August 29, 2006

Apple Gets Low Grade From Greenpeace

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Greenpeace‘s new guide to green electronics puts Nokia and Dell at the top of the list and Apple near the bottom. Companies received scores on elimination of toxic chemicals and take-back and recycling. On a scale of 1-10, Apple scored 2.7 overall. Only Acer, Motorola and Lenovo scored lower.

For a company that claims to lead on production design, Apple scores badly on almost all criteria. The company fails to follow the precautionary principle, withholds its full list of regulated substances and provide no timelines for eliminating toxics Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and no commitment to phasing out all uses of Brominated Flame Retardants (BFRs). Apple performs poorly on product take back and recycling, with the exception of reporting on the amounts of its electronic waste recycled.

Apple markets itself as hip and progressive, so these scores should have an impact on environmentally conscious customers.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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