Apple and the Environment Update

Ever since Greenpeace rated Apple’s environmental record very poorly some years ago, Apple’s commitment to the environment has evolved quite a bit. I see thousands of Apple boxes pass through our warehouse every month, and it seems with each product introduction the packaging gets smaller and smaller.

The unibody laptops are packaged in a redesigned box with much less foam and are double boxed in recycled corrugated cardboard with recycled packing material. Just two years ago, Apple’s laptop boxes were nearly twice the size of the computers themselves and had lots of unused space. Printed manuals with each device approached 100 pages, but documentation is almost exclusively provided online or through Mac OS X. New high-capacity, long-lasting batteries have proven to be extremely reliable, and will significantly reduce the need for battery disposal.

Apple recently completed a “complete life cycle analysis of greenhouse gas emissions.” It’s rare for a company to have such full disclosure of environmental impact—Apple claims to be the only technology company to do so. The study shows how a product’s environmental footprint is distributed across and beyond its useful life. The study concludes that 95% of Apple’s carbon emissions are from the products they make.

Each Apple product now has an environmental report available here: http://www.apple.com/environment/reports/

Apple also maintains a blog on the environment here: http://www.apple.com/environment/news/

I’m thrilled that Apple is innovating in this area as well as in the product mix!