there for free, or at least at a major discount. That's marketing!
Number two: my dad had a brand new laptop (a MacBook I believe) and when he took it to them to get repaired because the fan blades broke, when he got it back, it was in worse wear! They deleted all of my dads apps, music, programs and other things and said he'd have to buy them again! And the they made him pay for the rest of the 8 repairs it had to have because they screwed up! The computer was under warranty and they scratched up the laptop, deleted everything, didn't fix the problem, and then demanded payment! I've sworn off apple since then.
And finally number 3: I'm always signing petitions on change.org and I can't even count how many times I had received and signed so many petitions against apple and their working conditions in china. These people are only paid five cents a week and deal heavily with chemicals. These chemicals end up turning them suicidal and killing themselves on the produxts in the factory! The main cause is the heavy mercury use, so not only are you getting a computer that an employee died on, but it's heavily laid with mercury which'll make you wanna kill yourself on the computer as well. How lovely apple is, don't you think? -
Randomly asking people their opinion, what a can of worms! Here are my thoughts.
Apple actually puts effort into trying, as described in the pros. That's a good list. Particularly that they are using recycled materials, care about energy efficiency of their products.
The cons seem to me to be a list of things that are unreasonably thrust on a company... I mean, where their power comes from? Get upset at the power company. That's a systemic problem.
Same thing with the China issue, though it is off topic with environmental impact, it's systemic. I'd love it if Apple produced their products in America, I'd pay the extra $200 (random number that seems reasonable to me). But a lot of people wouldn't. I can't knock a company for being competitive in outsourcing assembly labor. And that's coming from a factory worker in America, who works 70 hour weeks in 100+ degree room (just because it costs too much to cool, there are rooms that are cooled because the machinery starts to malfunction at the higher temperature) making industrial purpose fabric. I know I have it easy versus some other types of jobs, even here in America. People in China are willing to work in those conditions, it's not a hidden thing. Apple wouldn't have made some of the advancements they've made, allowing them get that list of pros up there if they didn't do some necessary things to stay competitive in the American consumer market. Nor would they have the capital for R&D to make these cool gadgets, that I'd be willing to pay for, if they hadn't been competitive in the first place... Long way of saying, China, non issue for me.
Batteries... You CAN replace the battery, by yourself or through Apple. Nothing not green here. Though I would certainly prefer a slightly larger, heavier case that made battery replacement easier.
As for upgrades... I have a hunch that Apples decision to standardize their hardware has made their environmental impact smaller than what we'd call "PCs". Apple computers last a long time, they're well designed. PCs frequently are made with that competitive attitude I talked about above, resulting in those upgradable computers ending in the trash sooner. Just a hunch, I don't have numbers. But it holds true in my circle of friends.
Oh right, the EPEAT... I care about as much about that as I do the movie rating system. I'm a big boy and there are these tubes filled with information, right? The Internet! I can do my own research.
My vote? Apple = greener than most. And their products are so cool that I'm willing to accept them over their competitors. -
2 points from my 2 cents. Apple products are designed differently so taking them apart is more challenging to people who don't do that or feel comfortable doing that. I work on Apple products and most of the line with some exceptions can be worked on and their batteries and other components can be replaced.
I work on and use PCs too so I often look at geek toys from my own geeky perspective which is that there are ups and down to both PCS and Macs.
The criticism that I always hear from people is that Apple allows these slave conditions in their factories in China. Is anyone really thinking that through at all?
I mean are there any electronics, including US defense electronic equipment, that isn't being make there? -
The factories in China where the Apple products are made were never brought up in the article! They run primarily on Coal, and despite the difficulty of getting clear information out of China it appears that they may be treating their workers very poorly.
Also, the article said that Apple newer products now require less material and therefore have a smaller carbon footprint. I would definitely need to see the proof in that. It does't make much sense to me that a new iPod Touch that has two built in cameras would require less material than my currently working iPod Touch 1st generation that doesn't have cameras at all. -
Apple needs to clean-up their work practices overseas first and foremost. I had been a fan but I am going with Bronwen on this one. -
don't forget about apple's planned obsolescence! you can't change or buy a new battery for apple's products even if they are otherwise in perfectly good condition. you have to buy a whole new one!! that smacks of evil to me, and i refuse to buy apple's products until they change their policy on that. also don't forget that you can't upgrade apple computers to make them last longer. they are not up-gradable and again, you must buy an entire new unit to upgrade.
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I must admit I am a bit of an Apple fanboy, and am always aware of how much the tech companies have little regard for the environment. Since Tim Cook came along as the new CEO of Apple I think things are going to gradually change at Apple. When I stand back and look at this I wonder if we should be spending more time fighting the tech companies that actually do nothing. At least Apple is really trying, at least it comes across that way. :-). LOVE. Steven x
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