Feature story - 16 January, 2008
Every Macworld brings something new to Mac lovers. This year, Steve Jobs pulled out an interoffice envelope, opened the flap and revealed the new “MacBook Air” – the thinnest notebook computer on the planet. For us though the highlight of the show, was Steve talking about the environment in his keynote speech for the first time. It’s a big step for Steve and we would like to congratulate all the Apple fans who helped us with our greenmyapple campaign… You made this happen!
Screenshot from the Steve Jobs' keynote speech giving the environment a new debut in Apple policy, January 2008.
Last May, Steve got us excited when he finally answered the
50.000 mac fans who wrote to him and announced that Apple would be
going green.
Steve's commitment was not everything we asked for but it did
include a commitment to the phase out of the toxic chemicals
Brominated Fire Retardants (BFRs) and
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) by the end of 2008.
In June last year Apple launched the iPhone. We had hoped that
the iPhone would be Apples' first step towards a green product but
Steve missed the call, but it seems that Steve has come back
with a winner at this years' Mac World.
This time Steve is on the right path for a green Apple. The
MacBook Air is a strong entry in the race to build a green PC. As a
mercury and arsenic free laptop it exceeds European Standards (RoHS directive
exemptions) and raises the bar for the rest of the industry. The
BFR and PVC free printed wiring on the motherboard is a big step
forward, but not a first. Sony achieved that last November with the
Vaio notebook.
The MacBook Air has less PVC and BFRs than other Mac computers,
but it is not entirely free from those hazardous chemicals. Had it
been it would have made Apple an ecological leader.
With their product design on the right track Apple needs to make
environmental leadership the theme of all its products - old and
new. That means green design as standard right through the product
line and a real global commitment to take back and recycling.
We can almost taste that Green Apple, unfortunately it's not
ripe yet.
Take Action
You can keep the pressure up by writing to the CEO's of the top computer firms to challenge them to produce a greener computer.
Donate
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