10/09, 9:20am
Groups take sides in row over environmental laws
Both Greenpeace and the US Secretary of Energy are welcoming an Apple decision to abandon the US Chamber of Commerce. The former's toxics campaigner, Casey Harrell, on Thursday issued a statement which applauded Apple for confronting the Chamber over its opposition to mandatory limits on greenhouse gases. Apple is the first technology company to have removed itself from the Chamber over the issue, though it was preceded by shoe maker Nike, and several energy companies including Exelon, PNM Resources and Pacific Gas & Electric.
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10/06, 3:50pm
Company active on toxins, groups say
Two environmental advocacy groups have praised Apple in a joint report, newly distributed to the media. ChemSec and Clean Production Action claim that Apple is one of the more respectable companies in eliminating bromine and chlorine from its products, through an "innovative program that restricts the use of nearly all bromine and chlorine compounds across all their product lines," the groups say. A number of smaller Apple products -- including iPods and iPhones -- are now free from any PVC or BFRs (brominated flame retardants), and its computers are said to be mostly free of PVC, and entirely free of BFRs.
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10/05, 6:50pm
Chamber shunned for opposing greenhouse gas limits
Apple has sent a letter of resignation (PDF) to the US Chamber of Commerce over a disagreement involving proposed environmental legislation, the New York Times reports. Chamber president and chief executive Thomas J. Donohue recently voiced opposition to expanded EPA policies aimed at greenhouse gas emissions.
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09/30, 4:40pm
Dell, LG, Lenovo suffer criticisms
Activist group Greenpeace has released a new edition of its Guide to Greener Electronics, which ranks major high-tech corporations in terms of their alleged environmental friendliness. Among the companies favored by Greenpeace's press efforts is Apple, which the group notes recently disclosed its carbon emissions. Apple has risen in rankings from 11th to 9th, aided not by the disclosure but by being the "most progressive" computer maker in terms of removing product toxins.
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09/28, 9:15pm
Group suggests Greenpeace isn't the only watchdog
A California-based nonprofit, As You Sow, claims it has been a significant influence in Apple's latest campaign to develop environmentally-conscious practices. Although Greenpeace typically gets the first mention amongst organizations pushing companies to improve their methods, As You Sow suggests it directly engaged the Mac maker to disclose carbon footprint data.
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09/16, 4:05pm
Environmental organization claims health threat
Apple's latest iPhone, the 3GS, ranks almost squarely in the middle of smartphones in terms of radiation output, a non-profit activist organization says. The Environmental Working Group notes that according to compiled data, the 3GS produces approximately 1.19W/kg of radiation. The figure is substantially lower than the worst-case examples, the T-Mobile myTouch 3G and the Kyocera Jax S1300, which each produce 1.55W/kg.
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08/25, 5:55pm
Samsung on green tech
As part of Samsung's initiative to promote environmentally-friendly efforts, the company has highlighted the energy efficiency of current SSD storage and DDR3 memory components. The use of higher-density DDR3 memory is said to reduce power consumption by up to 70 percent compared to DDR2 modules. The power savings is attributed to lower voltage requirements, as low as 1.35 volts, and the energy-efficient 40nm manufacturing technology.
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08/24, 12:35pm
Apple political persuasion
Apple spent $390,000 in lobbying the US government during the second quarter of 2009, documents from the House of Representatives show. The sum is a $50,000 increase over the first quarter, and came despite slowing Mac and iPod sales. Apple's attempts to privately influence the government are recorded as connected to stimulus funding -- for educational technology, and increasing broadband penetration -- as well as a variety of environmental issues.
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07/01, 12:40pm
Greenpeace attacks PCs
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.
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06/22, 11:00am
Apple vs. Dell ruling
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.
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06/15, 7:10pm
Plan It Green game ships
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.
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05/18, 3:35am
HOBO U30/NRC
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.
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05/13, 1:10pm
Dell bans ewaste exports
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.
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03/31, 10:35am
Greenpeace shifts rankings
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.
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03/09, 10:55am
Apple ditches plastic bags
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.
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02/25, 3:35pm
Apple board re-elected
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.
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01/16, 11:55am
Apple Aus. smashing gear
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.
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12/21, 5:00pm
Dell vs. Apple on greening
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.
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11/26, 12:05am
Greenpeace rates Apple
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.
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10/17, 11:15am
Apple 2008 green report
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.
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10/07, 1:35pm
Apple battery controversy
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.
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10/01, 4:55pm
Apple on Mac Pro toxins
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.
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09/29, 12:10pm
Mac Pro toxic? [u]
(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.
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09/11, 3:10pm
Greenpeace on new iPods
Apple has made yet more environmental progress with its latest iPods, but still has more to accomplish, claims Greenpeace. The activist organization notes that the latest iPod nano has a number of positive checkpoints, such as arsenic-free glass, and a complete lack of mercury, PVC or brominated flame retardants (BFRs), all of which are said to be toxic in varying degrees. Though not immediately dangerous, the chemicals can form a cumulative threat when deposited en-masse in landfills.
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09/03, 1:30pm
HP 'green' notebook bag
HP says it has found a way to reduce notebook packaging materials by 97 percent, and cut transportation costs by 31 percent. The computer giant has won Walmart's "green" Home Entertainment Design Challenge, by packaging a Pavillion dv6929 in a messenger bag capable of doubling as a shipping container. As a result, less styrofoam and cardboard are consumed, and a bulk shipment can occupy less space in ships and trucks, in theory resulting in less fuel expenses.
