July 1 - 12:40pm EDT   Large PC builders are dragging their feet when it comes to environmental promises, claims Greenpeace. The activist group has once again updated its Guide to Greener Electronics, which assigns relative rankings to major high-tech corporations. A new development is the assignment of "penalty points" to major PC builders, including HP, Dell and Lenovo. The companies have delayed plans to strip PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from computers, Greenpeace says, and in the case of HP, none of its current systems have reduced toxicity. [full story]

June 22 - 11:00am EDT   Apple has been both vindicated and condemned in an advertising dispute with Dell, reports say. The latter company earlier filed a complaint with the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, accusing Apple of potentially misleading the public by claiming its unibody MacBooks are the "greenest" notebooks on the market. Dell has asserted that its notebooks also meet high environmental standards, for instance by scaling down mercury, PVC and brominated flame retardant content. [full story]

June 15 - 7:10pm EDT   Macgamestore has released National Geographic's Plan It Green, a game developed by Merscom. Users serve as the mayor of Greenville, a city which must be transformed into an environmentally friendly location. Gameplay is spread across 8 neighborhoods, with 45 levels that require completion of tasks such as renovating and rebuilding houses or business fixtures. To ensure the city is improving, users can view a Greendex that tracks the environmental sustainability. [full story]

May 18 - 3:35am EDT   Onset Computer Corporation has announced the HOBO U30/NRC Weather Station Starter Kit. The kit combines the company’s data-logging weather station and a series of plug-and-play weather sensors, with a focus on agricultural research, wind monitoring and ecology studies. The U30/NRC supports a maximum of 10 plug-and-play sensors connected to the logger. Each component is automatically recognized, eliminating most wiring, programming or calibration issues. [full story]

May 13 - 1:10pm EDT   Dell has announced its tightened recycling policies that prohibit e-waste exports to developing countries. The company aims to prevent items such as computers, components and monitors from being shipped to countries that lack stringent environmental regulations, worker safety standards or effective enforcement. The amount of electronics items processed through its recycling program exceeds 290 million pounds through a period of approximately five years. [full story]

March 31 - 10:35am EDT   Several companies have shifted positions within Greenpeace's quarterly tech industry rankings, the latest report from the environmental group states. One of the notable increases in rank belongs Apple, which has risen four spots in the list to reach 10th place. All of the company's major products, barring power cords, are now claimed to be free of PVC plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs); Greenpeace criticizes the company, however, for using "unreasonably high" threshold limits in counting products as free of the chemicals. [full story]

March 9 - 10:55am EDT   Apple has put a formal end to the use of plastic bags in its retail stores, say reports. Instead of giving bags to customers for taking products home, the company is now said to be offering help to carry large collections of goods to a person's car. As an alternative, people can ask Apple clerks to hold on to various items while they continue shopping at other outlets in a mall. [full story]

February 25 - 3:35pm EST   Choosing at an annual meeting, Apple shareholders have voted to re-elect all members of the company's current board of directors. These include Al Gore, Intuit CEO Bill Campbell, J. Crew CEO Millard Drexler, Avon CEO Andrea Jung, Genentech head Arthur Levinson, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Harwinton Capital leader Jerome York. Most critical may be the re-election of Apple's own CEO, Steve Jobs, who together with the rest of the board will serve for at least one more year. [full story]

January 16 - 11:55am EST   The Australian division of Apple has been destroying broken Macs which could nevertheless be repaired or recycled for parts, claims an individual involved in the process. An anonymous worker at a Sydney warehouse alleges that he was asked to help destroy some $200,000 worth of Apple gear, including iMacs, Xserves, MacBooks and Mac Pros, along with Mighty Mice and a copy of Final Cut Studio. The worker's crew is said to have used hammers and screwdrivers for the task, and gone to the extent of tearing up manuals. Everything, eventually, was crushed using a forklift, in response to complaints about it being visible over a dumpster's edge. [full story]

December 21 - 5:00pm EST   Dominant PC builder Dell has sharply criticized Apple for its environmental claims, a promotional blog post reveals. The company's community VP, Bob Pearson, has specifically taken aim at a recent MacBook ad, which suggests that the new unibody systems are the "greenest" notebooks on the market. Apple is only making broad claims without providing any long-term plans or even facts to back them up, says Pearson. [full story]

November 26 - 12:05am EST   Apple has again lost ground against several competitors in the Greenpeace Greener Electronics ratings, despite a slight increase on the scale to 4.3 points. The environmental group cited positive changes in the computer manufacturer's processes and materials, including the removal of PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from some products, but noted that the company would have to completely phase-out such chemicals to score higher on the list. Greenpeace also noted that Apple needs to commit to timelines detailing the elimination of other hazardous materials from its products. [full story]

October 17 - 11:15am EDT   Apple CEO Steve Jobs has issued a new summary letter, describing the company's environmental efforts during 2008. The letter is divided into three different topics, beginning with toxins. Jobs notes that the company has promised to eliminate PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from all hardware by the end of 2008, and that while this has proven difficult, it has so far removed the chemicals from "thousands" of components. Apple is said to be in the final stages of developing and approving PVC-free power cords. [full story]

October 7 - 1:35pm EDT   Developing European Union guidelines could force Apple to adopt a more user- and environmentally-friendly approach to batteries, reports say. The legal body is currently in the process of drafting a "New Batteries Directive," which would expand on the present set of guidelines designed to make it easier to remove, dispose of and/or recycle old batteries. The present directive indicates that companies must make it simple to remove batteries from electronics; the proposed one would insist that batteries can be "readily removed" for replacement or disposal. [full story]

October 1 - 4:55pm EDT   There is no evidence so far that Mac Pros are emitting dangerous chemicals, an Apple spokesman claims. Reports recently emerged from France of scientific testing, which suggested that Mac Pros were regularly emitting several toxic yet not immediately threatening kinds of fumes, including benzene, propanal and acetic acid. The major concern is said to be long-term exposure, as benzene, for example, is known to be a carcinogen. [full story]

September 29 - 12:10pm EDT   (Updated with corrections) Mac Pros may be producing fumes that contain toxic chemicals, according to tests posted on a French site for Mac enthusiasts, MacBidouille. The testing laboratory, Analytika, used multiple sensors over a period of eight days to collect air circulated by the cooling fan. Using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, the report claims to have identified seven organic contaminants in the vapors. [full story]