While Steve Jobs definitely spent some time touting the environmental impact—or lack thereof—of its latest laptops yesterday, what may have slipped under the radar was that Apple at long last released its Environmental Update 2008. Back in May 2007, Jobs penned a long statement on the environment, promising at the end that Apple “will be providing updates of our efforts and accomplishments at least annually.”
May 2008 came and went with little comprehensive update to Apple’s environmental policy, though Apple did start including more detailed environmental information on its new products. Now, however, the Steve Jobs-penned update gives us the skinny on how the promises Apple made last year are playing out.
Last year we announced the unprecedented goal of eliminating polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from Apple products by the end of 2008. We also pledged to remove mercury from our displays and arsenic from our display glass as we transition to more efficient light-emitting diode (LED) technology. […] I’m proud to report that all of Apple’s new product designs are on track to meet our 2008 year-end goal.
This raises a couple of interesting points: while the new MacBook lines boast PVC-free internal cables, the same is not true of all the external cables; Jobs says that Apple is “in the final stages of developing and certifying PVC-free power cables.” For another, since Apple is still keeping the existing MacBook and 17” MacBook Pro, does this imply that those will be phased out by the end of the year, if Apple indeed plans on meeting its goals? And what, for that matter, about the long-neglected Mac mini? Is it dead or to be updated?
Those questions aside, there’s much more to celebrate in Jobs’s 2008 update.
The Apple CEO goes on to talk about recycling, which has long been an area where environmental organizations like Greenpeace have knocked Apple. He claims that the company now offers recycling in 95% of the countries where Apple’s products are sold, as well as saying that they’ll meet their goals ahead of schedule.
You’ll remember that we measure our recycling performance according to a standard first proposed by Dell: compare the amount you collect to the total weight of the products you sold seven years earlier. In 2007, we achieved a recycling rate of 18.4%, which blew away our target of 13%. Our goal for 2010 was 28%, and we’ll beat that in 2008—two years ahead of schedule.
Apple’s recycling page estimates that they’ll hit a recycling rate of 32% in 2008. That’s typical Apple strategy for you: lowball the numbers so you can blow them out of the water.
The third section of the environmental update addresses an area that Jobs didn’t particularly call out in last year’s statement (other than to say that Apple was collecting data on the subject), and that’s carbon footprint. Says Jobs:
We decided to measure the emissions produced at each stage of a product’s lifecycle, from production and transportation to consumer use and eventual recycling. Starting today, Apple will report this information for each new product we introduce, so our customers will better understand the progress we’re making.
And indeed, Apple now provides a page of extensive reports on all of their major product lines, as well as other important areas, such as their Environmental Health and Safety Policy and their Facilities Environmental Report.
The product line reports break down a number of categories, including energy efficiency, material efficiency, packaging, and even greenhouse gas production for each computer and iPod, along with the snazzy Keynote-created graphs that you’d expect from the company. But the information inside is extensive and detailed.
For example, I bet you didn’t know this little fact, but Apple’s been using “renewable tapioca-based material” in its product packaging since 2007. That’s for packaging that’s efficient and delicious.
Apple’s stance on the environment has been constantly improving, and the fact that they plan to meet their goals for 2008 (and some for 2009 and 2010) is good news for the company. We’re sure the environmental organizations will still have some points to complain about, but it’s hard to deny that Apple’s making progress and they’re doing so in an open, informative fashion.
I don't see anything about lead. Lead-free solder has been a problem for everyone. That omission might lead one to wonder what else is missing.
@Dave-O: There is some stuff on lead if you go to their product design page, but it mostly focuses on how much they've eliminated by discontinuing CRTs. For example, they say that the current iMac has 0.6g of lead in it. Not sure about solder, however.
It's hard to believe that the solid aluminum case they've been touting doesn't require a considerable amount more energy and resources to produce.
I have no doubt that the unibody design will, initially, consume more resources. That said they now have a much more nimble process that can be placed almost anywhere since there are very few toxic side effects from production. Heat and electricity are the inputs and the output is 100% recyclable. I could see them moving more products to this style of process. The same plants hardly need any retooling in order to produce development samples and new products.
I think the status of BFR and PVC reduction/elimination in the Mac mini and other product lines can be seen in the phrasing Apple used, "_new_ product designs are on track". Obviously the mini, MBP 17" and the previous generation of LCD displays are not included in that group and therefore are not expected to be BFR or PVC free by the end of the year; unless there's another announcement before then.