View this article at: http://dev.macnn.com/articles/07/04/27/aapl.investors.aim.green
Friday, Apr 27, 2007 2:20pm
Apple investors urge compan...
An investment group is planning to use Apple's forthcoming shareholder's meeting to make a move toward greener products, according to one report from AppleInsider. Trillium Asset Management is calling on Apple shareholders to support a motion that would require the company to produce a solid schedule for doing away with toxic materials in its hardware products. "Consumers have grown to expect more from Apple, a leader in product design and innovation," said Trillium vice president Shelley Alpern. "Are we falling behind in the arena of greening our products?" The shareholder coalition answered a definite 'yes' to the question of whether Apple is moving slowly to a greener future, as well as producing an example for rival companies. The firm also expressed its desire to see Apple meet or beat arch-rival Dell's current environmental friendliness, which has promised to do away with BFRs and PVC plastic from its computers by 2009.

"The timetable is a number one goal, and something on par with or hopefully better than Dell would be preferred," a Trillium spokesperson said. "But we'd also like to see [Apple] making a broader commitment to getting out of the use of persistent and bioaccumulative toxic chemicals." The Cupertino-based company has repeatedly come under fire from Greenpeace activists who continue to push for a "greener Apple." The environmental group ranked Apple last in its 'Guide to Greener Electronics,' which followed the company's low score on a Greenpeace environmental report card that detailed the use of toxic chemicals. Greenpeace even protested Apple by 'greening' the company's flagship Fifth Ave. Store in New York, shining green flood lights into the store's famous glass cube at street level. Activists later projected large images on the wall of Apple's San Francisco store of Asian scrap yards where many electronic products end up when they are finally discarded. "Apple is a leader in creative thinking and design, and we are encouraging them to expand that innovative know-how to making all of their products green," Greenpeace USA's Toxics campaign Legislative Director Rick Hind said in January.