Apple said on Friday it was rejoining a program to certify its products as environmentally friendly after a controversy that could have dented sales of its popular gadgets.
The California company behind iPads, iPhones, iPods and Macbooks said it was reversing its decision to quit the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) global registry.
Apple senior vice president Bob Mansfield said that the company listened to “customers who were disappointed” by the action to delist from the registry.
“I recognize that this was a mistake. Starting today, all eligible Apple products are back on EPEAT,” he said in a letter posted on the company Web site. “It’s important to know that our commitment to protecting the environment has never changed, and today it is as strong as ever. Apple makes the most environmentally responsible products in our industry. In fact, our engineering teams have worked incredibly hard over the years to make our products even more environmentally friendly.”
In dropping out last month from the registry, Apple offered no explanation, but speculation centered around its use of batteries on some MacBooks that are glued into the frame and are not easily recycled.
Mansfield’s letter said that some common yardsticks for green products could be “upgraded” and made stronger.
He said Apple “led the industry in removing harmful toxins, such as brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC)” and is “the only company to comprehensively report greenhouse gas emissions for every product we make.”
The announcement came a day after San Francisco city officials said they would stop purchasing Apple products, citing a rule in place that requires laptops, computers or monitors bought by the city to meet top EPEAT standards.
San Francisco Chief Information Officer Jon Walton said on Thursday that San Francisco had “reached out to Apple” about the problem.
The procurement rule is similar to a standard used by other US cities and states, as well as by the federal government, Walton said.
EPEAT, which gives green ratings to computer desktops, laptops and monitors, was launched in the US in 2006 with corporations and other large IT purchasers in mind.
EPEAT chief executive Robert Frisbee welcomed Apple’s decision.
“We look forward to Apple’s strong and creative thoughts on ongoing standards development,” he said in a statement.
He said the group now has a “strengthened relationship with Apple.”
Greenpeace International analyst Casey Harrell welcomed the news.
“We applaud Apple for ‘thinking green, not greedy’ and listening to its customers’ calls not to pit design needs against the environment,” he said in a statement. “We await more details that ensure that future versions of Apple’s computers will be built with easily removable, recyclable and upgradable parts, unlike the current MacBook Pro. These design changes would make for a greener Apple product.”
Apple has faced criticism from Greenpeace in the past for using what the environmental group called “dirty” power, such as coal, for its data centers for cloud services.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is