In recent years, Apple has taken flak from some advocacy groups to even a few of its own shareholders about its environmental policies. Lately, though, Apple seems to be taking charge of the issue.
The environmental impact of Apple’s products now occupies a central part of the company’s marketing and PR efforts.
With all three desktop updates - the Mac Pro, Mac mini, and iMac - Apple touted their environmental friendliness alongside their processor speeds, hard drive capacities, and other technical improvements.
“We’re committed to designing and building the most environmentally friendly computers in the PC industry,” David Moody, Apple’s vice president of Mac hardware worldwide product marketing, told Macworld.
“We don’t know of anyone that has so much of their product line rated EPEAT Gold.” (EPEAT, or Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool- is a system aimed at helping both public and private sector computer buyers evaluate products based on their environmental aspects. EPEAT evaluates products on three tiers - bronze, silver, and gold.)
All three desktop models unveiled Tuesday exceed current Energy Star 4.0 requirements, adopting the Energy Star 5.0 requirements that go into effect later this year.
Their enclosures are all made out recycled aluminum, while their internal components are free of PVC and brominated flame retardants.
In the case of the new Mac mini, the updated desktop uses less than 13 watts of power - 10 times less than a typical desktop PC, according to Apple, which is touting the mini as the most energy-efficient desktop in the world.
The environmental efforts aren’t restricted to products unveiled this week.
Each of Apple’s Mac products pages now include an Environment link next to the link for tech specs, with details on the green attributes of the company’s products.
Apple currently has an Environmental Performance Web page with separate PDFs detailing its efforts for the MacBook Air, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, iMac, Mac Pro, Cinema Display, iPhone, and iPod. All the reports have been updated to include the products released on Tuesday.
It’s part of an ongoing effort at Apple to bring more attention to its efforts to remove toxins from its products. The company recently updated its Environment Web page with information on the process it used to calculate the “carbon footprint” (greenhouse gas emissions caused by a product) for its products’ life cycles.
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