GigaOM Pro

Apple reversed course this morning, putting its products back on the EPEAT registry of green electronics. In a letter posted on Apple’s website, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering Bob Mansfield writes that the removal “was a mistake” but added that the IEEE 1680.1 standard on which EPEAT determines whether a product is certified “could be a much stronger force for protecting the environment if it were upgraded.” What Mansfield wants is credit for all the efforts Apple has taken on sourcing materials that don’t contain toxins like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as well as considering the overall energy efficiency of the computer. There’s obviously a backstory here and it’s starting to look as if Apple feels like the standards should be rewritten to emphasize how it wants to design a laptop: thin, sourced from greenish material, energy efficient with less of a concern over end of lifecycle/recyclying. Given that Apple helped write the original EPEAT standards, the new set of standards under consideration likely will be more aligned with Apple’s interests.