JUL 15

A couple weeks ago, Apple announced that it would no longer have its laptops certified under EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Asessment Tool), a voluntary industry standard that has been used to advance recyclability and reduce the use of toxic materials in electronic devices. But now, after enormous outcry against Apple's decision, the company has realized its mistake.  On Friday, the company announced "all eligible Apple products are back on EPEAT."

EPEAT was developed in the early 2000s with a consortium of representatives from manufacturers, trade associations, government agencies, and other groups seeking to promote a more environmentally conscious lifecycle for electronic products. Apple was part of the EPEAT Development and Implementation Team, and 40 of its desktops, notebooks and displays have received EPEAT Gold certification.

Speculation has been that withdrawing from EPEAT was because the company's new latops were using glue instead of screws (which would prevent easy disassembly for repair or recycling) to attach batteries inside the case. The reversal may also be due to the requirement that 95% of federal electronics purchases be EPEAT certified.

Comments (5)

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Kudos Apple
written by Green Goods, July 18, 2012

Their rationale may be based on profit but good that they are doing the right thing.

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written by Robert Halvarsson, July 24, 2012

At least they are not moving backwards into the future, they should try to improve further instead of rolling back previous engagemenets.

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Hmm, interesting...
written by Heliotex LLC, July 25, 2012

I'm not sure what to make of this but it's kind of a bummer!

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Costs?
written by Q, August 30, 2012

I'm glad to hear that Apple quickly realized that they made a mistake and went back to certifying their products under EPEAT. I have no idea why they would even consider dropping this certification since it has brought them a lot of good press over the years. I presume there is some substantial costs with keeping this certification and that might have influenced the decision until Apple realized how many people care about them keeping up with their environmentally beneficial standards.

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Their rationale may be based...
written by aaron2050, September 07, 2012

Their rationale may be based on profit but good that they are doing the right thing.
http://www.ubscn.com

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