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Apple Exits "Green Hardware" Certification Program
westlake writes "CNET reports that Apple is turning its back on the EPA supported EPEAT hardware certification program. One of the problems EPEAT sees are barriers to recycling. Batteries and screens glued into place — that sort of thing. There is a price for Apple in this: CIO Journal notes that the U.S. government requires that 95 percent of its electronics bear the EPEAT seal of approval; large companies such as Ford and Kaiser Permanente require their CIOs to buy from EPEAT-certified firms; and many of the largest universities in the U.S. prefer to buy EPEAT-friendly gear."
Profit > The Environment
And what is the penalty for not following the requirements and buying whatever you feel like buying?
US regulators are pretty light on the fines, so might end up being cheaper and more productive to ignore and pay the fine.
EU on the other hand laying down near billion dollar fines on things.......companies may comply there.
Based on the short article, I would say that compliant equipment will be more easily repaired. At least the batteries will not be glued in place.
No xserves, Lion Server is a piece of shit, ARD is a $90 add-on, took 3 years for a corporate iOS configuration tool, 5 for a competent one, Final Cut X rivals Windows Movie Composer, Mac Pros are $4,000 for almost 3 year old hardware, and with 10.8 tethering every machine to the App Store there are no "unregistered" machines...
They're pro-sumer devices anymore.
It was obvious from the teardowns that the MPB with Retina Display was designed in a way that made enviromentally-friendly disposal impossible. So that's how Apple were planning on solving the problem - redefining what it means to be environmentally-friendly!
It seems that some of the EPEAT requirements lead to bulkier designs and quite possibly extra parts needed to hold it all together. It seems inevitable that this would violate the design principles Apple has been using for the last decade-plus, at least with portable products. If there's a way to shave a millimeter or a gram here and there, Apple will find a way to do it. It's one way they achieve product differentiation from the competition. Unfortunately, doing so means gluing things together and wedging things up tight in ways that don't want to be disassembled.
I'm a bit surprised Apple isn't outright saying "EPEAT compliance means making our products ugly, and you don't want THAT, do you?"
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
an increasing part of its product mix is made up of iPhones and iPads, which are not currently certifiable under EPEAT.
Total Environmental cost = manufacturing impact + use impact - recylcing recovery
typically
recylcing recovery << manufacturing impact
all else being equal you'd like to increase recycling recovery but when there is a trade-off in that that increases the manufacturing or use cost it doesn't balance out.
The hangup is the "easy disassembly" requirement whereas electronics is going to more and more unibody assembly. EPEAT probably is going to have to give on this or be replaced if that is the trend. Since most of the environmental impact happens in manufacture and there isn't a big gain for the environment in recycling It's not necessarily environmentally unfriendly to manufacture a device that is more economical to make and to use. Generally the cheaper something is the less total energy and resources were required to make it. The exception to that is when there is a large exogenous cost not paid by the maker (e.g. say some manufacturer dumping mercury into a river but not having to pay for the consequences). Apple has not said it is planning to shortchange that part of it's environmental policies.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Seriously, this is an interesting opportunity for Google/Motorola to not only bring manufacturing back to the USA/west, but to get sales just by being environmental about it.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
On the face of it, EPEAT directly conflicts with the Apple business plan. This is going to be interesting.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Apple may soon introduce an alternate green standard to apply to its products, CIO Journal reports.
Your new gadget is iCertified iGreen by Apple, unlike those dirty, destructive non-iGreen Samsung products. Not that I'm trying to boost Samsung, I just find the idea of creating your own standard when you fail a 3rd-party's rather funny.
as long as they ship their products to europe it has to adhear to the much much stricter european ROHS...
Where I work we buy a lot of Mac laptops, but all must be EPEAT-compliant (or a variance must be granted, which isn't likely for that many machines.) I sense a lot of disgruntlement coming.
Good move, Apple - you may have just saved Steve Ballmer's job.
EPEAT is only valuable in assessing products that don't have dedicated recycling programs in place. I.e. It's useful for assessing the general case, but fails to take into account any special considerations pertaining to particular products.
For instance, Apple has had a recycling program available for years that is available as a free service to any of their customers. Given that Apple is promising to recycle your devices (including non-Apple ones) for you regardless of how difficult it is to do so, the ease of recycling them should be a non-factor to anyone but Apple, rendering the difficulty of recycling a meaningless measurement for outside consideration. And the fact that they've provided a decent incentive to use their service rather than go to a general purpose recycler has provided a good reason for it to be widely used. Most of the Apple folks I know are aware of the recycling program, even if they haven't had a reason to use it yet.