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08/12, 9:25pm
Zpower zinc-silver battery
Zpower, a provider of silver-zinc battery technology, announced the inclusion of their silver-zinc cells in a major notebook computer in 2009. Zpower claims their batteries have run-times up to 40 percent longer than comparable Lithium-ion cells, while simultaneously offering safety and environmental advantages. Zinc-silver batteries have almost been forgotten about but improvements in materials and manufacturing processes have brought them to compete in a market currently dominated by Li-ion cells.
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06/25, 12:20pm
Apple falls in Greenpeace
Apple has slipped in terms of environmental friendliness, claims Greenpeace. The activist group has published a new edition of its Guide to Greener Electronics, and whereas in the last rankings Apple jumped from 2.7 to 6.7 -- due to the release of the less toxic MacBook Air -- the company has since slipped to just 4.1, marking it as an offending company.
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06/16, 1:05pm
Samsung 'green' phones
Korea's Samsung today announced two new cellphones, the W510 and the F268, at the World IT Show in Seoul. Rather than publicize performance specifications however, the company is concentrating on the reduced environmental damage of their construction. The W510 (pictured) is said to be Samsung's first built with "bioplastic," eschewing synthetic materials for those extracted from corn. The phone is further said to have been built without heavy metals such as mercury or cadmium, and use a water-soluble coating.
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05/26, 10:25am
Apple interested in solar?
Apple may be seeking to use solar cells to power future devices, a newly-published patent application suggests. Solar power may offer a means of greatly extending the battery life of Apple devices, including both MacBooks and handhelds like the iPod and iPhone; the difficulty, according to MacRumors, is that portables often have limited space to fit solar panels, and if they do have space the panels may be fragile, and occupy room that could be used for other functions.
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04/22, 9:45pm
Dell bamboo PC
Dell today unveiled a "never before seen" environmentally conscious computer clad in bamboo, which occupies 81 percent of the space typically taken by a traditional PC tower. While specifications were sparse, Earth2Tech reveals that the computer is made of 70 percent recycled materials, such as old bottles, milk jugs, and detergent cases, and that it would be available later this year for between $500 and $700.
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04/18, 3:15pm
Hydrogen-powered cellphone
The Electro-Mechanics division of Samsung says it has developed a hydrogen-powered prototype cellphone, one which could soon have a commercial equivalent. The new technology consists of a special hydrogen generator and a micro-fuel cell; when the phone is turned on, metal and water react to produce hydrogen gas, which is then transferred to a fuel cell where oxygenation releases energy. Most conventional versions of this technology are said to require methanol in place of water.
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04/11, 3:20pm
Fujitsu 'green' notebooks
The Japanese division of Fujitsu is preparing to demonstrate two unusual new notebooks at a design exhibition in Milan, the company has announced. The "WoodShell" is merely a concept PC, but uses a case built primarily out of cedar wood instead of typical metal or plastic materials. This has the benefit of tapping into renewable resources, while at the same time making the computer biodegradable when it is inevitably thrown away. The WoodShell follows a few short weeks after ASUS revealed its bamboo notebook.
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04/01, 12:15am
Onset USB humidity monitor
Onset Computer Corporation today introduced the HOBO U14 LCD Data Logger, an environmental monitoring system that tracks temperature and humidity ratings in indoor environtments. The logger notifies users when environmental conditions exceed those specified, and includes both an audible alarm, as well as an auto phone dialer. Onset says the unit functions quickly over USB 2.0, and is selling the unit starting at $200.
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03/18, 12:40pm
Greenpeace CE rankings
Japan's Toshiba and Korea's Samsung are the most environmentally friendly of the major electronics manufacturers, claims Greenpeace. The activist group has published a new edition of its Guide to Greener Electronics, ranking producers of consumer electronics against each other in terms of factors like pollution and recycling. Toshiba has leaped ahead six positions to tie the previous leader, Samsung, due to continued improvement in areas of both recycling and electronic waste; Samsung's static ranking, meanwhile, is attributed to an "incomplete" product takeback policy.
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03/10, 4:50pm
ASUS bamboo computers
ASUS has debuted an unusual series of concept computers that rely on alternative case materials. Where most cases rely on materials like aluminum, titanium or plastic, the company's Bamboo computers are in fact made of the namesake natural wood, which has multiple advantages. Aside from being more aesthetically appealing, bamboo should be more environmentally friendly; it is readily renewable, unlike minerals or oils, and the material is biodegradable when it ultimately ends up in a garbage dump.
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02/27, 3:30pm
Dell joins Climate Group
Dell is advertising newfound membership in The Climate Group, a non-profit organization nevertheless composed of major corporations such as Google, BP and Virgin, as well as governments such as those for California, New York City, Ontario and South Australia. The Group is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, while simultaneously minimizing the harm to corporate profits.
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02/25, 10:20am
Apple recycling program
Responding to criticism from groups such as Greenpeace, Apple has implemented a new recycling program designed to reduce the damage of mass consumption. In addition to products like iPods, people can now also recycle cellphones, produced by any manufacturer. There are two main options for sending devices to Apple: they can either be delivered in person at an Apple Store, or else mailed to a central location.
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01/23, 9:15pm
Apple shareholders meeting
Apple has officially announced its annual meeting of shareholders, where stockowners will elect the company's Board of Directors and ratify the appointment of KPMG LLP as Apple's independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal year 2008. Also on the agenda are considerations for two shareholder proposals, which are listed below. The meeting is scheduled to take place on March 4th at 10:00 a.m. local time in Building 4 on the company's Cupertino campus.
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