Specifically, to use it, you just tell them what you have, and they'll send you pre-paid packaging for your device. In the case of computers (including non-Apple ones) or iOS devices, they'll give you a gift card for the fair market value of your device, and they give you 10% off a new iPod if you bring your old one into a retail location for recycling. They also take non-Apple mobile phones free of charge and with pre-paid shipping, though they don't offer any gift cards or discounts.
To me, at least in this one narrow area, that all renders EPEAT's assessment obsolete, since it's failed to keep up with the times. It needs some way to account for such programs.
If you're just disassembling used electronics to recycle the parts, don't you just use a heat gun? That doesn't seem like it would require any special skills.
In a press conference, Apple (after muttering to themselves "we care about EPEAT approval WHY?") stated simply, "Kneel before Zod!"
The "fist fuck" part might be true, but the "dime" part is way off.
For a dime? Even your momma isn't that good.
What's there to give a fuck about? By the time any of this matters I'll be dead and buried. Fuck it. I'm living for today. Fuck tomorrow.
Besides some nuclear war will probably destroy the earth long before a bunch of retina displays pile up somewhere. I used to want to "contribute to humanity" to give my life meaning then I realized what's the point when 100 or 1000 years out eventually a nuclear armageddon is going to pop off and it'll all be for nothing. I'm with you bro, i'm not sacrificing my one and only life so some theoretical future person can be happy. This is MY life and if you don't like my retina Macbook you can kiss my motherfucking ass.
The issue here has nothing to do with environmentalism or profitability. It is about building better, more rugged equipment. If the hardware certification program is outdated in its specifications then it makes sense to leave and move on, which is what Apple is doing.
I predict that the program will update itself to account for this and Apple will rejoin, after the changes are there.
The hipsters aren't gonna like this...
So - they don't care. Point to OWA/Activesync, use SSL VPN to get to apps and RDP to your box in the office, done. A lot of small companies won't be here soon but a lot of big corps are there now. They do not give a crap about enterprise penetration.
The RMBP is no less environmentally then the last version.
You don't cast them aside because of industry-driven trendiness (at least you don't without looking like a corporate shill).
"...it's failed to keep up with the times."
In advocating a return to the former trend of making products that are increasingly disposable, I think that's an example of how blind consumerism promotes backwardness.
If Apple's sales do not take a dent for this policy, then that will prove to me they are a self-satisfied cult.
Posting as AC because I'm an Apple service tech in my day job.
There's been internal jokes about the majority of the Retina MacBook Pro being a disposable computer. It's a very nice system and the display is gorgeous, but the way Apple constructed these machines is a bit perturbing. We can't even remove the battery pack- what iFixit reported is 100% true. The batteries are literally fused to the top of the unibody chassis, there's no magical Apple tool for prying the cells off the aluminum.
When you pay $199 for a replacement battery, the service procedure for actually swapping out the cells is stupendously involved. Everything must be stripped from the chassis- the logic board, port boards, and display all have to be removed. What you're getting for $199 actually includes a new keyboard, trackpad, battery, and upper chassis- because it's all one unserviceable part (much in the same way that the display and iSight is considered a single P/N).
A lot of people are wondering why they've done this- when a few screws and half a millimetre on the thickness would have allowed us to remove and swap the batteries in under 5 minutes. Heck, they could have built the batteries onto the bottom panel instead, that way battery swaps don't require removing the logic board. But they didn't.
The only logical reason that anyone can come to is that this is simply a progression of technology. We are rapidly moving towards integrated devices that are completely unserviceable, essentially disposable, and as cram packed with technology as physically possible. Nobody has any doubt that if Apple could build everything onto a flexible circuit board adhered to the back of an LCD panel, then essentially immerse the entire thing in varying forms of resin to create a completely solid and totally sealed device- they would. Because that's where we're headed.
The iPad 2 and iPad 3 have already taken the first steps towards this. They are sealed, we have no service procedures for doing anything to the devices. If it breaks or is defective, the customer gets a new one.
Apple would just love to have all their hardware like this, because then us Apple techs become irrelevant and redundant. Any old monkey can plug a device into an automated suite of software testing tools and wait for the big green "PASSED" or red "FAIL" text, then take the appropriate direction to replace that hardware. All you need then is a system to handle defective hardware and make it go away- who cares about repairing it, the device is busted and it can't even be repaired anyways.
-AC
Apple has been consistent in their demonstrated disinterest in government and in the business workplace. Sure, they want to sell as many things as possible to as many people as possible. I was approached by an Apple store manager about getting more Apple gear into my company once but when I asked if they could or would offer the kind of warranty, protection and service that Dell offers, I just got a confident, unapologetic, "no."
They want to sell, but not at the expense of their core values. You have to respect that. Unfortunately, people on both sides of the issue don't respect that. What I mean is that on the "pro-Apple" side, they seem to completely ignore Apple's history of behavior. It doesn't matter to Apple if government requires this or that in order to be qualified for whatever. Their response has consistently been "You don't want it? Okay." They don't make any concessions for government or business. They are VERY consistent in that behavior. Meanwhile, pro-Apple people keep chanting "Apple is going to take over the world and won't it be awesome?!" And the other side, the anti-Apple, think Apple is just crazy and deserve to be put to death. Well, no. They have a rare sense of integrity and they have survived all this time while trying to maintain it. Okay, so yeah, they had a bumpy history when they fired the goose that laid Apple Computers. But they saw the error of their ways and they brought him back and all was better again. But yeah... Steve Jobs killed himself with his own arrogance. (I'm wearing flame retardant underwear... do your worst. He had a treatable form of cancer and decided against mainstream science and went on to do something else until he realized it wasn't working and he was dying... too late though.)
Well? That might change... Apple lost its way without Jobs. It could still lose its way again... it could die or it could find a way to use its immense consumer popularity to get itself into the business and government markets finally. I'd kind of like to see it happen. I still kind of doubt it will.
So what company will step up and be environmentally friendy to attract all the hipsters. All they need is marketing, and they can be "cool" like apple right?
Actually Apple is breaking away from the old-school green mafia, that doesn't respect the environment at all - just the power they have over companies.
Apple builds to a higher standard than EPEAT, or any other computer company for that matter. And since they recycle anything you give back to them, what does it matter if some of the screens are glued on?
It's pretty hypocritical of you to chastise Apple for caring more about profit when you funnel money into companies that believe exactly that...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I think this is pretty poor form on Apples part. I love my macbook, but I'm not really interested in supporting a company that is going backwards environmentally.
Website Just Down For Me? Find out
and thus why Apple is going out of business. If only they made rickety plastic phones...
Have you ever dropped an iPhone? I have, a couple times. From 4 feet high onto asphalt--not a scratch.
the battery for you. Do they not have an Apple store anywhere near your trailer park?
Most if not all cell phone manufactures utilize the industry standard micro USB for charging. If I ever decide to purchase an iPhone I'll have to "throw away" my old charging accessories that work with 99% of phones on the market today and "buy new Apple approved charging accessories".
Dare we dream to live in such a world?
Problem solved. We'll await your retraction.
Because it is made out of hemp by union labor in first world countries.
Everyone is talking about green this, green that, and at the same time a lot of electronic waste ends up in the household trash and gets shipped to landfills. I am talking about those old, heavy TV sets, computers, and printers. (Wondered how many millions of cell phones end up like this each year.) I see that every day where I live. People simply do not have the "recycling mind" just yet.
Apple will do much better by not giving good money to yet another USA fraud run by Dept. of Energy.
Post jobs direction change at the company.
Say what you will about him, but Jobs always worked to keep things as environment friendly as possible.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
n/t
If you've seen the size of screws available for use in watchmaking (incredibly tiny) there is no excuse for gluing stuff in place except that you *want* the product to be incredibly difficult to strip down. You could argue gluing is slightly cheaper, but at the prices and margins Apple charge and given that other companies manage to use mechanical fasteners and remain competitive they have no need to cut costs in that particular way.
I'm sure they'll just release their own certification called iPeat and claim it's soooo green.
I don't plan to have children myself, but I have neices, and I plan to do everything I can to make sure they and their children have a habitable world to live on.
If what is to be tossed has value, or causes damage to value, in either case profit will motivate corrective action. If it is more profitable to bury in a hole in the ground then that is what should be done.
I'm typing this on a ThinkPad I bought in 2010. I really hate messing around with hardware, and I just wanted a laptop where I could use Ubuntu and not have to think so hard. Within 6 months the speakers on the laptop were broken, and it was overheating and shutting off frequently even though I was keeping it clean and using it on a glass table. It used to have trouble with the backlight to the screen not going on, but when I took it apart to show it to a friend it started working again (figures). I've never had problems like this with a laptop before, and even though I really like the keyboard and design I couldn't recommend a ThinkPad to someone else after this experience.